truck pulls after turns

[smithmdsmith]

I have a 2008 Nissan Titan Pro-4x with the Big Tow package (9000+ tow rating). I pull a Surveyor SV234 using an Equalizer 1000/10000 hitch. The trailer has a gross weight of 5000.

I weighed it at the truck stop as we were headed out and the trailer weighed about 4700. The truck was carrying about 100 pounds of stuff plus about 350 pounds of me and my family. Needless to say, we are well within all of the ratings.

When hooked up, the trailer is about 1/4 of an inch higher in the front than the back. The truck drops 3/4 of an inch at each wheel. The spring bars a visibly flexed.

The truck rides and handles well with the trailer. However, if I make a sharp turn to get on the road, it feels like the trailer never really straightens out. For example, if I pull out of a gas station and turn left onto the highway, the whole rig will continue to try to go left whether I drive 1 mile or 70 miles. The same thing happens if I make a right turn pulling onto the highway. It's as if the road were really heavily crowned and I were steering against it all the time ( I've really watched for this and it isn't the root of the problem).

The first time I pulled with this setup, I didn't have enough washers on the angle set bolt on the hitch, so it wasn't distributing any weight, but I still experienced the same issue.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Matt

[BigDTx]

I am not sure if this is your problem, but you have overkill with a 10K lb hitch and a 5K lb trailer. I also use an equalizer WDH with 4 way SC and I have never experienced that problem before. Are you using the grease on the L brackets and using grease on the ball? When you say your spring bars are visabily flexed, you might have it set up wrong. Our spring bars are never visably flexed like you are saying yours are. Could it be the angle of the ball and the washers in the tow head? I would call Equalizer and talk to them about the problem.

[MtnGuy]

I agree with most of what Dan is saying, except my spring bars are visibly flexed.....but I have the Reese Dual Cam setup, and not sure if you should see the flex in the Equalizer brand bars. Hopefully some members with that setup will chime in here.

I suspect with that lite of a trailer and those heavy bars, you are not pulling enough weight to get the bars back to center after a turn. Also, with only a 3/4 inch drop on your rear axle, you may have too much weight on your front axles. I suggest you do the fender measurements, or go across some scales with and without your trailer so you can see how you have the weight distributed. Too much weight stress on the spring bars might prevent them from centering back into place after a turn.

As far as grease on your L brackets....only if your model of Equalizer suggests that. Also, I think Equalizer makes silicon pads for the L brackets, making them a little more slippery, and less noisy. There is a balancing point here, that you want the bars to slip enough so they will center the trailer, but not slippery enough so your sway control is compromised.


A call to Equalizer might be beneficial.

Ever see a trailer behind a road tractor going down the road sideways........the driver needs to grease his 5th wheel.

[brianb]

Sounds like you might have too much pressure on those springs. Do you have a lot of creaking from the L bracket and bars when turning? I can't remember what they said but you should just see a small % of flex in those bars when connected. I had some issues with my e2 setup (made by Equal-i-zer) because I went a little heavy on the washers and had too much tension. I worked with customer service on the phone. They were very helpful and gave me more information then I had available in the manual.

When you stopped at the scale... Did you weigh the axles as described in the setup manual? That's way you can easily determine if the weight is being applied evenly over the truck's front and rear axles.

[lbrjet]

The front wheel wells of your truck should not be lower hitched than unhitched. The same as or slightly higher but never lower. You have too much pressure on your truck's front and that is affecting your steering geometry.

Look at the manual on the EQualizer website and you will see what I'm talking about.

Tongue weight does not get distributed to the front axle. It should be split 80/20 to 75/25 between the rear axle and the travel trailer. The only weight that is supposed to be distributed to the front axle is what came off of it in the first place so the front axle weight is the same as or close to the same as it is unhitched.

[sherdep]

Call Equalizer's support - I told them exactly what I had and how it was setup and what it was doing and he gave me two recommendations and they were both right on. I did have to email him pictures of how my truck was setup as well.

[jrennich]

This may sound stupid but I have heard it from a couple different guys. When you install your sway control bar, if you really tighten that sucker down, it takes a little while for the trailer to straighten back out after taking corners. It doesn't sound like this would affect it.......but it is worth a try.

[smithmdsmith]

Thanks for all of the input!

I downloaded the manual. I had a bad understanding of the purpose of the WD hitch. I was trying to keep the truck completely level. When I pick up the trailer for those weekend's outing, I will make some adjustments.

I will pull out 1 or 2 of the washers and measure again.

I will also check the torque on the bolts that hold the sockets on the hitch.

I read about lubricating the sockets, but that seems counter-intuitive because the friction in the sockets is what provides the majority of the sway control.

I'll give Equalizer support a call. I'll post back once I've had a chance to adjust and see how it works.

Thanks again,
Matt

[BigDTx]

Originally Posted by smithmdsmith

Thanks for all of the input!

I downloaded the manual. I had a bad understanding of the purpose of the WD hitch. I was trying to keep the truck completely level. When I pick up the trailer for those weekend's outing, I will make some adjustments.

I will pull out 1 or 2 of the washers and measure again.

I will also check the torque on the bolts that hold the sockets on the hitch.

I read about lubricating the sockets, but that seems counter-intuitive because the friction in the sockets is what provides the majority of the sway control.

I'll give Equalizer support a call. I'll post back once I've had a chance to adjust and see how it works.

Thanks again,
Matt

Alot of the SC also comes from the resistance of the spring bars sliding on the L brackets, I lube the sockets and this makes a real difference in teh noise when turning and no difference in the sway that I can tell. Besides it is reccomended by the manufacturer to lube this adn they even sell a special lube for it. I use a silcone spray, but I do not lube the L brackets at all.

[dretired]

Are the "L" brackets supposed to be lubed on a Equalizer brand wd hitch ??

[dretired]

Originally Posted by jrennich

This may sound stupid but I have heard it from a couple different guys. When you install your sway control bar, if you really tighten that sucker down, it takes a little while for the trailer to straighten back out after taking corners. It doesn't sound like this would affect it.......but it is worth a try.

The Equalizer brand is not the type of sway control that you are thinking about..

[BigDTx]

Originally Posted by dretired

Are the "L" brackets supposed to be lubed on a Equalizer brand wd hitch ??

Equalizer sells a lube and they sell teflon pads/covers that slide onto the L brackets to help with the noise.

[lbrjet]

Originally Posted by dretired

Are the "L" brackets supposed to be lubed on a Equalizer brand wd hitch ??

Short answer? No.

EQ says it is OK to have a very thin layer of lub to help with noise and it will not significantly affect sway control.

The majority of the sway control comes from the sockets and these are supposed to be lubed where they come into contact with the hitch head. They are also supposed to be torqued to spec. I use 55 ft lbs and that works well for me. Check the torque every now and then as well. I have used a little bit of grease on the L brackets and to tell the truth it didn't do much of anything: didn't cut down on noise much or affect sway control at all.

[brianb]

I got used to the noise, at least I know the bars are still attached and working.

[dretired]

I put a few drops of lower gear oil on my bracket pivot points,, then put the bars in .....and swung them back and forth.. it helped a lot with the noise

[smithmdsmith]

I made some adjustments before this weekend's outing. My wife noticed the difference (comfort) in the way the truck was riding almost as soon as we pulled away from the house.

I removed one of the washers and hooked everything back up. I took measurements unhitched, hitched without WD, and hitched with WD. Hitched with WD, my front is back to its unhitched height. The rear wheel wells are lower by about an inch.

One of the sockets was very difficult to move, so I loosened the nut a little. That took care of a lot of the weird pulling I was experiencing. I'll buy the lube and a torque wrench for the sockets before I head out again.

Thanks again for all of the help.

Matt

[thebrakeman]

Sounds like you are in good shape now.
There are different schools of thought. It's my understanding that the older Equal-i-zer kits came with instructions to shoot for "equal compression". That's basically what you had ("all corners dropped 3/4"). But as more and more light trucks (SUV and 1/2-ton) picked up more towing capacity, I think they were afraid that equal compression from a 7000 lb trailer would overload an F150 front axle (?).

So, it seems that they have switched to the other school of thought. The instructions on my kit (purchased this year) have you shoot for stock front height, or just slightly higher. I personally think that's a typo, and should read "Same or slightly lower". Anything higher than stock front height is not meeting the need of putting all lost weight back to the front.

Take all of this together, and my recommendation is:
Make sure you have at least brought your front wheel well back to stock height. "Just a bit higher" makes no sense, and I suspect it's a typo and should say "Same, or just a bit lower".
You can shoot for as much as equal compression as long as you get your front axle weighed to be sure it's not overloaded.
In your case, if stock front height eliminates the pull, you're good to go.

Did removing the washer make any difference is the trailer being level? If it's noticable, raise the ball 1 notch.

[smithmdsmith]

I bought the lube and lubed the sockets before heading out on this trip. The pulling is gone. I guess the dry steel on steel just had too much friction.

Thanks again for all of your input. The trailer pulls great.

Matt