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Old 04-26-2018, 08:31 AM   #1
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Proper tow bars

We purchased a new travel trailer with a empty hitch weight of 520 lbs. Dealer sold us a Blue Ox Sway Pro hitch with the 1000 Lbs bars. I asked about the 750 lbs bars and he said they always install the 1000 lbs bars. Just found some 750 lbs bars at a reasonable price and trying to decided if I should buy them. As we have not got the trailer loaded yet and have no ideal how much the tongue weight will change I don't know if I should buy the smaller bars or not. Contacted blue ox and they just said that with the heaver bars I would just get a rougher ride as there would not be enough weight on them to make them flex. Don't want to spend money needlessly but I have never towed a pull behind trailer and this weight distribution thing is new to me. Any advise would be appreciated.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:39 AM   #2
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I'd wait on purchasing the lesser rated bars.

Here's my thoughts:
1. The 520 dry tongue weight is just an estimate from the factory. It likely weighs a bit more than that.
2. You'll likely add 2 propane tanks and a battery or two to the tongue of the trailer. 2 tanks + 1 battery would be about 130lbs and 2 batteries would be 180lbs added directly to the tongue.
3. The front pass through cargo area will fill up quickly and also add to the tongue weight. Likewise, if you run with any water in the fresh water tank and it's in front of the trailer axles.

And my experience:
I started with too small of bars and had to upgrade. The dealer swore I would be fine with 600-800 bars because the hitch was rated for trailer 6000-8000 pounds. My trailer weighs in wet at around 7500 and has an 11.2% tongue weight (840lbs). The combination porpoised like there was no tomorrow. Every bump in the road was felt about 3 times over from going up and down.

After upgrading to the larger 800-1200 bars, the combination settled down and felt very solid going down the road.

My last piece of advise:
No matter which hitch you get, take the time to learn about it, set it up properly (with the trailer loaded for the road) and take it to a scale.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:46 AM   #3
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I would stick with the 1000# bars... of course, I am running 1500# bars at about 850# TW. You can play with the links and leveling of your truck with the swaypro, may be that you connect to fewer links than the instructions say to get the front of your truck back down to level. I like my swaypro, easy to install and adjust. Read and learn about your current setup and work to get it dialed in. If you feel like you are still not where you want to be after several trips with that, then, you can always buy the lower rated bars later.
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Old 04-26-2018, 09:56 AM   #4
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Thanks for the feed back. I am going to pass on the 750 lb bars for now. This weight distribution thing is something else. So much easier when we had a class A and a fifth wheel. lol. Like anything new, you just have to learn about it and ask questions. Thanks so much for you replys.
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Old 04-26-2018, 10:08 AM   #5
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1000# sway bars. Heavier sway bars the better IMO.

Jack
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Old 04-26-2018, 02:09 PM   #6
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WDH rating is based on actual loaded TW, not dry TW. Short of the actual TW, we would need the actual loaded trailer weight, or at least the dry weight of the camper, in order to estimate the loaded TW.


But in general, I agree with the rest. Better to over-estimate than to under-estimate.
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Old 04-26-2018, 02:30 PM   #7
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Don't buy them until you actually need them... and I doubt that you need them.
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