Anyone stop and remove their spring bars and friction sway bars at the park gates? Roads in the parks tend to be winding hilly paths where I don't go much faster than 1st gear. I have a Pro Series RB2 hitch (new to me this year) that says it does not allow backing up and a friction sway bar that ive always left on until at the site but really don't see an advantage to having at walking speed in the park. whats everyone else doing?

My Blue Ox hitch stays hitched till we unhitch. I certainly would not want to put the full TT tongue weight on the truck hitch and axels, without the torsion bars for any length of time. My anti-sway is built into the hitch and I can go forward or backward without changing a thing. I have even jackknifed the rig a time or two trying to park.

For what its worth im pilling a 19 foot trailer that is on the limit of not needing WD. last year it towed fine without. Just added it for piece of mind and some extra capacity bringing **** with me.

Jebby14 wrote:Anyone stop and remove their spring bars and friction sway bars at the park gates?whats everyone else doing?I don't use separate friction sway control but if I did I'd remove it before backing into a campsite at an acute angle, weight distribution which I do use always stays in place as there's no need at all to remove it.

Jebby14 wrote:Anyone stop and remove their spring bars and friction sway bars at the park gates? Roads in the parks tend to be winding hilly paths where I don't go much faster than 1st gear. I have a Pro Series RB2 hitch (new to me this year) that says it does not allow backing up and a friction sway bar that ive always left on until at the site but really don't see an advantage to having at walking speed in the park. whats everyone else doing?I leave my WD bars in place at all times. Many hitch receivers are not rated to bear more than 500 lb without WD. You can check to see if you need to remove your friction sway bar by slowly jackknifing your rig in each direction to see if the bar either bottoms out or touches the bumper or trailer frame. If not, you can just leave it hooked up.

I've never disconnected any of my WDH's before backing (or going slow?). If it's installed right and per the directions it will be fine. It doesn't do anything different going backwards than it does going forward.

removing weight distrubution and sway bar? | Good Sam Community

GWolfe
Explorer
Jul 01, 2018
I have a Pro Series hitch as well, I leave it hooked up until I'm in my spot. I don't have sway control but if I did I would unhook it before backing, better safe than sorry.
nineoaks2004
Explorer
May 28, 2018
I do not use a WDH but I do use a sway bar and I remove it prior to backing up. Friend gave me one that was bent due to Daughter and husband not removing it prior to backing up. The bar made it to my junk metal bin.
Rustycamperpant
Explorer
May 28, 2018
I dont remove my Equalizer until I am in my camping spot. I jackknife pretty severely sometimes and have never had an issue.
LifeInsideJack
Explorer
May 27, 2018
We disconnect the bars and remove the anti-sway once we enter the park.

We're pulling a 19' with an F250 4x4 and the truck doesn't have any issues with the tongue weight.

Like the OP mentioned some parks are a little tight here and there and some have "exciting" backing action. We're full-time nomads and move every 2 weeks.
myredracer
Explorer II
May 27, 2018
Never heard of a need to do that. Note that receivers have a weight rating without a WDH hooked up and you could be exceeding the max. rating which is typically 500 lbs, which equates to a small TT.

I once had to back up down a twisty 1/4 mile lane with a 20' TT and basic round bar WDH (hooked up) to get to the last site in a CG (no place to turn around at end of road). Easy peasy. :) I've been backing up for years regularly with our Reese DC and never had an issue even at acute angles.

TTs with pronounced front caps can tag the TV at acute angles before the WDH crashes into the A-frame. You may want to do a test to see how sharp an angle you can back up with before something gets damaged so you'll know when to stop and straighten out.
TurnThePage
Explorer
May 27, 2018
I leave my Equal-I-zer on even when I have to make extreme maneuvers during backing. In the OP's boots, I might disconnect.
Hannibal
Explorer
May 27, 2018
No need to remove anything with our Equalizer 4 point or our previous Reese HP. If I had a separate friction bar, I would remove it if I had some tight quarters to back into.
LVJJJ
Explorer
May 27, 2018
nope
Walaby
Explorer II
May 26, 2018
Many separate swaybars require removal backing up. Integrated sway and WD bars typically do not.

Mike
seaeagle2
Explorer
May 26, 2018
We had our hitch set up installed at a hitch shop. He begged me to take off the friction swaybar before backing up, he said its amazing to him that when people don't and it gets bent, they come back with a "defective" sway bar that's bent from backing up.. So I always disconnect the sway bar before backing up.