I just bought a brand new Wildwood 261BHXL travel trailer. Dry weight is around 4500lbs. 26' long. I'm running a Flash 10" drop hitch. I called FastWay the manufacture of the "Flash" hitch to see if they had any recommendation for sway control with this hitch. They said there is nothing on the open market or anything they have and that I should buy another Weight Distrubution hitch.

Anybody running this hitch or have any pics of custom brackets they have made to attack a Friction Control arm for sway control?

 

4500 lbs, I'd say just pull it at the posted speed limit, especially if you have a lift that needs a 10" drop.

I tow a 14K pound boat straight off a class 3 reciever with no problems...

 

Thanks! That's what I was thinking. I was told just pull the trailer a few times and see how it goes. I've pulled 4 horse trailers, hay trailers, equipment trailers. Lots of stuff with substantial weight. This is my first travel trailer that is just as long as all those other trailers, just 1/4 the weight. Didn't know if it was that crucial.

 

Sway control is for when you don't have enough tractor in front of an ugly load. It's to give you enough confidence so you can really trash things and take out a few other hapless travelers when you finally lose it.

You have enough truck to pull that lightweight with no fuss.

 

4500 lbs isnt heavy enough for the need of a WD hitch. All trailers should have approximately 10%-20% of the gross trailer weight sitting on the hitch in order to offer the best towing characteristics. So the need for a WD hitch only applies when the gross hitch weight is already over the rating of the hitch without a WD hitch. Meaning your 4500 lb trailer will generally have a hitch weight of about 500-600 lbs at the most, which is approximately 400-500 lbs under the hitches capacity.

 

I let this soak overnight and thought about windy towing conditions and a big slab sided rv where a wd hitch may help, but reverted back to my original thought that 4500 lbs shouldn't be a problem if you drive for road/weather conditions. .

 

Sway comes from not enough hitch weight. Just make sure 10% or even better 20% of all the weight is on the hitch and it will not sway.

 

I think the problem occurs when the hitch on the truck is only rated at 500/5000lbs like it was on my 2011, probably the same on your 2012.Funnily enough my son dropped by today with a dump trailer full of junk and sitting at the back was the "toy" hitch from his 2011 3500, the truck has been gone for a few years but he had held onto the hitch until now.