schmenke

A couple of months ago we purchased a second hand 23' foot travel trailer. It's a lightweight at less than 5,000lbs gross. The original owner included a basic WDH but it has no sway control. The ecoboost pulls it without any issues. In fact, being so light weight there's barely any sag in the truck (unless my sister-in-law tags along) when hitched up.

About a week ago returning from a camping trip I felt the trailer sway by high cross winds. It wasn't anything too severe, but enough to make me question if upgrading to a WDH with sway control would be worth it. It's not often that we pull in such high winds, and coupled with the light weight of the trailer, I'm wondering if it's worth the extra cost for an upgraded WDH.

Opinions? What would you do?

acadianbob

Accidents don't usually happen in normal conditions. But accidents happen and unusual circumstances do occur. Plan for it and be ready.

The first step would be to try a friction bar. If that dampens any further occurrences, you are good to go. It would be the least expensive way to go. Give it a try and see if it works.

If not, then you may need to replace the entire hitch with integrated sway control; like Reese Straight Line or Equalizer.

77Ranger460

I would just buy a $50 sway bar and keep the existing hitch.

My recent purchase 25ft Airstream is a 1995. It weighs over 5k pounds. It has never had a sway bar. I guess neither of the two owners saw a need. I plan to install one, though.

schmenke

Thanks, I hadn't considered that. Sounds like the way to go.

atwowheelguy

That's what I did. 24.5' toy hauler came from the prior owner with a Camco Eaz-Lift Elite round bar WDH. I added a $50 Camco Eaz-Lift friction anti-sway bar. All of the friction bars I have seen look exactly alike, just a different brand name on them. Seems to work just fine so far. The wind blast from a big truck is felt as a one pulse wiggle, but everything comes right back in line.

smokeywren

Those cheap sway bars work okay for mild conditions. But for severe conditions, you'll wind up upside down in the ditch.


There are lots of cheap WD hitches on the market that use the cheap sway bars. But I want excellent sway control of my TT when I encounter unexpected severe conditions. Such as a chug hole on a curve of a wet highway with high cross-winds when I meet an 18-wheeler at high speed sucking lots of air. So I insist on a minimum of a good WD hitch with excellent sway control, including the


Reese Strait-Line
Husky CenterLine
Blue Ox SwayPro
Equal-I-Zer


Those good hitches all list for around $1000 and will cost you more than $500 from a discount online source such as Amazon.com or eTrailer.com. But it's money well spent just in case you run into unexpected severe conditions.

wrvond

First, congratulations on being smart enough to be concerned enough to do something about this potential hazard.
Second, lots of good advice already, and I have no desire to contradict anything previously posted.
However, there is a reason your trailer is prone to sway, and that's how it is loaded. Your tongue weight should be 15% of the total camper weight. If you have too much gear aft of the axle(s), your tongue weight is going to be too low, if you have too much gear forward of the axle(s), of course, the tongue weight will be too high. When the ratio of tongue weight to vehicle weight is incorrect, sway is easier to induce. Simply slapping a sway "control" bar on your WDH is merely a band aid action.
I'm not saying don't use sway control, I personally use a Reese WDH with integrated sway bars on both sides (a very old system I've used since the 80's and works quite well). I am saying, ensure your camper is properly loaded. This will help any sway control device you decide to use do it's job much more effectively.

atwowheelguy

I would very much like to see some test results that show that the friction provided by the top brands is superior to the friction provided by the less expensive solution. My towing with the 24 ft. box and one friction bar has been fine so far. Maybe I'll just get off the road until the severe conditions subside.

Maybe it's time for the computer to replace the mechanical system. This system from Dexter looks interesting.

ff_sssmokin

I tow a 28' TT that is around 4,800#'s dry. Just got back from a 2,000 mile trip from Wisconsin to all areas of Tennessee. It was pretty windy on our way down there. Using an Equal-I-Zer brand hitch, my trailer did a lot of swaying but not out of control. One time a wind gust hit me and the trucks sway control kicked in and slowed me down. My point, if even with an Equal-I-Zer hitch my camper sways, cannot imagine not using one at all.

Bowhuntin4ever

I too would just purchase and install a friction sway control. Etrailer sells then for $38. I had a 23' Hybrid Jayco. I put a friction control on each side of the tongue and had a cheap bar&chain WDH. Worked great for me. I found one of the friction controls at harbor freight for pretty cheap and it worked the same as the Reese.
https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Dist...ies/83660.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/trailer...kit-96462.html

I upgraded to a 32' Puma and thus upgraded to a Equal-i-zer Hitch. If you decide to upgrade the whole hitch setup, I would highly recommend this one!
http://www.equalizerhitch.com/