Help with swaying please! New TT need ideas

[tcsorenson]

Originally Posted by htorres

Quick question, when you have the heavy swaying going is your fresh water tank or any of the other tanks full or empty?

we always travel with tanks empty

[tcsorenson]

Here are some pictures after we pulled the camper and put on road, my husband put his level on the road to make sure it was a level spot and we measured from the ground to wheel well on truck finding that the back tires were 35.5" and front were close to 37" so there is a bit of squat, but when measuring the trailer frame to ground we find the back is about 2" higher then front.....is that the best wait to measure trailer? We are taking this to RV dealer in about an hour and would like any advice we can get!! We are thinking of having them change the L bracket I think its called where the sway bar hooks to trailer so that it shows 2 holes on top and 2 holes on bottom (right now shows 1 top and 3 bottom) but really wondering if we need what you guys are calling the 4 point sway system? or the one that goes side to side instead of front to back......again really pushing to get my husband to let us pull the TT to Tennessee But do want to be safe as we have not only us by 3 little ones

[4x4dually]

Measure your fender wells on your truck unloaded first and make sure they are the same unloaded. It is possible that one could be higher than the rest when the truck is level. Not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me. I'd say you just need some adjustment in the hitch and sway setup. You dealer should be professionals at it and should be able to adjust with your input. I just bought a 34.5ft TT and it rides really good, granted my truck is a1-ton with training wheels. You shouldn't be having the issues you are having. Explain it all to the dealer and get them to make adjustments. Be there if you can and have them explain what they are doing and why. Free advice is always a plus.

[keith_h]

I'm no expert but the pictures look to me like you need to transfer more weight to the front.

Ideally when you are hitched up and loaded the distance from the ground to the front tire wheel well is the same as unloaded and no trailer. It is ok to be somewhat higher but not lower in the front. The rear can be somewhat lower. Your trucks rear end should also sit higher once the load is transferred correctly. As an example my Explorer is 1/4" higher in the front and about 1/2" lower in the back fully loaded and the trailer is attached. The trailer itself is just about level (a slight bit lower in the front).

[htorres]

Nice rig!!!......I agree with the rest of the fellows here. it's a matter of some adjustments and your RV folks can set up the hitch height correctly and you will be on your way.....soon you will be at a nice place having a nice cold one with this matter behind you, remember keep this baby at the recommended speed limits, Happy camping.

[asquared]

As stated above, need more weight transfer to the front. You have too much rear squat. On the tt I measured both front and rear corners of the box. On the tv use painters tape to mark a spot on fender and ground to make sure you measure the same place hitched and unhitched.

[Platokidd]

looks like a 1-1/2" on the camper. Like others have said,get more weight on front axle. I know chevy likes the front back to stock height and not below. I would still go for the 4pt hitch. 12k or 14k.

My dealer never adjusted any of my wdh right. Learn to tune your hitch yourself imo.
Nice looking unit

[QCCowboy]

Originally Posted by 4x4dually

Measure your fender wells on your truck unloaded first and make sure they are the same unloaded.

Completely agree with this. If I remember correctly, what you want to do is measure both before and after hooking up the trailer. You have two goals with your setup. The first is to get the change in squat as close as possible over all 4 tires (that is, if the truck drops an inch in the rear, it should also drop an inch in the front, or as close as possible to an inch). The second is to get the trailer as level as possible. Both of these combined should make for a good setup, but it takes some tinkering and playing around with to get it perfect and can vary from truck to truck.

[shorthorn]

Really hard to say from pics, but I had the same problem when I first got my trailer... dealer had hitch setup all wrong and kept telling me it was fine... never felt in control going down the road. I ended up taking it to a cat scale and adjusting it there... found I had very little weight transfer back to the front axle, which I suspect you have as well. In the end all I needed was 1 more hole up on the L bracket. My hitch is a equalizer, which is the 4 point control though.. don't know about the e2. I ended up also upgrading tires to E load too.. that got it pretty good, but I was still at the hairy edge with my axle weight on the Chevy 1500... traded it off for a Ram 2500 diesel. .. have no issues pulling it now.

Long story short... raise Let brackets one hole... drive to scale and tweak from there (goal is to get front axle weight back close to unloaded weight). Make sure u have D or E rated tires on rear of truck.

[Sgt. Schultz]

Originally Posted by tcsorenson

We purchased a 2014 Puma 35ft with 3 slides and pulling with a 1999 Chev 2500 and are having some sway issues. /........
.../
Also notice a lot of bounce in the truck (so much that our son asked for a puke bucket in the back seat LOL)
Any idea's?? my wife is scared to ride in the truck because of the sway!
Any help would be appreciated!
Todd Sorenson

A quick question on the truck - when was the last time the shocks were changed, springs checked for sag or flattening, front sway bar bushing checked etc.

I use the same hitch on a 37ft 1200lb tongue setup - it works well when adjusted but will be hampered by worn truck components.

[BamaBob]

Originally Posted by tcsorenson

we do carry firewood in the back of the truck along with kids bikes should we not be doing that? And once we get the hitch lowered and fix this sway problem would it be a bad decision to put a bike rack on back of trailer? any other idea's for carrying bikes?

Word to the wise...it is illegal (federal law actually ) to transport firewood across state lines. In fact, according to this site 50 miles is too far. I always buy locally just to be sure and so I am a good steward of the habitat

FAQs and General Information | Don't Move Firewood

As for a bike hitch, "it depends" see how well your bumper is attached. Another option would be to have a hitch receiver professionally installed and use one of those type of bike carriers.

[stormy2000]

we have a 2500hd duramax and pull a 35ft TT usually around 10,000 - 11,000 lbs with our "stuff" in there. no sway, lurch, or waggle. our wdh is different using chain which connects to notch in our tt tongue and we have a sway bar connects on side of tonque using lever to add tension. we have played with ours until we got where we want it so ours does not move around while driving.

[updhaul]

Don't know if you have it fixed yet. I have the similar hitch and it is very good and also kind of fussy in adjustment. Only you can tell if the trailer is level, pictures are good but use a level and tape measurement. It appears that the the L-bars where the trunion bars rest on the trailer may no longer be perpendicular to the frame, check with a square and adjust. Important that square trunion bars meet these brackets level to acheive sway control through friction. They should also be placed the correct distance from the hitch center with enough length of the bars still on bracket. These trunion bars in theory should end up close to a parallel to the A frame. It looks like they are now tilted. Fairly good manual at there website and there may be a support number on tag . I hope you have good results. I'm still checking mine after moving them up and retightening them.

[elind]

I had an old hitch set up on my TV that was welded solid and no adjustments. The only adj I had was at the chains to the TT frame. I would pull up the arms right into the frame to the point of rubbing the TT frame. Where were the Hitch police? Truth of the matter the last three setups it was on worked great. It didn't look great but it got the job done. My last setup was on a 2014 Chev 1500 pulling a 7000 #/ 35' TT and could cruise 65-70 all day long.

[tcsorenson]

Sorry we havent gotten back to everyone! We did get the hitch etc checked out and found that the U bracket?? medal piece under the Lbracket was upside down, the dealer wasnt sure if that would have made a difference and given it some movement or not but he turned that around and then did adjust the L bracket but he went to 3 holes on top where it was one, we are wondering if he should have just went down one notch, he and my husband did take the unit out on the highway that day and went 65mph and said it felt fine, so we're camping this weekend to test her out! We were feeling pretty good that we found the problem and even made reservations to pull the camper to Tn my husband called this morning after taking the unit to work (we take off right from his job to camp for the weekend) and it was a bit windy this morning and he got up on the interstate and he said he felt absolutely no swaying! YEAH!!! but he said it bounced like a basket ball darn darn darn, think we need to just move that L bracket down a notch again? I do notice the Lbracket doesnt look real straight and read a post saying they needed to be straight? I'll get a pic and post of the new set up, the dealer did measure everything while on their lot and it does seem a tiny bit nose down so makes me feel good about that, he said the truck will have some squat with that size of a rig and looking at the truck it doesnt look bad at all actually let me get pictures

[tcsorenson]

Here are before and now pictures and I noticed when we got home the Lbracket was not straight at all, told my husband "boy they sure didnt put that on very straight" so is that something that should be or not? will it affect the bounce? Really wondering if we should move this Lbracket so it has 2 holes on top and not 3 and maybe that will take care of everything.......... so think the medal bracket under the L bracket being upside down could have caused sway or bounce? Guess if that was something really important and the RV dealer put it on upside down we should mention that to them don't you?

[tcsorenson]

Originally Posted by HSVBamaBob

Word to the wise...it is illegal (federal law actually ) to transport firewood across state lines. In fact, according to this site 50 miles is too far. I always buy locally just to be sure and so I am a good steward of the habitat

FAQs and General Information | Don't Move Firewood

As for a bike hitch, "it depends" see how well your bumper is attached. Another option would be to have a hitch receiver professionally installed and use one of those type of bike carriers.

we will not haul wood out of state at all, we only take wood to our local campground here, we have noticed most all campgrounds say no out of state wood and some even say no out of county

[4x4dually]

Adjusting the metal L-bracket up more will only take less hitch weight off the truck( ie, press down more, thus trying to raise the rear of the truck). That adjustments affects ride height of the tongue. The bouncing is more likely worn out shocks on the tow vehicle. I'd drop the lower bolt out of both and see if they are shot. And I don't remember from earlier, but is that a 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton truck? That could be some of it as well. Edit. I went back. Since it is a 2500, it should handle it fine but like someone mentioned before, possibly shocks.

[tcsorenson]

hmmmm we had a ton of work done on this truck when we got it a few months ago was thinking we did shocks going to pull up that paperwork and see

[4x4dually]

Not sure about it, but I would just suspect it if it is "bouncing" up and down. Unless your highway's expansion joints are timed just right with your wheels like some of the Oklahoma highways. If the distance between them find a resonance, it will increase until you either change lanes or change speeds. Good luck.