What hitches do you like/use? The electronic mechanism using your trailer breaks any good?

My trailer is only 16', but it is 11' tall. My one concern, if you will, would be the mounting on the frame where the breaking system is on the one side.

I've towed it enough to know the piece of mind would be nice.

I just use a friction device but my trailer isn't that short. what do you tow it with and is it swaying now?

Weight compensation hitch and of course a big enough truck.. Other wise the tail will wag the Dog.

Get a good weight distribution/anti-sway hitch. I’ve got a Blue Ox. Plenty of good brands out there. Plan on spending $300 plus for a good one. The el-cheapo ones can work, but you often have to disable the anti-sway function to back up.

Also, some of them tell you to turn OFF the anti-sway on your truck when using them, otherwise your truck will be making constant adjustments and burning up your brakes.

Before buying, figure out the tongue weight of your LOADED trailer, so you can get a distribution hitch with the correct tongue weight rating. Too light, and you still get sag. Too heavy, and you’ll often feel a lot of harshness from the load you’re towing.

Pulling with a half ton gmc. That could change sometime soon as I need a 6 seater. Want a three quarter ton.

I've seen the sway once. Otherwise it's more of a feeling of not having total control. Doesn't happen all the time though.

Everybody thinks they can tow with a 1/2 ton until they tow with a half ton. What does the trailer weigh? The big thing is the weight disparity between the tow vehicle and the trailer. It's something neither the trailer manufacturers or truck dealers talk about.

That trailer could catch a lot of crosswind.

Also, be careful how you load the trailer. If you have too much weight too far back, they can get REALLY squirrelly.

Could also be because the trailer/tongue weight is too heavy. That takes weight/pressure OFF your truck’s front end, and can make for really poor handling. The weight distribution hitches help to “transfer” that pressure/weight BACK to the front end (and get the nose out of the air) so that you get your steering “control” back..

I did it with a bumper pull trailer, and a half ton. Didn't happen often but when it did, a LARGE pucker factor. Now have a 3/4 ton long bed diesel with a fifth wheel, the tail does not wag the dog. Even in high winds. Also the diesel handles the long down hills with exhaust brake and tranny control. No burnt smelling brakes. Bottom line, or for the Military folks BLUF. Get a big enough truck that is setup properly for the weight and size of the trailer.

Equalizer brand hitch.

^^^^^^^

The electronic sway control works very well. I was involved in the development of it. You still need to do all of basic mechanical fundamentals. I’m running one a 27’ travel trailer now.
Tuson Brake

You can never have enough truck when it comes to towing. Or just keep it less than 45 mph and it won't away....to bad.

Like a fwd rice rocket with a huge spoiler...
But a tail heavy trailer isn't great either...
Too far off in either direction could give you the squirrellies

Bingo!

Using the trailer brakes only will let the trailer stretch out the rig

Plenty of weight on the hitch and a good equalizing hitch! The best solution, though not your option......a 5th wheel or goose-neck!

We tow 20K pound 5th wheel pretty often with a SRW 3500 Ram. We just finished a 5050 mile marathon trip, over 13 days in only 9 tow days, much in some pretty good winds across Ok.,Ne., Ks., and Wy.....never felt a control issue!

In high winds trailer weight, pin or tongue weight, and proper load balance are your friends. With a tongue pull trailer you want approximately 10 to 15% of trailer weight on the ball. With a 5th wheel, approximately 20 to 23% is desirable! memtb

Lotta weight for a SRW.. What's your truck's GCWR?

Is your trailer a tandem axle?

If so, one thing not specifically mentioned by others but is related to tongue weight etc., is getting the trailer deck level when loaded.

So the height of your hitch is important. You want the pressure on both trailer axles to be similar. And yes tongue weight impacts this but hitch height is equally important.

GCWR.....well below what we’re towing! However, the tires/rims were the primary limiting factors on load capacity! The axle has same rating as the dually. Tires/rims have been upgraded to 19.5”....which substantially increased the load capacity. Also, added air bags, which helped to level. The factory suspension was soft sprung for ride....really squatted under load! memtb

My 3500 srw (2015) is only supposed to tow about 17-18k. I’d think 20k is getting up there...

It’s a bit heavy.....but, tried to make safe/reliable with a few upgrades! memtb

And that number is???

Reason I ask is that it makes zero difference what you've "added" to make it 'safer' etc.... If that GCWR is "X" pounds listed on the door frame and your rig (when towing) is over that, good luck if you ever have any crash or accident... The opposing lawyers' ins. company will eat you for lunch.. I just checked the specs for (say) a 2018 Doge Ram 3500 SRW (CC, LB) and max GCWR is #25,300.. Ergo, your truck needs to weigh only 5,300# (with all occupants, tools etc) to stay legal.....and I'm pretty sure that truck weighs more than that..

Just warning against the legalities - 'cuz in this world it's all getting nuts.. Best wishes...

Now back to regularly scheduled programming..

Google says 2018 Dodge 3500 is 6909 curb weight.

I have weight distribution hitch on my 2019 Chevy Duramax. I bought it from Etrailer.com. They were super helpful in helping me with what I needed and how to set it up.The truck weighs about 7000,camper,1500 plus another 300-400 with gear water etc. Bumper pull horse trailer is about 3500, two mules,tack, feed , two water tanks,total about 8500.So I am going down the road with about 17,000. GCWR on this truck is 23,000. Important to keep tires inflated to max and have good tires with stiff sidewalls so they don't roll.Goodyear Duratrack are terrible about that.

Thing to remember is to add about1/2 the load in the pickup bed to the total trailer weight. My trailer weigh plus 1/2 of bed loading comes to about 9500 pounds, so I bought a 10,000 pound rated distribution hitch. I do not hav sway bars onit and haveno problems

We just used our new rig last week for the first time since purchase. Here's some real world numbers that may or may not be helpful.

We towed a 2020 Aspen Trail LE 19 foot camper (singe axle like 4k lbs as a guesstimate) with a 2020 f250 crew cab 6.2L 6 speed w/ 3.73 rear end last week for a 500 mile round trip. The truck's trailer sway was on. The truck was set in tow mode. The trailer break gain was set to 10. The hitch was a bullet proof hitch adjusted to the trailer level after squat. (rated to tow 22k lbs on 2 5/16 ball). The truck squatted 1 5/8 inches after hooking up. The back of the truck carried a honda 3000i generator, a yeti cooler full of ice, and a couple of 2x4's/4x4's for the trailer jack. The truck carried me and my wife and 4 dogs. All the rest of the stuff we carried was in the camper.

We drove during some Southern storms with wind and rain. I drove from 65-80 (basically the speed of the traffic), about 1/3 with cruise control on. Got 8/9 mpg. (Truck gets 11/13 city with no load, and 16/17 on back roads at 65 mph.) All mpg is as per the onboard computer...I don't care about dividing etc...The truck never slowed down once cruise was set, but would shift from 3-5 gears to get to 3-5k rpms when under load. And, would get to drive in 6th alot.

The trailer suffered minimal if any sway. There was never any scary moment.

Anyways, this was our first time with this set-up, so we may eventually make some adjustments. But for a weekend/4 day trip, this set-up seems good for us.

Yep enough truck. I am at the limit, a 14K gross 5th wheel and a 2500HD SRW long bed diesel. Depends at how bad I load the 5th wheel and truck. So far no issues, and I have gone coast to coast more than once. A poorly setup rig is scary. Been there done that..

Thanks for the responses. The Trailer is a Look Moab. It's basically an enclosed trailer with camping features. It's double axle. I'll load my Honda pioneer 1000-5 and go. I'm guessing there must be somewhat of a sweet spot where I load the sxs because I drove it 8 hours to CO for a hunt and never had an issue. On the way back home was when I first noticed it feeling funny.

I know another truck is in the future based on family size, but not having a payment is nice enough to get as much use out of this one.

Dual Cam are your best form of sway control.

Look Here.

Keep in mind your sidewalls on your tires can be a huge problem with sway. Passenger tires don't cut it for towing, get yourself Truck tires, e range or better for stiff side walls.

Yeah. Your first step should probably be to find out where you need to park the Pioneer to get proper weight distribution on your tongue. Mark the spot with tape or a marker. Like that video posted earlier showed (model car on the treadmill), poor weight distribution can really cause some sway.

If still having problems, consider distribution hitch (still a good idea), or the bigger truck.

I had an enclosed uhaul tandem axle behind a 3/4 ton Dodge, one time. I obviously had too much weight too far back, because, while passing a big rig and catching just a little turbulence, it got REALLY squirrelly on me. Back and forth 1-2 feet, steering wheel moving 4-5 inches side to side. I had to let off the gas and get down to about 45-50. Scared the hell outta Dad and I.

Adequate tongue weight is more important than most people realize. I'd also make sure I had a quality hitch system, and my second purchase would be trailer breaks,

AMEN!