Siskiyou

I am still having some sway issues while towing my trailer, one thing I noticed with this truck is when I slid the hitch into the receiver it has more play than my '02 Silverado had. The Ford has maybe 1/8" of movement, if I wiggle that back and forth and project a line out to the end of my trailer it could account for a lot of sway out that far and once the sway starts it keeps moving. I wonder if that isn't part of the problem that is causing so many people to notice more sway on these trucks than others. I may make some metal shims up to take some movement out and see if this helps. Do all of them have this much play and does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

PerryB

A little slop in the receiver tube is normal and has no effect on sway.

acdii

Once the weight is on the ball, that play wont be there, unless you hit a really large bump. On a light trailer it will flop around a bit over bumps, and you may hear it, but with anything that needs a WDH, once hitched up, it is locked.

There is a video floating around that demonstrates sway perfectly, they move a weight from the front to the back of a toy trailer pulled by a Mustang on a treadmill. With the weight up front, they tap the rear of the trailer, it moves and swings right back in line, then they move the weight to the rear and give it a tap and it gets violent and they need to grab it before it got flung off the treadmill.

Sway is caused by the back end of the trailer being too heavy. The rear moves right, the TV moves left, then back end left, front end right, and next thing you know, the trailers on its side and the TV is facing in a direction in which it was not intended.

So it is either a poorly loaded trailer, a poorly setup WDH, or possibly something not in alignment in the trailer, like maybe an axle is off, or a wheel not true. It is highly unlikely to be anything with the truck.

seachaser186

If you can afford it get a Propride and be over it. Otherwise you are going to keep getting the same replies from the same people.

thrifty biil

Do a search for receiver hitch stabilizer, there are hundreds of them out there. I got one from Amazon for less than $10.

Now whether play in the receiver matters much, I do not know. I doubt it has much to do with sway. But these stabilizers remove all the play. And they are cheap. I do know they are useful on bike racks where the entire rack can wiggle a lot.

Siskiyou

I have seen this before and I am not sure how it is locked in because the bars and sway control are all attached to the head and the play is forward. I am actually running 13.8 to 14.8% tongue weight, I have raised and lowered the nose of the trailer and increased and decreased the the pressure on the bars. I was towing this same trailer with an '02 Silverado 1500 with the same hitch with no sway. I am just going through all the details now to see if there is something I missed. I am going to make up a shim and see if it makes any difference, other than the sway it tows great.

Simnut

Simnut

I tested my sway possibility of my setup taking the trailer home on Friday. I was driving between Nanaimo and Duncan, heading south with a good cross breeze on a particular stretch of this highway with wind breaks sporadic along the route.. I was doing 100K and took my hand off the steering wheel. Don't worry, I was ready to grab it real quick again lol. My setup kept absolutely straight, even with the breeze hitting my setup abeam off and on. Doesn't mean I will rely on this....I will NEVER count on that. It was just a test and I will feel very comfortable moving on down the highway !

acdii

The weight, plus the leverage of the WHD will bind it in the receiver. All shanks has some play, but that is only noticed with a light ball weight. The play is mostly up and down, rarely side to side due to the pin that locks the shank to the receiver. If you have excessive side play, then you may want to consider replacing the receiver, pin or shank as one or the other is out of round where the pin slides through.

Also as mentioned above, there are several types of locking devices to remove the slop, I have one myself for a cargo rack.

BlackBoost

Some slop won't hurt. My hitch moves a bit if I grab and wiggle it, but I don't get any sway while towing. Depending on the year/model of truck, you may also have sway control. So if you do start swaying, you'll feel the truck slow down as the brakes are applied on the correct wheels and the trailer brakes (if you have trailer brakes that is). I've never felt mine activate though.