Excessive bouncing while towing tt
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Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 331
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From: Lansing, MI
Excessive bouncing while towing tt
so just got back from maiden voyage with our new 26dbh grey wolf and while traveling to and coming home there were parts of the trip where the tv was just what I think was bouncing excessively like my wife had her seat reclined to nap and it looked like her head was bouncing clear off the headrest, then when the road smoothed out everything was smooth and fine again. Just seemed that when there were bumps in the highway or hitting those spacers highways have in the pavement that the truck just excessively bounced. We travel theses roads a lot and I’ve never felt bouncing like this either with our previous tv or tt or just in my truck alone with no tt so I know something needs to be adjusted here. So I have a BO with 1500# bars and set to 8 links in the block with a dry tt the ride is fine, diff section of highway but no bouncing ever now we have our loaded tt with prob close to 1000# of stuff 3/4 tank of gas and about 400lbs in the truck. I put again 8 links in the BO and first thing I noticed was my front wheel well measurement is 38” which is the normal height and my back wheel well measurement is 37 1/2”. Normal no tt measurements are front 38” back 40”. With a dry tt like when I haul it to storage are front 37 1/2” back 38”, so is the bouncing caused by to much weight in the rear axle? When we go camping in two weeks should I go to 9 links of chain in the block to push more weight to the front axle? Or the opposite a.m. I taking to much weight off the tongue by using 8 links now that the tt is loaded to go, so should I move down to 7 links in the block? And I know go to the scales which I plan on doing next trip but for now any ideas on what to try or what’s causing this bounce. Otherwise even in wind I got no sway and the tt and tv are level to the eyeball test anyway.
Last edited by Olotti76; May 6, 2018 at 06:24 PM.
5 Year Member
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 1,222
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From: Near Macomb, Illinois
That's where I'd start, yes. One reason I say this is when my car trailer is empty, its pretty light on the tongue, probably only 100 pounds or less. Its a 16' car hauler style trailer. This makes for a terrible tow, it makes the truck pitch back and forth. When I get even a fairly light load, it tows so much better. I picked up three 20' long dual wall culverts a few weeks ago. Drove about 70 miles to get them and even though the total load coming home was probably less than 400 lbs, that little bit of extra tongue weight made it tow much better. I assume to much tension on a WDH makes it want to lift up on the rear end of a truck to much. You will probably know right away when you try it out..