Yes. Two things I did en route were crank down the anti sway bar and deactivate the trucks sway control. Couldn't tell a difference after deactivating the sway control.

 

Makes a huge difference when I turn it off. The hitch and the truck work against each other and makes the truck suck gas when the anti-sway is on.

 

I will double check and ensure it's off. Plan to tow again Sunday and will try the suggestions listed and see what happens.

 

The truck anti sway is hit and miss. At one point Blue Ox was saying to turn it off, then they said didn't matter, leave it on. I have found it to be both as well. I guess it comes down to each individual tow setup since not every one is exactly the same as the last as tongue weights can vary on every trip. Made no difference on or off on my last trip, but on the first trip with the new truck it did, felt a squirm when a semi went the other way on a 2 lane, turned it off, no more squirm. It felt like a brake was being applied on one wheel or the other with how the rear of the truck was moving, not the trailer. This last trip never felt any of that, just the trailer wiggles.

 

I had the same problem with sway but also had slow steering reaction and some bouncing and stability issues when hitting bumps. I changed to 6 ply LT tires, steering was now very responsive but still had sway. I also still had a lot of bouncing and it seemed to be bottoming out on bumps so I added 2000 lb air bags, bouncing and stability issues when hitting bumps was gone but I still had sway. I bought a tongue scale to make certain what the tongue weight was adjusted the hitch through its range of adjustments and finally ordered, installed and adjusted the Equalizer E4 hitch and the sway was gone. 6500 lb when fully loaded, 24’ tongue to bumper travel trailer.

 

Bet now you can deflate the bags and the bounce is gone too. I discovered having the proper bars makes a difference along with the type of hitch. Too light or too heavy a bar can also cause the bounce. With the 1500 pound bars, it distributed correctly, but it bounced quite a bit, too much tension for the tongue weight, but not enough to activate the sway control. Putting 1000 pound bars on, proper tension, proper weight distribution, no more bounce. No bags, no Sumo or Timbrens, and no LT tires.

Always start with the hitch before throwing aids at the truck. Once you get the proper hitch dialed in, then you can go after the comfort side, but bags and timbrens are helper aids, not a fix for a poor hitch setup. Something I have been pointing out for a long time. Once dialed in, adding bags later, just add the minimum amount of air to stabilize the load, Adding timbrens or Sumo do the same thing, help stabilize the load, they act like a sway bar in some cases, and smooth out the ride, but never use them to compensate for a poor hitch. Or worse "level" the truck after hitching. That is what the WDH is for.

 

Drove about 60 miles with maxed out truck tire inflation levels, sway bar properly tightened, and some adjustments to chain length on weight distribution bars. The truck did much, much better. But In all fairness, it was mostly at speeds below 60 mph. And a lot of my sway occurred at interstate speeds last week. So I'll try it again Thursday.

Thanks guys.

 

Actually, no the bounce is not gone if I don’t run about 25 to 30 psi in the bags even with the hitch, you have commented on that more than once before. The problem is that the trucks today are used mostly as grocery getters and people like the soft ride so they lighten and lengthen the springs. If you would like to compare take a look at the rear springs on a 1/2 ton 4x4 from the 70’s and you will see how much thicker the spring packs are.

 

Hmm, wonder why I don't have any bounce then. Better hitch? Better weight distribution in the trailer? I did have bounce, then got the proper bars and the bounce is gone. I do want to put the Sumo springs back on as it does get a bit squirmy at times in the rear, but no bouncing happens no matter how rough the road got.

 

This sounds like my setup/experience before I upgraded to LTs (Michelins fwiw). Just finished a 2000+ mile trip (over half on Interstates) with our 7000lb TT at close to my (2016) truck's GVWR and the improvement was worth the $'s spent on the tires. Note: I had the same 48 psi in the LTs that I put in my P rateds...the sidewalls make that much of a difference.