I have a 28' toy hauler (Bumper pull) that seems to be a little **** to sway. When I first purchased the trailer I complained to the manufacture and they had me bring the coach back and they replaced the axles with new heavy duty eight lugs. This help but did not cure it. Hitch work includes sway bar and weight distribuing hitch. I pull the trailer level and at 65mph. Empty the trailer weights about 9700 and loaded it weights 12500-13000lbs.

I usually just drive slower but I would like to have a stable trailer at 65mph if I could. I am usually being passed by everyone else.

Any of you professionals have any thoughts or suggestions?

 

With proper weight distribution and sway control it shouldn't happen at all. When I say weight distribution I mean the load, not just the fact that you have a weight distributing hitch. If you have a lot of weight over your trailer axles and not enough on the ball because your weight distributing hitch is transferring it all to your front axle you will get sway. While too much tongue weight is bad, too little is as well.

I tow a 14K GVWR wagon with up to 900 gallons of water and I have no sway issues at all. I believe there would be a noticeable difference without the air bags. Which, by the way, I know where a perfectly good used set can be had. PM me for details if you think you might want to give it a try.

 

Here's a few ideas.
Tire's on your truck and tires on the trailer. Need good ones, not the big ol' duneing type, class E rated at 3100lbs and air rated at about 80psi. Soft side walls are a killer. If you got good tires on the TV then maybe buy or see if you can get a hold of a tongue weight scale. Very easy to use and cost about 100 bucks. Worth every penny for tow trailers. And a must for rear loader toyhaulers. Keep at least 15-20% of the weight on the tongue.
If the trailer weighs 13K thats like.....2300lbs if I did my math right. Also do you have any type on sway control?? like a friction bar??
I can't stand a swaying trailer. You just need to find the problems and fix it.

 

I have always felt that the tongue weight was too low. I have a scale and the trailer tongue weighs about 1300lbs. The last official axle weight was 12500. I do have the friction bar, which I crank down hard. That is the only thing that helps.


Your % seems to be more on the 5th wheel side not a tag. I am not an expert so I can not say for sure. But i do know that my trailer is not close and my hitch could not support that tongue weigth.

Anybody want to fabricate a 3rd drop down axle?

 

I would ocassionaly had the same problem with our other boat. If I went down the road with too much fuel in the boat, the trailer would start swaying when above 70 mph. The boat was around #3000 total and the tongue weight was 250-300 lbs. One time I just moved the anchor to the cuddy (#20 +/-) and something else in the #10-20 lb range and the sway was completely gone. I went to truck stop and weight my new setup with & without the trailer, may want to do that first just to see where you are at each axle. I could imagine that toys, gas and accessories could give your rig some unnecessary weight gain.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I am pretty sure that my tongue weight is too low. Nevertheless, the problem I have is not being able to add more weight to the front of the trailer. I guess I could add the four 6 volt batteries to the front to add a little more weight up front.


What do you guys think about not using the weight distributing hitch?

 

I'd keep the WD hitch for sure. Every thing is all level?
What kind of TH trailer is it ? My Weekend Warrior FS2300 had a tongue weight of 1300, I agree I mite have over done the % some, it should be more like 10 to 15%. I think yours should be more than 1300LBS but not much. The 6V's will help for sure. How about your water tanks??? Are they in front of the axles? I do know the newer WW TH's in your length all have 3 axles now, the first one's only had 2 and guys had the same troubles when they loaded the rear up with a heavy Rhino and bikes.
You didn't mention about your truck tires......a wide spongy type will cause the sway too. I used my daughters Titan for awhile pulling my FS2300 and she had wide Toyo's and I put new tires on it, made a huge difference.
Good Luck, you can also take a look here for some good info.

http://www.sherline.com/lm.htm

 

I think it is a BAD idea. Without the W/D your receiver rating falls to something like 500/5000. (check the data tag) When you get a chance check out the mounting brackets where they bend next to the frame. Mine both tore about an inch from overloading it. I have replaced it with an after market rated for 1500/15,000 with W/D.

 

I have a the stock tires from a 2006 Dodge Ram. So I think that the tires are ok. Not big sand tires. So far I have not needed bigger tires. The trailer is a 281 trailrider. Which is a clone to the 28fsw by WW. I did notice that the WW have three axles now. (I wish mine did) I have 50 gallons of fuel behind the axle and and 162 gallons of water over and slightly to the front of the axles. I think the distribution within the trailer it's self is off. I will need to figue something out. I think I will block off the rear water tank. That should take 50 gallons of water out of the picture.

 

Water weighs around 8.3 lbs per gallon, reducing 50 gallons will reduce your trailer axle weight by 415 lbs. Lets say the distance from center of trailer axles to hitch is 12' and 10' from tank to hitch, you will reduce your tongue weight by 69 lbs. Reducing the fuel by 25 gallons will increase tongue weight but not much. I think fuel is 6.7 lbs per gallon. If so 25 gallons behind the 2nd axle 3' behind the center of the axles (axle centers still 12' behind hitch) would increase tongue weight by 42 lbs. Fuel would be the one to give up but toys need that. I would say keep the water at 162 gallons and try to add some water to the front of trailer in #100 lb incruments (12 gallon tanks) or do it in #50 lb incruments (6 gallons). The extra water would be usefull for cleaning as long as they didn't leak in the trailer. My trailer numbers are a pure guess but I hope you get the idea. Just draw it out like a see-saw., the pivot point is between the axles and the arm is the distance from axle centers to the tongue..