acdii

Unless you plan to tow it around empty, you really should use a WDH on it. Keep in mind that you have a live load back there, and you will feel it up front. A WDH will help stabilize the ride for both you and the horses. A simple round bar hitch is all you need, nothing fancy like the Equilizer or blue ox. If you want sway control you can always add it, but I never needed it even when pulling it with a 97 Explorer.

mjw1048

Thanks for all the advice. I'll mostly be towing only one horse around 1200lbs so that'd put the weight around 3800lbs (horse, gear, trailer). I'll have to check the specs on the trailer once I get it to see how much distance I have on the tongue/frame to mount a WDH/ Sway bars.

ecotow

I pull a large BP 4 Star trailer with warmbloods with loaded weight of 7500. The airbags work great. I have a dump trailer for shavings 10k loaded, flatbed for hay, 8k loaded, and the bags work great for them too. Another option but one of our boarders likes his WDH on his small trailer pulling one horse.

Ricktwuhk

+1 on weighing it. Trailer has to have a sticker on it specifying weights also. "Dealer said" should never be relied upon.

mjw1048

Don't the airbags just prevent the tail from sagging?


Does the built in sway control on the trucks really serve any purpose? I would never rely only on that, but was curious if other people had an opinion on it.

Ricktwuhk

Yes.

Yes it does, works very well.

acdii

The sway control on the truck isn't really a sway control, but a sway stop control. It doesn't prevent sway, but kicks in to get the rig back under control once sway kicks in. If sway becomes an issue, then you will want a sway prevention device, which on round bar type WDH is a slider bar with brake pads in it that allows the trailer to go around curves and turns, but keeps it straight using friction. Higher end WDH have built in sway prevention which works on the same principal, using different methods, such as cams, or tension.


There are some sway control devices/WDH that fight the truck and cause the trucks Sway stop to kick in and cause horrible handling. Aside from that, I like that the truck has it, Just In Case! I had a sway issue with a 2001 F150 pulling an empty dump trailer, and it didn't have the sway control. Luckily tapping the trailer brakes corrected the sway, but it tossed me around a bit before it got back under control.

mjw1048

Thanks! I have an Equalizer WDH/Sway control hitch for my camper and I love it. Never had any major sway in it. Looking for something similar on the horse trailer but since the tongue design is different, i'll need a different wdh/sway hitch.

banshee350

I have a 2 horse aluminum trailer with room for a 4 wheel horse cart up front (about 20' long). It weighs about 3800# empty with 480lbs tongue weight. I pull it with a 2015 5.0 4x4 screw. It pulls fine, gets about 10-11 mpg at 70mph. I would definitely reccomend using a weight distribution hitch. I have an Andersen weight distribution hitch. It is easy to use, has built in sway control, you can back up with it (some brands you have to disconnect the sway control prior to backing up the trailer). My wife can hook it up herself since the head unit isn't that heavy.
http://www.andersenhitches.com/catal...ion-hitch.aspx