Blue Ox Sway Pro setup

[Herowe]

Hello J007, Congrats onma good looking rig.

I tow a 2902WS with a Blue Ox. It is 33' and I have a 2016 F150 4X4 Crew Cab Max tow short bed.

My Blue Ox has 1400 lb bars and I use 10th link. Dealer set me up that way. I tried 9th link and it was too bouncy.

10th link feels good and I've towed up to 65 MPH.

My arms are not as bowed as yours. Blue Ox rep did say they should have some bow to them. My tounge weight is 890 LBS. So, if anything you might want to move up in the arms on the Blue Ox.

Happy Camping!

P.S. Do go to a scale loaded and get all the weights. You will be very close to max on truck axles. I have 450 LBS of room and it's just DW and myself. No dogs, no kids, not much cargo in bed. New stuff will have to go in TT and not in such a way to add to tounge weight.

[J007]

Herowe.... Thanks this is very helpful. Dealer told me that 1,000 bars would be better than the next step up with my tongue weight of 850. I was wondering if the 1500 would have been better. I'm heading to dealer this weekend for a few repairs so will mention this to them. Haven't been to scale but plan on soon.

[uhduh camping]

Originally Posted by J007

Herowe.... Thanks this is very helpful. Dealer told me that 1,000 bars would be better than the next step up with my tongue weight of 850. I was wondering if the 1500 would have been better. I'm heading to dealer this weekend for a few repairs so will mention this to them. Haven't been to scale but plan on soon.

I happen to have 1500 lbs bars for sale. PM me if interested.

[Herowe]

Weighing is easy.

Google CAT scales near you. They can get both truck axles and the trailer in one shot. Mine charges $11.

Run across with just the truck, but loaded ready to go with WDH on, bars in bed.

Then go across with WDH set up and the trailer. At ours there is room to drop the trailer to run the truck if you need.

With those numbers you know how much each axle carries and you can do the math for tongue weight. Add tongue weight to trailer weight for true weight of trailer.

More links, more weight to front axle. Adjust as needed, but try and stay level too.

Do not exceed GVWR of trailer with stuff in trailer.

Now match axle weights to weights on your driver's door yellow sticker.

The place you will bust is in truck load capacity. That Ecoboost pulls like a big block V8, but the truck frame and axles are only built for so much load.

[VernDiesel]

Is max axle weight & truck GVWR listed on the yellow sticker?

[Herowe]

Yes. The yellow sticker is for the build on that truck.

Cargo capacity is affected by options.

Same goes for your trailer. Brochure numbers are approximate values. Yellow sticker on vehicle or trailer is for that build.

[J007]

Originally Posted by Herowe

Weighing is easy.

Google CAT scales near you. They can get both truck axles and the trailer in one shot. Mine charges $11.

Run across with just the truck, but loaded ready to go with WDH on, bars in bed.

Then go across with WDH set up and the trailer. At ours there is room to drop the trailer to run the truck if you need.

With those numbers you know how much each axle carries and you can do the math for tongue weight. Add tongue weight to trailer weight for true weight of trailer.

More links, more weight to front axle. Adjust as needed, but try and stay level too.

Do not exceed GVWR of trailer with stuff in trailer.

Now match axle weights to weights on your driver's door yellow sticker.

The place you will bust is in truck load capacity. That Ecoboost pulls like a big block V8, but the truck frame and axles are only built for so much load.

Thanks for all the great info. My last F150 (2013 Limited) made me realize that the payload was a big issue with the 1/2 tones. So when buying the current rig, this was a big factoring decision. We went with the Max tow package on the 2016 F150 to get the better towing package and ok payload (1,660), since it's our daily driver. In reality, I know the only way to actually know the actual payload is to hit the scale. I know we are probably pretty close, but not over. If I could go back six months, I think I would have ended up going with the F250, to have a better margin of error. But for now, I get it as close as possible, with out going over for safety.

[mmangiarelli]

I run the 9th link with 1500 lb bars on our Tracer 3140RSD. Loaded we are 8200# with 1300# TW. Make sure your ball height and coupler height are within 1" of each other at level position. Have towed through TS Mathew and hale force winds with know issue

[J007]

I actually went out and did the measurements last week with trailer and truck level because I thought this might have been party of the reason I was having a lot of sway. In the end, the TT hitch head height is only one inch higher than ball head in level truck. So If I raze ball up one notch I'll probably end up level with TT head height.

[J007]

Just got an email back from Blue OX and waiting to hear back after pic sent. They stated I should turn of the trucks sway control, because it will fight with hit and actually cause sway. Has any other F 150 owners turned this off and noticed a difference?

[TomStacey616]

Originally Posted by J007

Just got an email back from Blue OX and waiting to hear back after pic sent. They stated I should turn of the trucks sway control, because it will fight with hit and actually cause sway. Has any other F 150 owners turned this off and noticed a difference?

Buddy of mine was also told to that. Different ride now while he tows.

[J007]

I'll have to try that this weekend then. Thanks

[llr]

Is the 850 tounge weight brochure or loaded? If brochure you probably need the 1500lbs bars. Rear hieght change maybe interesting but as long as it not higher with the trailer it doesn't matter. Front fender or bumper hieght should be recovered to at least half the difference but not lower than without the trailer.
If the ball to tounge hieght was not attached the ball should be 1-2 inches higher as the back will drop, especially on the F150.
I have fairly fairly close setup and still trying to decide if I need to upgrade the truck, I just put LT tires on today and haven't tried it yet. It towed very well with minimal wind, 15-20 not to good.

[J007]

llr. I believe actual tongue weight on brochure is 750 so 850 is good guess. The scale will be the test. It will be interesting to see what you think with LT tires. I'll go out and get next week if I know they'll make a huge difference and from all the info people have posted looks like it will. I'm just trying not to put to much more in if it's not going to help and I'll just need to trade it in.

[EdnKat]

'D' rated 8 ply tires will help with controlling sway. A little stiffer ride.

[llr]

One thing I forget, you mentioned that your tires are 51psi max, inflate to 51 before towing

[rocketman1083]

I have a 2015 Ram 1500 and a pull a Coachman 320 BHDS with a BlueOx 1500 lb hitch. I also run mine at 10 links because that was the length that got me back to 1/2 inch of my original unloaded height. Also 10 links for my setup seemed to be the sweet spot. My rig weighs in at just under 9k loaded and 10 links gives me the least amount of bounce and the best sway control. Also BlueOx also told me to turn off my truck anti-sway when towing but on my rig is a passive system that I can't disable.

I do plan also on switch to LT tires this summer as the P rated stock tires are too squishy.

[J007]

Here are the tires currently on truck.

When you say run them at the max 51 psi, will this be fine even though when driving they heat up and show there running at hire pressure on computer gage?

[llr]

J007, as long as the sidewall on the tire says 51psi Max then it is safe to have this pressure when the tire is cold, it will increase as it warms up which is fine as all tires are spec'd with the cold pressure.

as I understand it these tires are sort of between P & LT tires and the increased pressure should help some

[J007]

I don't think is say in sidewall the max PSI but read that it was 51 inline. Funny you say that about them being in between load ratings, because that's what I was thinking as well after not being able to find the label on tire. When I changed the PSI from 35 to 42 it made a big difference.