Anti Sway Hitch or Rear anti sway bar ??
 

Been doing some research on anti-sway for my truck/trailer. Small back story I had a 13 Screw 6.5’ 3.5 and noticed small trailer sway with that truck when it was windy, bought a 2500 Ram with the Cummins and obviously due to weight of the truck really never noticed much other than when it was really windy. Now I have a 2016 Screw 6.5’ box that’s leveled with airbags and seen and read lots on these trucks being a little more squirrely because they are lighter, I feel that’s definitely the case and towing my enclosed trailer isn’t as enjoyable anymore. I have always felt this trailer isn’t the best towing trailer to begin with. Its an enclosed 14’x7’x7’ with a 5’ V Nose. It’s all aluminum and super tall and long V so it’s almost too light and gets blown around super easy. At most this trailer gets loaded to 5k pounds.

So my question is would I be better adding a anti sway hitch/bar to my trailer or would I be better doing a rear sway bar kit? Both options are going to cost me $3-400 pending on the route I take.

I have done some reading on the Hellwig rear sway bar kit for the rear end of the truck. I have read many reviews and feel this would be a great option for me. However I do live in Minnesota and think it could affect my driving in the snow. So, this made me start reading on should I do anti sway hitch?

Pic of Truck/Trailer Combo

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...14b3c82e1a.jpg

The two have entirely different purposes and do not overlap much, if at all. You would want trailer anti-sway first and foremost, or possibly a WDH with sway built in like an Equal-i-zer. Then if you feel like you want the truck to corner better then you can throw on a sway bar and it may help when trailering as well.

A sway bar, like the hellwig, is simply meant to prevent the body from leaning in corners. I don't think your trailer is going to cause much lean as it moves around since the hitch is relatively low to the ground.

Yes, at the very least you need a friction sway control bar for the trailer and maybe a WDH as well unless you are hauling light loads.

The more reading I was doing it made sense these have entirely different purposes. I felt that the anti-sway function on the hitch first. I have done a lot of reading and trying to make sense of these anti-sway bars and WDH. I feel my trailer is on the edge of really needing a WDH mostly because 5k lbs is MAX of what i put in the trailer my guess is I will likely see an average of 3,500lbs. its a big trailer for such a light load inside. I currently have a Bulletproof Hitch and they offer a Anti-sway ball system along with the anti sway arms. I see people running just 1 sway arm and see others running 2. why only 1? that doesnt make sense to me.

here is what i would consider getting for my setup

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...a221a16050.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...9b652fdf4e.jpg

One friction sway control works fine. I use one similar to what you have pictured above.

I have read some people use two, but out of hundreds of campers I have paid attention to I have never seen anyone using two.

What people commonly call a sway bar is really an anti roll bar. Depending on how its linkage is built it can reduce the side to side flex in a leaf spring rear, but as others have said it primarily prevents body roll.

Good to know. I see mostly single setups the more I look and read. I’m going to invest in one of these sway control bars.

My only other concern is that I have a very narrow trailer frame/tongue. Do you see any issues with this?


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...77f665ec0.jpeg

It should fit fine on the right side.

awesome thanks for the all the help on this.

Any WD hitch that uses sway bars for sway control is a cheap hitch. Probably okay for weight distribution but inadequate for sway control under extreme conditions. I would not want my grandkids to tow with a cheap WD hitch. Instead I would want them to tow with a quality hitch that has excellent built in sway control. Such as an Equal-I-Zer or Blue Ox SwayPro. As for the old man, I go to the other extreme, towing my TT with a ProPride kitch (if you've ever experienced uncontrollable trailer sway, you'll pay a lot to be sure it never happens again).

But installing any WD hitch on a V-nose trailer presents some challenges. Here's a link to an Equal-I-Zer page that tells how overcome the too-short tongue on a V-nose trailer: https://www.equalizerhitch.com/manua...allation-guide

Sizing your WD hitch:
You want the spring bars rated for at least the max trailer tongue weight (TW) you will ever have. Equal-I-Zer makes one with 600 pounds TW. That's a max trailer weight of about 4,600 pounds. But if your max trailer might be up to 5,000 pounds, then you need more than 600 pounds TW rating, but not near the 1,000 pounds TW rating of the next size of Equal-I-Zer hitch. Blue Ox to the recsue. They make one with 750 pounds TW rating. That's a max trailer weight of about 5,750 pounds.

Ignore the gross trailer weight rating of the hitch. That's based on only 10% TW, and your properly-loaded trailer will have more than 10% TW.

https://www.equalizerhitch.com/store...ontrol-hitch-1

https://www.blueoxtowbars.com/categories/Blue_Ox_Sway_Pro_8000_lb_Hitches,1354

Ignore the MSRP prices in the links to the manufacturer. Check the discoynt price from eTrailer.com and Amazon.com before you buy one of those hitches.