craneman

So I traded in my 2007 F150 for a new one. So far it's been a huge mistake. My '07 towed the same trailer WAY better then the new truck does. I added air bags. No change. I added a sway bar. No change. This thing is dangerous on the open road. None of which was a concern with the '07.

WDH, Air Bags, changed from a 6" drop to a 10" drop to bring the trailer nose down. It's still up a bit.

Trailer: 6.5'x26' V-Nose with angled top. 7.5' high. It's All Aluminum Forest River Ligtening. I added a fridge/kitchen and bathroom/shower in the front and I put the RZR in the rear.

Suggestions?

acadianbob

Has the trailer configuration changed since you changed trucks? What is the trailer doing? Is it sway that is the problem? Or is the truck moving around?

* Try weighing your trailer when loaded; not connected to the truck. Then weigh your tongue weight. Calculate tongue as a percentage of total. It should be around 15%. If the tongue is too light, that is a problem. Conversely, you shouldn't have too much tongue weight either.

* The trailer should not be nose up. Try to get the trailer level to even slightly down in front.

Velosprout

What are the new truck specs? Door sticker payload maximum figure? Tongue weight of the trailer with the mods? Any mods to the truck other than the airbags & sway bar?

craneman

The tongue weight I don't know but it's not light. Max towing is 10,500lbs. The trailer loaded up is 7000-8000lbs. If I go with a 12" drop the hitch will drag most likely hit on the ground. No other truck mods. The trailer has not changed since the last truck. Wind is mostly the problem. It blows this truck all over the road.

Should I not use the WDH Bars perhaps? Let the back of the truck sag down a bit?

smokeywren

That's the tow rating, which is not your limiter as to how much trailer you can tow without being overloaded. Payload capacity is your limiter. Payload capacity available for tongue weight (TW) is GVWR minus the wet and loaded weight of the F-150.

Then your TW is probably around 1,000 pounds.

You're using a WD hitch with an adjustable shank that lowers the WD ball mount 10", and the tongue is still higher than level? Then it sounds like you're using a cheap WD hitch that is not properly adjusted.


If the bottom of the spring bars drag on the ground when the floor of the trailer is level, then that indicates you have a round-bar hitch. Replace the round-bar hitch with a trunnion bar hitch and that problem goes away.


You definitely want to use the spring bars. In fact, you probably need to tighten the spring bars more to distribute more weight off the rear axle of the tow vehicle.

Is your WD hitch rated for at least 1,200 pounds tongue weight? If not, then you need a heavier-duty WD hitch, properly adjusted to put at least 20% of TW on the front axle of the F-150, and another 20% back to the trailer axles. No more than 60% of gross tongue weight should remain on the rear axle of the F-150 after the WD hitch is properly adjusted.

Does your WD hitch have integrated sway control, or does it use friction sway bars? If it uses friction sway bars, then it's a cheap hitch that needs to be replaced with one of these rated for 1,200 pounds TW:

Blue Ox SwayPro
Equalizer
Reese Strait-Line trunnion bar


Those three use trunnion bars. Reese also makes a Strait-Line that has round bars, but you don't want round bars because they drag on the ground too often. Round bars come out of the bottom of the ball mount then turn up toward the trailer tongue, thus reducing ground clearance. Trunnion bars come straight out of he ball mount and go straight to the trailer tongue.

ambush

Before you make any more changes, weigh that thing. Don't guess. Get the trailer axles weights, and the tongue weight. You can't properly address the problem without knowing exactly what your dealing with.

acadianbob

Blowing up the photo, it looks like you do have trunion bars. Is it possible that you have too much pressure on those bars? I did that once on an experiment and the truck got really squirrelly. Less pressure would bring the rear of your truck down and lower the tongue. I'd try this with minimal air in those air bags. The air bags may be messing with the adjustment and effectiveness of your WDH.

craneman

It this one right here:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/like/18236509...&ul_noapp=true

I will check all the above. Thanks everyone.

mark waller

What tires are you using? Get "E" load, not the tires the truck comes with. Inflate to 70 lbs. The WDH hitch you bought uses a friction bar control. Not very good for sway. I use a Blue Ox and works great.
In your picture your chains are not vertical.

craneman

The chain mounts are as far back as possible. It has worked fine on the old truck. Not sure the rating but it has good AT tires. The sway way so bad it broke one of the mini ***** right off it. I had to replace the friction bar.