Sway with me...

[Poppabear]

Originally Posted by Pmk

Ah, I totally get that analogy after Tuesday's thrill ride. That's why I headed to a scale, wasn't sure if my problem was too much tongue weight or too little. Didn't realize the math went that way, I'd have assumed the weight transferred equally. I need to brush up on my basic physics again LOL. I'll tinker...and likely run out to that scale again. Lordy that's intimidating, feels like an airport tarmac!!


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Just keep tinkering with it and eventually it will all come together between getting the WDH set up correctly, the way you load the trailer out, and getting those stiffer tires. When everything clicks it will pull rock solid. The dealer "installed" and I use that term loosely, our WDH and I about died pulling it home down the interstate. On level ground the nose was riding about 6" high which so I did not have much tongue weight and they had the bars set wrong too. I measured the front fender well height off the ground without the trailer hooked up and then adjusted and readjusted the hitch and tension on the chains until I got that front end right back where it was without the trailer. The next trip out was a bit more manageable, but still not quite right so that's when I upgraded the tires and put some airbags on and now it tows steady as can be down the interstate even around all the big trucks. I have a pretty set way of how I load everything in the trailer now as well to keep my tongue weight just right. As I believe someone suggested earlier I will ultimately grab a tongue weight scale so I can easily check how its loaded before I leave, but right now I use the old bathroom scale and a couple pieces of pipe trick to check it lol.

[Pmk]

John, I have to laugh at your memory of the first tow with a Jeep- since in your photo, you are now TOWING the Jeep... LOL.

[travelin texans]

If I missed it somewhere I'm sorry, but you do have the sway bar tightened on the WDH also, that alone makes worlds of difference.

[Pmk]

Oh yes, cranked it down as hard as I could. I wonder if I will find I need one on each side for this setup. Time will tell.


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[Pmk]

So I'm going to pick up the trailer. The tires are at 40 psi, sidewall says 80. Where should I be to tow?


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[johnboytoo]

The 80 is the psi recommended by the tire mfg to enable the tire to carry the maximum load as printed on the tire.

So start at 80 on the rears until you get your loaded weights for the rear axle.
Might ride a little hard if that's too much air, but at least you know the tires can safely carry their maximum weight.
You can then lower the psi according to the tire mfg's load inflation tables once you know what the load is on the axles.

good luck !

[Poppabear]

Johnboy is right about basing the tire pressure off of the actual loaded axle weights and running them at 80psi will not hurt a thing in the world but will be a bit of a stiff ride and might wear down the center of the tire a bit faster. At 80psi a 10 ply tire will be good for at least 3000lbs per tire depending on the actual tire size. I doubt very seriously that your ram has a 6000lb rear axle rating.

For what its worth our Sequoia is a half ton "truck" and if I remember right the max front axle weight rating is about 4100lbs and i believe the rear max is about 4300lbs. So technically you should never go over those weights at anytime and you can divide that weight rating in half to get the load for each tire. Then based off of that weight look up your tire size in a load table and inflate accordingly. That would be the minimum psi you would want to run while loaded and never Really hurts to run a little higher. so based off of load tables for my 275/55/r20 10 ply tires i run them all at about 50 psi while empty and bump the back up to 60 psi when towing just to stiffen up the ride a little, but at 60psi the tire is good for 2550lbs each or 800lbs more than my axle is rated for so I figure that is plenty of pressure. Its all a system of trial and error until you find out what works best for your rig.

[Gasch01]

I had a similar experience. I'm used to pulling a horse trailer, about 10K lbs loaded with 2 animals. Shorter & narrower, but heavier. I recently changed my tow vehicle, upgraded the tires and never really gave much consideration to the hitch set-up. My trip home with the camper required a stop after only a couple miles to crank down the WD chains. That helped minimally, but still, it was a white-knuckle ride. I have to be honest, I was looking at spending thousands on upgrading to a fancy WD hitch. Then I came across a video showing how to properly set up the hitch. The ball was set up 2" too low. Google set up WD hitch and watch a youtube video or two. I re-set mine (the challenge is finding the correct torque for the ball knuckle.) Did as the videos show, had identical results pulled the trailer 100 miles yesterday. WORLD OF DIFFERENCE! Now my biggest question is - How to change a flat tire on the road? Good luck to you!

[Pmk]

NIGHT AND DAY. Wow, the new 10 ply tires make a huge difference. I left the tire pressure at 80, drove out to the scales again. Also measured my front wheel well height and set the WDH to within 1/4 inch of the unloaded height (thank you, that was a great description). I unloaded the front bay to take weight off the tongue. Only the smallest bit of sway on the way out there, I was quite pleased. It's windy today, so that accounted for some of it. No terror when someone passed me LOL. The weights today were (hitched): 2880/3560/6660 and (unhitched): 5760/1100/6420. The difference in the total was me stepping on the scale with the truck the second time LOL. Not sure how to take any more weight off the front aside from removing one of the propane tanks. Hoping I've done enough to fix that. I was pretty happy with the ride. I had a bit of porpoising on the way out, so I dropped the chains one link but that seemed to make the sway a bit worse so I'll tighten that back up tomorrow. Baby steps, but I think I'm getting there. Really appreciate everyone's advice.


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[OhioMark]

I am glad to hear your traveling safer and more comfortable. I run my 30# pair of tanks around 50% full each when I travel long trips.. 60# of propane for us is overkill even on a 3 week trip.

[Vikes79]

Also the stock TV shocks leave a lot to be desired for towing.

Even plain Jane Monroe gas magnums will be a considerable improvement over stock stocks for towing.