My truck in my sig and we are currently looking at taking the plunge:

30' Palomino TT
Dry axle weight 5346lbs
GVWR 7803lbs
Hitch dry weight 803lbs


My truck is essentially stock for towing, so having never towed with this truck, does anyone have any suggestions for hardware to purchase.
Hitch, stabilizer, or anti sway bars, what about shocks?

I am pretty green with towing something this big and have never towed with this truck. Any help is always appreciated.

 

based on your sig I'd say your truck is definately fine for what you are talking about. The important thing though is for you to be comfortable with a trailer behind you. Maybe you could start with an empty utility trailer or something before you go all out with an expensive TT to get started.

Set your truck up with a good brake controller and I'd say you're good to go.

Oh, and have fun!

 

I agree with gomule. Your truck is fine just like it is. Add a brake controller and go get your TT and enjoy it. It would prob be a good idea to have a weight distribution hitch.


That said, if you are looking for extras....you could add air bags, hellwig sway bar, exhaust brake just to make towing even more comfortable...but they are not really needed for that light of a trailer. Your sig doesn't say if you have an auto or manual......if you have an auto and lots of money to spend a better torque converter would be nice.

..

 

Mirrors...Get a good set of mirrors if you don't already have the factory folding tow mirrors.

 

I have load levelers with the hitch and bars, lots of different kinds, but mine helps out alot. I do some off road pulling, low mph but still gets hairy sometimes, and it helps keep the trailer balanced. It won't sit perfectly level no matter how much i adjust it but it being a light trailer it must not be compressing my leafs as much as I thought. Pulls great.

My 28' Skyline. 5K lbs.

 

Thanks for the input guys. Rip your truck is pretty much my favorite truck on this forum. BTW what do you run your smarty on when you tow? #1

 

I have tried sw1 and sw3. Sw 1 is hotter on my truck, I guess it doesn't fuel my turbo soon enough and it has a harder time catching up on egts. Sw3 is better, I don't have to get into it as much and in return the egts are better, even if i set the cruise for awhile. I run Beta 4.4 by the way. Unhook the camper and the truck will still flat out run.

 

I use a Equal-i-zer 1000/10,000 hitch, timbrens, and a prodigy brake controller with our Sunnybrook TT. The Timbrens really help if you plan on hauling a large amount of firewood or other gear while towing.

http://www.equalizerhitch.com/
http://www.rvwholesalers.com/catalog...0-00-1000.html

http://www.tekonsha.com/product/acce...o=Proportional Controllers
http://www.rvwholesalers.com/catalog...e-controllers/

http://www.truckspring.com/timbren-k...-dr2500ca.html

 

I have the reese dual cam setup now. It seems to work quite well but I still get some sway from a good x-wind. I think 10' trailer after rear TT axle will do this..... But it's tolerable

 

I have essentially the same truck, a 2007 made in 2006, and a 25 ft trailer that weighs about the same as yours.

I use the Reese straight line hitch mentioned above and like it. I get little sway. You will probably have to get a drawbar with a lot of drop for the 4 wheel drive truck. You can get it all at a camping world or uhaul. Be sure you get a draw bar with holes drilled for adjustment up and down. The first one I bought could only be used at the full drop and I needed to come up an inch. Cheaper to buy another one than to get a hole drilled. You will need a brake controller and the wiring harness to plug in the controller. You need to set the trailer up so it is pretty level to balance the load on the tires and keep from overloading the tires on one axel.

Set the hitch up so that you have load on both the front and back wheels of the truck. One way to do that is to measure the height of the fender edges from a level surface and then drop the trailer on and use the lift bars. You need to adjust the tilt of the hitch to get the load transfer you want.
You will have to pick the lift bars for the hitch weight. I would go with the 800 lb wt bars to give it a little give. Camper world will reccomend the heavier bars. I know, I have an extra set of the heavies out back.

My truck is dead stock. I have towed the traile 20,000 miles with it in the last 3 years. So far no problems. I don't think you will need any addtional equipment unless you just want some. I do start down long grades slow. If you like to run faster and worry free a Pac brake would be good. However after taking my rig to Yellowston and Alaska I decided I could compensate okay by just going slower down hill.

If you just don't want any sway and are intersted in spending a small fortune the Hensly hitches are good. But I think overkill for that rig.

In my opinion, your biggest worry is not the truck or the hitch, but the tires on the trailer. Lots of horror stories about tire failure right out of the box on new trailers. Check them out. Better to change them right from the start than to blow a tire, have $1200 in repairs, and then change them. 16" wheels are a real plus for a TT because you can get good tires. Trailer tires for 15 inch wheels are just crap. I run LT tires on my 15" wheels because I can get good tires that way.

It will tow well behind that truck. Keep any added weight in front of the wheels. The higher % hitch weight the better, in my opinion.

I run in tow haul all the time with the trailer. Trade a little milage for hopefully longer transmission life.

 

Thanks for the advice... I run the 1000lb bars because my tongue weight is around 850lb. I have 15" ST tires and I run them at the maximum psi. Right now with the drawbar within an inch of height of the trailer hitch after levelling. The truck sits 1/4" taller in the front than the back (which is in spec) But I would like to tip the drawbar a tad to the back and that would cause the front to be on the lowside of the back by 1/4". I am hoping that would make the truck track a bit better, when and if I do get some trailer sway.

What do you think??
I agree with what you say about the Hensley, I am beefing my tranny up a bit so I can tow better. I don't care much for the sloppy TC.

 

+1 and change the valve body or add a shift kit.

If you want to.

 

I would at very least add a transmission temp gauge if the truck is an auto. Egt/boost are nice, but on a stock truck not required. You can, however, overheat any auto trans stock or not. I could purposely melt my goerends if I wanted, but I can easily keep it below 200F climbing steep hills at low speeds. The gauge helps with this and I'm not sure how you would tell when to put the truck in 2nd for lockup, when to hit OD off, and when to let out if you don't have a gauge. The idiot lights usually come on when its time to pull over.

Other than that, your trailer is a feather compared to what many here tow stock, so you'll be fine. I have an uncle with an early 07 towing 9k stock with just gauges and runs great anywhere he wants. Enjoy your truck/camper.

Joel