smokeywren

Mark, your WD hitch is inadequate. You need a Reese Strait-Line dual-cam hitch with 1,200-pound spring bars.
http://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Distr...e/RP66084.html


Your hitch weight on the rear axle was still 850 pounds, and that's simply too high with a decent weight-distributing hitch. After you get the Strait-Line adjusted per the Reese instructions you should not have more than 60% of the gross hitch weight remaining on the rear axle of the F-150.


Your trailer has GVWR around 8,265, and 12.5% hitch weight would be a max of 1,033. So assume probable undistributed wet and loaded hitch weight of about 1,000 pounds.


So the hitch weight on your rear axle should be not more than about 600 pounds after you properly tighten the spring bars on the wet and loaded trailer. The other 400 pounds of hitch weight is distributed to the trailer axles and to the front axle of the truck. And with a perfectly setup hitch, half of the gross hitch weight would remain on the rear axle and the other half would be distributed to the other axles


Edit: I had to take a break to watch "Outlander"on Starz. Yes. I've read all the Outlander books. Hasn't everybody? Anyway, that's why there is an edit after 8 p.m. tonight. Lots of skin and graphic sex on tonight's episode.

xcntrk

Here's your scale data plugged into the spreadsheet tool I referenced. Your rig doesn't have much payload remaining (950lbs) presumably due to the rear bed canopy. With the trailer hooked up you're just under the trucks GVWR but are over the RGAWR (again due to the cap). But other than these points, the rest of the configuration including amount of tongue weight and percentage of WD all looks acceptable. Nothing is blatantly off. It's a lot of trailer and a not much truck pulling it. The MaxTow and HD models would do better in this situation.

There are certainly things you can do to improve the stability of your rig. Firstly I agree with smokeywren that the hitch is not fantastic. Honestly you need all the hitch you can get to help address the big trailer small truck issue. There are much better hitches out there then what you have and better then the Reese straight-line. For example the Equalizer or Hensley/ProPride would definitely help in this situation. Also to address the overloaded rear situation you can bolster the back with air-bags or overload springs plus I would ensure you're running a LT or better towing tire if not already.

mark1969

Thanks for the info. A few questions.

My original eaz lift has 800lb bars. I have not hit the scales with that hitch and this trailer. Are the 800lb bars adequate to even give it a shot? Will adding a second friction bar do anything with sway?

Dumping $1200 on LT E rated tires really worthwhile?? ( I will do this if it's a must )

I'm putting the Andersen hitch up for sale. I'll try to call the MFR and see if they'll take it back but I'm not holding my breath.

I would like to free up about 300-400lbs of GVWR so I can convienently carry some stuff in the truck. I will likely go with airbags too.

smokeywren

If you had 850 pounds of tongue weight on the rear axle of the tow vehicle AFTER you tightened the spring bars, then your spring bars are way too light duty. You need a minimum of 1,000-pound springbars, and probably 1,200-pounds soring bars to be fully covered.



It might help a little with controlling sway, but friction-based sway bars are antique technology that are not nearly as good as some of the more modern designs.


I don't agree that LT tires are the answer to your sway problem, unless your P-Series tires are overloaded. If your tires are overloaded, then yeah, you need tires with more weight capacity, but the tires don't need to be LT tires with load range E. But if your tires are not overloaded, then pump them up to the max of 44 PSI cold. My F-150 with P-Series tires does just fine dragging my TT with my ProPride hitch, and before I paid the big bucks for the ProPride hitch, my Strait-Line hitch did just fine too. As to the tires on the pickup, I drug my 8,000-pound 5er 350 miles across the Texas Hill Country with no sway problems, with P-Series tires. Yes, the F-150 was severely overloaded over the GVWR and rGAWR of the pickup. but no indications of sway on that trip.


Since you have a perfectly good F-350 sitting around while you attempt to make an F-150 do what it is not designed to do, then the simple answer is to use "more turck" instead of trying to patch the weak areas of the F-150. An F-150 without the HD Payload Package is simply not enough truck to tow an 8,000-pound TT. The EcoBoost drivetrain has plenty of power to pull the weight, but the suspension and tires are not designed to haul that much weight.

xcntrk

I must have missed the part where you have an F350 kicking around!

Normally I'm in full agreement with smokeywren's input, however in this case with the tires, I disagree. If you want a simple test, go out to your F150 with P-rated tires, put your foot on the top of the sidewall and give it a good shove. You'll sit there in disbelief as your whole truck shuffles around wallowing on the weak sidewalls of the P-rated tires. And that's sitting still at a dead stop! Now apply that to highway speeds cruising along towing a load. Same wallowing is occurring while towing and compounding the trailer sway issue. The reason to upgrade tires isn't due to load, in fact your existing P-rated tires exceed the RGAWR rating of your truck. Instead you upgrade to get a firmer ply tire and sidewall which can hold more air. I admit E-rated tires on an F150 are a bit overkill but when you air them up to 60psi they're firm as a rock! Not the most comfortable ride, but damn steady while towing

(Note I recommended LT tires and not a specific Load-Range)

93Cobra#2771

iTrader: (2)

Smokey is spot on with his comments. I have added:

Bags
Hellwig rear sway bar
Hensley arrow hitch
Max psi in my oem pmetric tires

All three additions work together great. The sway bar was just added and I was amazed at the difference it made.

smokeywren

Thread starter post, first line:

Air Lift Company

Air bags would definitely help, we have a complete bolt on kit for your truck. Let me know if you have any questions at all!

ford15012

I agree with getting rid of the p-metric tires and going with LT tires. I made the switch to load range E tires and handling while towing my Outback 301BQ was greatly improved. Before I made the switch, I did raise the pressure in the p-metric tires to 44psi, but that made no difference. Load range E tires are overkill on a F-150, but I found there's a better selection of load range E tires compared to load range C.

xcntrk, are you and outbackers.com member?

mark1969

Alright a bit of an update. I put my Eaz Lift back on and exchanged my 800lb bars for ones rated 810-1200lbs. They are quite a bit thicker bars.

I went back to the scales today and my numbers still weren't ideal but I'm getting there. Front axle was weighing in at 3400-3450 ( scale was back and forth on that ) Rear axle was 3800lbs. The trailer came in at 6650 on it's axles.

The chain saddles on this trailer have to angle the chain in order to clear the propane tank mounts. Does angling the chain cause any distribution issues? I would think I could pull another link up if there were no angle but I am not sure how I can do that.

Where I have settled on the chains to get the weight back on the front end causes the trailer to look a little nose high, is this a problem?

I also aired up the tires to 44psi and on the short freeway trip home it did feel more stable at up to 65. Still not as stable as not towing anything of course but felt better than before. I imagine this is due to putting some more weight on the front axle of the truck.