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I do find the steering a little weird in these trucks, it seems to hold wherever you let go, instead of defaulting back to straight and centre.
That is exactly the issue! My guess is the friction bar amplifies it and that is why it handles like crap. If this is the case, then the Blue Ox will solve it, hopefully. The Equalizer works different from the Friction Sway bar since its equally distributing the friction to both sides of the hitch.
Also having worn tires can also amplify the tracking issues. Now that I have new tires(well, the originals it came with that have less than 5K miles), it isn't as noticeable. Going to get the BO setup this weekend and give it a try and keep my fingers crossed.
That is exactly the issue! My guess is the friction bar amplifies it and that is why it handles like crap. If this is the case, then the Blue Ox will solve it, hopefully. The Equalizer works different from the Friction Sway bar since its equally distributing the friction to both sides of the hitch.
Also having worn tires can also amplify the tracking issues. Now that I have new tires(well, the originals it came with that have less than 5K miles), it isn't as noticeable. Going to get the BO setup this weekend and give it a try and keep my fingers crossed.
Wait, you've been towing this whole time with a single bar WDH?!?
Yep, works fine for my trailer. Sway was never my problem, except when I had too much weight transferred. It has always been the abnormal steering, it just took a while to narrow down what was causing the weird handling.
Even on the 16, when passing, being passed by a semi, the entire rig is pushed as it should. Adding a second bar would not have helped any. On the 14 drove to Utah and back, through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado. Heavy cross winds, lots of semi's and not once did the trailer act up, it pulled great. All with one Sway bar.
I was on the fence about spending another $50 for a second bar, and thought, if it IS the hitch, why not just buy one of the best instead, so went that route.
So I had a long drive today, just with the truck and tested my steering.
My steering is not nearly as bad as the you tube video. If I am going through a curve on the highway and let go of the wheel, it ALMOST goes back to centre, so I need to hold onto the wheel through the curve.
My recollection when towing with my old WDH and old trailer was that the wheel was turned even when driving straight.
Tomorrow I'm going camping for the first time with my new trailer and equalizer hitch. I'm not going far, but I'm going to see if my steering issue while towing is corrected by the new hitch.
Blue Ox setup completed. 8 links down brings the front end almost back to normal height. I did 9 links down per the manual and could not get the cam to release. That was with the jack raising the whole rig way up in the air. I eventually got the cam to move so I could release the pin, and man, do those things snap!
One of the Zerks was broken, so have to extract it and replace it, but other than that, just need to road test and keeping fingers crossed, handles better. Truck is going in Thursday to address the wandering front end.
Blue Ox setup completed. 8 links down brings the front end almost back to normal height. I did 9 links down per the manual and could not get the cam to release. That was with the jack raising the whole rig way up in the air. I eventually got the cam to move so I could release the pin, and man, do those things snap!
One of the Zerks was broken, so have to extract it and replace it, but other than that, just need to road test and keeping fingers crossed, handles better. Truck is going in Thursday to address the wandering front end.
Towed with the Equalizer this weekend, it towed great, no sway, although the trip was too short to really tell for sure.
End of October I'm heading out on a 800km (one way) trip, so that will be a good test. So far though, I'm really like the Equalizer, and I don't notice any of the steering issues that I noticed with my old friction sway bar setup.
And this is how high I need to raise it in order to engage the 8th link.
Instructions call for starting at the 9th link, I did one bar and could not release the pin without raising it up like this. With 8 links though, everything falls into place.
09-13-2017, 10:34 PM
