Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Heavy sway on 35' weekend warrior

Truck: 2007 2500 quad cab, shot bed 4x4 5.9L Cummins

Trailer: 2006 FB3000 35' Weekend Warrior toy hauler.

Last few trips I've needed to tighten the sway bar more then I would like. Anything less and the trailer sways.

Not super experienced in this, any suggestions or is this fairly normal?

Hitch height, or load distribution. Check these first. Tire pressure?

All of the above. I assume you are using a WD hitch. If not, that's the first thing you need. If you haven't bought one yet, get an equalizer brand and throw the friction sway bar away. Assuming you are setup properly and have been towing without sway until now, I would check air pressure all the way around, check the lug nuts to make sure they are tight. Assuming that checks out, look to see if your weight distribution has changes. Is this the first time you towed with 'toys' in it. That could be it.

No toys in it.

I'll take a picture of the set up and post it tomorrow.

Yeah, sell the toys and pay back the people you took handouts from.

I fought sway with my 28' bumper pull until the day I put new tires on it.

Have you checked the tongue weight without toys?

Assuming the trailer is set up properly, as in being level
front to back when hooked up to the vehicle, there should be
no major sway issues. Id be suspect of the tires on the tow
vehicle being not up to speed for the weight of the trailer.
As for sway control, the driver can control most of that even
without any sway devices by paying attention to his rear view mirror. Move toward the shoulder when large trucks are
overtaking you and don't get caught napping on the white line. 35' is a large trailer, and it just might be your 3/4
ton single wheel tow vehicle is struggleing with it.
The engine power has nothing to do with that. See if you can try a 1 ton duelly to compare.

"E" load range tires on the truck? Also should have minimum 70 psi in the rear tires for a load like that. 80 is better. Pin weight should be about 10% of the trailer weight.

Agreed with the tire comments. My 22' camp trailer came with very marginally rated tires. I changed them out going to D rated. This increase from 50psi to 65PSI with 800lbs per tire increase. Instantly provided a whole new experience.

It never swayed prior to the tire change, just bounced too much and looked as if the tires were going to twist off of the rims a few times while backing in. They were far to soft at 50PSI.

My MPG increased as well, rolling down the road at 65psi must be much easier then the mushroomed 50PSI tires! The other issue was the trailer was a bit nose low. I parked on a near perfect level spot. Measured the truck and trailer. Then I adjusted my hitch up one hole, and then increased my Airbags from 25lbs to 45lbs.

With these small changes, I have to look back to see if the trailer is even hooked up very often during our trips. I have pulled this trailer 14,500 miles since December. across 16 western states, and 2 provinces. I cannot tell it's behind me. Total loaded weight is 7500-7700 lbs. I'm pulling it with the near identical rig. 2004, 5.9 cummins 4x4, short bed double cab, 4.10 gearing. I do have full aftermarket suspension though. I have pulled this trailer with 38 X13.50 17's. However I currently have 35X 12.50 17's.

A single friction sway control bar on a 35' trailer is next to useless.

You need something like a Reese dual cam or Equal-I-zer for sway control.

Proper tongue weight and towing level or slightly trailer tongue down is crucial.

My first thought is too little tongue weight. Is this bumper pull, 5er, or GN? When you state sway, what exactly are you experiencing?

I should also mention that I have an Equal-I-Zer sway control device.

I'm not a brand "fanboy" on these anti sway controls. I've only ever had this one model. Mine has bars and no chains. It's a bit tough to connect on uneven ground at times, and it's awkward to remove and replace in the receiver into the truck. Although I have a better system and knack to do it now.

I would not pull this trailer without this device. Drove in seriously high cross winds across Kansas and another trip in Eastern Oregon 30mph with 50mph gusts. The trailer stayed nicely behind me straight down the lane without concern. We were both quite surprised that is was as stable as it was when the wind was able to push the truck itself!

Those windy events convinced me there is no way to travel pulling a trailer without one of these sway control devices!

The trouble with toy haulers is that 1000lb that may or may not be behind the axles. You can get it all set up to pull great but when you load or unload 2 atv's, everything changes.

I don't know if this picture helps but here it is.



Load range E tires on the truck, I'm it sure of the rating on the trailer, but they're at 60# each.

Looks like you need air bags.

Do you have an equalizer hitch on it? If so, take it up a bit. You need either that or air bags. A problem is that when you get the truck level, the trailer will be high in front. You need to adjust the hitch to get it all level.

Ram is squatting too much.

they get chitty gas mileage when they run uphill alla the time, too.....

Easily fixed by driving in reverse, which is sometimes required to get a tailwind too.