Trailer sway

[Gjac]

Having followed a number of trailers I noticed a lot of swaying on some, and have heard that towing a 5th wheel eliminates that sway. I have been looking at short 5th wheels and trailers in the 20-25 ft range. What are the main reasons for this sway? Will a shorter one have less sway than a longer one? Will a weight distribution hitch eliminate the sway? How much does the hitch weight affect it? The main advantage that I see of a trailer vs a 5th wheel is you can use a smaller truck to tow with and can use the bed of the truck for storage. I really don't want to use a HD truck as a DD when not towing.

[GrandpaKip]

If you are going with a camper with less than 700 - 800 pounds of tongue weight, look at the Andersen hitch. It is easy to install and set up. I have never had a moment of sway, even under emergency maneuvers.
Our tongue weight is a bit under 600 pounds and the truck has 1780 pounds of payload. We have absolutely no desire to go bigger.

[Vintage465]

Gjac wrote:

Vintage465 wrote:

Gjac wrote:

naturist wrote:
There are a lot of factors that influence sway, and there is a lot of information (and misinformation) available about it. Everything from weight of the trailer vs weight of the tow vehicle, to weight distribution between trailer tires and tongue weight, to tire pressures all around, to 5th wheel vs bumper pull, to length of trailer vs TV wheelbase, all affect sway or lack of sway.

You asked a very open-ended question, and you are going to get a LOT of responses. Some of them will even be right on, as far as they go. Good luck sorting through it all to the answers that make the most sense to you.

The "open ended question" helped me understand the issue. A more specific question would be what if the hitch weight is correct, tire pressure correct and I pull a 22 ft trailer with an F150 truck what would be required to eliminate trailer sway (if anything)? Are there some short trailers that are more prone to this problem be design?

Tires: E-Rated
Hitch: A solid W.D. Hitch, set up right(most aren't)
Suspension: depending on how your T.V. came from the factory, Possibly heavier springs or better shocks like Bilstein shocks.
Trailers Prone to sway: The placement of the axles in relationship to the tongue and the cargo distribution can have a lot to do with sway.
Bottom line: No "one thing" will stop sway other than not towing. There are many factors that really need to work together to make a great towing experience. And there is such thing as a great towing experience. There is not one thing about towing with my rig that makes me wish the trailer wasn't back there. It is literally just as easy to tow or go solo with my setup. As is the case with many of the other posters on this forum. It's a great place to be.

I noticed you have an ORV creek side FQ I was looking at the Creekside 18rbs mainly because of the slide and FW capacity 78 gals, I have not seen any other trailer that comes close to that capacity. Do you feel you needed a 2500 truck to tow the Creekside or did you what to have more truck in case you wanted to go bigger?

I've never had a pickup that wasn't a 3/4 ton. So when we bought Creek Side my bride said we weren't towing the new trailer with the old jolopy. So that meant a new truck and since I only do 3/4 tons...here we are. I pulled it from Los Angeles where we bought it to our house with our 1/2 ton Suburban and other than pushing a head wind all 5 hours of the drive, it handled it great. It was a well sorted out tow rig though. Pushing that head wind also tipped the scales toward the diesel.........and I love it. Effortless towing. My idea of a great time.

[TurnThePage]

Gjac, I think if you are towing a 22' travel trailer with a newer half ton truck, and everything is set up properly, you may be able to go without any kind of anti-sway hitch. However, I think it's better safe than sorry and would have some kind of sway mitigation in place. Virtually any anti-sway hitch would be appropriate for your configuration. IMHO of course. I would probably opt for the easiest to use in your case. I'm guessing that's maybe the Blue Ox Sway Pro or Equal-I-zer. Once again, JMHO.

[Gjac]

Vintage465 wrote:

Gjac wrote:

naturist wrote:
There are a lot of factors that influence sway, and there is a lot of information (and misinformation) available about it. Everything from weight of the trailer vs weight of the tow vehicle, to weight distribution between trailer tires and tongue weight, to tire pressures all around, to 5th wheel vs bumper pull, to length of trailer vs TV wheelbase, all affect sway or lack of sway.

You asked a very open-ended question, and you are going to get a LOT of responses. Some of them will even be right on, as far as they go. Good luck sorting through it all to the answers that make the most sense to you.

The "open ended question" helped me understand the issue. A more specific question would be what if the hitch weight is correct, tire pressure correct and I pull a 22 ft trailer with an F150 truck what would be required to eliminate trailer sway (if anything)? Are there some short trailers that are more prone to this problem be design?

Tires: E-Rated
Hitch: A solid W.D. Hitch, set up right(most aren't)
Suspension: depending on how your T.V. came from the factory, Possibly heavier springs or better shocks like Bilstein shocks.
Trailers Prone to sway: The placement of the axles in relationship to the tongue and the cargo distribution can have a lot to do with sway.
Bottom line: No "one thing" will stop sway other than not towing. There are many factors that really need to work together to make a great towing experience. And there is such thing as a great towing experience. There is not one thing about towing with my rig that makes me wish the trailer wasn't back there. It is literally just as easy to tow or go solo with my setup. As is the case with many of the other posters on this forum. It's a great place to be.

I noticed you have an ORV creek side FQ I was looking at the Creekside 18rbs mainly because of the slide and FW capacity 78 gals, I have not seen any other trailer that comes close to that capacity. Do you feel you needed a 2500 truck to tow the Creekside or did you what to have more truck in case you wanted to go bigger?

[Vintage465]

Gjac wrote:

naturist wrote:
There are a lot of factors that influence sway, and there is a lot of information (and misinformation) available about it. Everything from weight of the trailer vs weight of the tow vehicle, to weight distribution between trailer tires and tongue weight, to tire pressures all around, to 5th wheel vs bumper pull, to length of trailer vs TV wheelbase, all affect sway or lack of sway.

You asked a very open-ended question, and you are going to get a LOT of responses. Some of them will even be right on, as far as they go. Good luck sorting through it all to the answers that make the most sense to you.

The "open ended question" helped me understand the issue. A more specific question would be what if the hitch weight is correct, tire pressure correct and I pull a 22 ft trailer with an F150 truck what would be required to eliminate trailer sway (if anything)? Are there some short trailers that are more prone to this problem be design?

Tires: E-Rated
Hitch: A solid W.D. Hitch, set up right(most aren't)
Suspension: depending on how your T.V. came from the factory, Possibly heavier springs or better shocks like Bilstein shocks.
Trailers Prone to sway: The placement of the axles in relationship to the tongue and the cargo distribution can have a lot to do with sway.
Bottom line: No "one thing" will stop sway other than not towing. There are many factors that really need to work together to make a great towing experience. And there is such thing as a great towing experience. There is not one thing about towing with my rig that makes me wish the trailer wasn't back there. It is literally just as easy to tow or go solo with my setup. As is the case with many of the other posters on this forum. It's a great place to be.

[Gjac]

naturist wrote:
There are a lot of factors that influence sway, and there is a lot of information (and misinformation) available about it. Everything from weight of the trailer vs weight of the tow vehicle, to weight distribution between trailer tires and tongue weight, to tire pressures all around, to 5th wheel vs bumper pull, to length of trailer vs TV wheelbase, all affect sway or lack of sway.

You asked a very open-ended question, and you are going to get a LOT of responses. Some of them will even be right on, as far as they go. Good luck sorting through it all to the answers that make the most sense to you.

The "open ended question" helped me understand the issue. A more specific question would be what if the hitch weight is correct, tire pressure correct and I pull a 22 ft trailer with an F150 truck what would be required to eliminate trailer sway (if anything)? Are there some short trailers that are more prone to this problem be design?

[JRscooby]

Yosemite Sam1 wrote:
Sway is not per se bad. It's a normal reaction when two heavy equipment is sitting on that single round ball and buffeted by wind or jet stream from semis or other heavy vehicles on the road.

What's bad is when sway is uncontrolled and whipping the tow vehicle or going out of its lane endangering vehicles on the other.


Weight distribution and sway bar normally prevent the more violent and dangerous ones.

Sway is not bad? First time I have heard that. Some weight distribution set-ups incorporate sway control, but just adding a sway control to a bad set-up is not the best idea...

[naturist]

There are a lot of factors that influence sway, and there is a lot of information (and misinformation) available about it. Everything from weight of the trailer vs weight of the tow vehicle, to weight distribution between trailer tires and tongue weight, to tire pressures all around, to 5th wheel vs bumper pull, to length of trailer vs TV wheelbase, all affect sway or lack of sway.

You asked a very open-ended question, and you are going to get a LOT of responses. Some of them will even be right on, as far as they go. Good luck sorting through it all to the answers that make the most sense to you.

[Vintage465]

This is a post that might wind up going on for pages and pages. But in short everything above looks like good info for the taking. 5-ers are a bit more of a slam dunk for no sway. Hensley is likely the very best unit on the market. There are many other W.D. type hitch set ups and they are not all created equal. Some W.D. hitches integrate the sway control into the spring bars. Some don't. The one I have doesn't and it has a friction sway control tagged on the side of the trailer's tongue to the hitch head. Most persons that have the sway integrated units, think mine is pretty low rent....works fine for me and I've never had sway issues at all. I recommend staying away from the Chinese Mfg'd units. Had one crack on me once and once is enough. With so many low cost units out there and they seem to have "American Names" on them, it's kinda hard to tell where stuff is made.

[Lwiddis]

"Having followed a number of trailers I noticed a lot of swaying..."

I don't and regularly drive US395 south of Bishop. One out of a hundred? Most TTs are dailed in.

[Yosemite_Sam1]

Sway is not per se bad. It's a normal reaction when two heavy equipment is sitting on that single round ball and buffeted by wind or jet stream from semis or other heavy vehicles on the road.

What's bad is when sway is uncontrolled and whipping the tow vehicle or going out of its lane endangering vehicles on the other.


Weight distribution and sway bar normally prevent the more violent and dangerous ones.

[ReneeG]

Agree on the Hensley Arrow. Our previous trailer was 32' in length and no amount of balancing eliminated the sway for us. We invested in a Hensley and the sway was gone and we towed with confidence. Fast forward to our current trailer, a FW. We traded in our Hensley Arrow for a Hensley TrailerSaver BD3 for our FW. Best FW hitch in our opinion.

[BarneyS]

As explained above, the main reason a 5th wheel trailer is less prone to sway than a travel trailer is because of the location of the hitch. A TT hitch is about 4 or 5 feet behind the rear axle. The farther behind the axle the pivot point of a trailer is the more effect movement of the trailer will affect the tow vehicle.

A 5th wheel places its' pivot point directly above or slightly ahead of the tow vehicles rear axle. This means that there is less "leverage" for the trailer to affect the truck. Therefor, most 5th wheels tend to tow better than a travel trailer.

There are ways to alleviate this problem however. A Hensley hitch on the trailer projects the pivot point near the trucks rear axle so it makes the travel trailer tow as well as, and sometimes better, than a 5th wheel. As mentioned, tongue weight is also a big factor and should be between 10 and 15 % of the trailers weight. This can often be adjusted by moving things around in the trailer.

The position of the trailers axles also is important. The farther towards the rear of the trailer they are the better the trailer will tow, mainly because of increased tongue weight. Most travel trailer have their axles nears the middle so the tongue weight is reasonable enough to be towed by the average truck.

A Hensley hitch is quite expensive to purchase new (around $3000) but can often be found used for a lot less. I have purchased three of them. One new, and two used at less than $1000. A 5th wheel hitch that eliminates chucking will cost just about the same as a standard 5th wheel hitch plus installation and will be near the amount of a Hensley.

I would not make a purchase based on the towing characteristics of the trailer. Since a TT can tow as well as a 5th wheel at considerably less cash outlay than a 5th wheel, the decision should be based on other factors in my opinion. Until this year I have towed a travel trailer all over the country for about 17 years with a Hensley hitch with NO sway and no handling problems whatsoever. See this post I made some time ago.

Hope this helps you a bit. 🙂
Barney

[Mickeyfan0805]

True sway is, generally, an indication of a poor set-up. Could be a tongue that's too light, WD not set up correctly, too much weight for the tow vehicle, etc...

That said, drifting and our 'wiggling' might be perfectly normal. In 7 years of our current set-up, I've never once experienced sway. I might, however, drift a bit when passed by a semi or, as TurnThePage noted, wiggle my tail a bit to get a look behind me.