I am getting ready to buy back a 30' enclosed car hauler from the guy I sold it to. (His old Ford dually won't pull it so he's selling it back to me for $1250.00 less than I sold it to him for ) Anyways I used it the other day and my truck pulls it easily but if I get over 65mph loaded I start to get some sway. The truck does not squat when it's hooked up even if the trailer is loaded. The trailer is 9990 GVW but it can easily weigh up to 12,000lbs.

I'm not a crazy driver but I would like to go at least 70-75 mph without fear of swaying. I was looking at weight distributing hitches but it looks like they raise the front of the trailer up and this trailer sits kind of low already and I may end up with the back end scraping the road if I hit a dip or something like that. Will I be OK with just a Reese sway control kit or do I need the weight distributing hitch too????

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...52367804DIjZlR

There is a picture of it here. I bought it brand new and only used it a few times before selling it. This guy has only used it 4 times and one of those he loaded it and couldn't pull it so he paid me to come hook up to it and take it where it was going....

 

What is your loaded tongue weight? I have had sway trouble if I do not have the right ratio between axle and tongue weight. If your setup tows level but is too light up front, it will usually sway. Depending what your hitch is rated for, you may not need the weight distributing to meet max load. I have never used sway control, so I can't comment on it at all.

 

I'm not sure of the tongue weight but I think the last load I hauled was tongue heavy because the trailer was loaded front to back with big wooden moving carts and there's so much trailer in front of the front axle.

 

You shouldn't have a sway problem with a dually unless your tongue heavy.....did you have a problem towing it before you sold the trailer ??

Where you pulling it empty or loaded when the sway happened....sometimes empty if your tires are outta balance it can cause the trailer to bounce ??

 

Mine's not a dually. I did not have any problems once the trailer was empty and it pulled the same before I sold it. I was cruising at 75 mph empty and it pulled great. I guess I'll check the air pressure in the trailer tires...

 

I have both the sway control (dual arm) and load leveler hitch. I have ZERO sway or stability problems when I tow my TT.

I may have a bit of over kill, but I would rather have too much all the time then not enough one time.

 

I agree Crobtex. Those things are expensive though! I have a bid in for one on E-Bay. We'll see what happens......

 

Why is it that I only see BP trailers up side down in the ditch,I would think that a sway control system is cheap insurance!

 

Agreed sherman.....

 

Per the little book that came with the truck the stock load range E Michelins are maxed out at 80 psi and 65 mph with a maximum load. Load range takes lateral deflection as well as maximum load into consideration, for things like controlling sway when towing heavy loads. You seem to be running large load range D tires, which I'll guess aren't at maximum pressure. Maybe others don't problems with such loads and tires, but on paper they don't seem to be the best choice.

 

If your side walls on your rear tires are on the light side llike Michelins can be, you can have a sway problem, especially with tall tires. If the trailer is loaded and you are tongue light you will have sway problems. Wieght distribution won't help, that is for a tongue that is too heavy. A sway bar is nice but correct the problem first, don't use the sway bar as a band-aid. If you have a truck scale around see if you can un-hitch with a load on the scale with only the tongue on the scale to see what your tongue weight is and go from there.

 

I usually inflate the tires to the max of 50psi when I tow but I did forget to do it this time and ended up towing with just 45psi.
As I said before, it doesn't appear that the truck is being overloaded and if I raise the front of the trailer up with a WDH I think the rear end may end up dragging if I hit a big dip or something like that. Maybe I just need a couple of sway bars. Or I can just continue driving at a nice safe 65mph when loaded........

Thanks again for the replies......

 

I have pulled some long and heavy BP trailers in the past. I used a Reese hitch that is designed to do both weight and sway at the same time. A freind at a trailer dealership showed me how to set it up. First thing is you have to make sure that your hitch ball on you truck is low enough to allow for the trailer and truck to be level. Once the loaded trailer is on the truck hitch it will go down . He used the trailer jack to bring them beck up to level and then adjusted the weight distribution bars to just barely lift the ball and hitch off of the jack and then it was ready to go. You can mark the setting that it is at at that point and it should be the same the next time. Most RV places or the U-Haul stores have these types of combined units available.

 

Dodgezilla
you can get adjustable drop bars to mount the hitch head to, which would prevent the rising of the front of the trailer. i'm using one reversed, to lift the hitch on my truck. since my truck is below stock hight and the trailer ball needs to be 19" from the ground. i'm pulling a 34' trailer at 10k+ lbs i recomend using a sway control of some sort. if your truck doesn't need to use the weight dist bars. just use the head for a ball and sway control mount.
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