BAM298

Just picked up our new boat and its a bit heavier than our old one and the truck notices it... Not in pulling power but in the rear end. On smooth roads it's fine but I live in Ohio and that's rare so nearly every bump/dip/crack in the road causes the rear of the truck to basically bounce and it's annoying.

Boat is roughly 5000lbs on trailer, plus gear/fuel so maybe nearing 6000lbs fully loaded up, and that's being generous. The truck barely sags/not noticeable when hooked up, I can measure the actual amount this week though.

Do I need different tires? Do I need airbags? Helper springs? Timbren somethings? Roadmaster active suspension? Or a whole new truck?

Thanks,
Matt

marauder11

My first thought is you need a weight distribution hitch. Why? In my mind you are over 5000 pounds and a 500 pound tongue weight. Does your hitch not require a WD hitch after 500 pound tongue weight

acadianbob

I agree with this assessment. This is what you need to do first.

brulaz

I ran a trailer with 600# tongue weight for a while without a WDH.
It wasn't a major problem with handling and was definitely easier than with a WDH. But Ford does recommend a WDH when the TW exceeds 500# or the trailer exceeds 5000#. I would weigh the trailer and find out it's tongue weight.

For those relatively light weights, RAS (Roadmaster Active Suspension) might be all you need. It helps handling even unloaded. And helps with light loads. I've got one and it works as advertised. (Just be sure you get the right model).

Many of the others suspension options only come into play when you are loaded very heavy, like your overload springs. In fact, the bounce you feel might be when the regular springs hit the overloads.

You can add adjustable inserts that cause the overloads to come into play earlier, with less sag. Torklift makes something called Stableload that does this. A bit pricey though.

A much cheaper, simpler option is to add new bump stops to the overloads. A google search (bump stop overload) shows many different cheap options here. I would try this first. Haven't done it myself, just heard it works ok.

isthatahemi

I have found a LACK of tongue weight causes this. It happens more frequently when I use a WDH.

marauder11

Another thing you can do is see if you can move trailer axle back. This will give more hitch weight. Maybe you don't have enough hitch weight. If it is a single axle that's easier than a double axle. If it is a double you will need an alignment. My first boat had to have the axle move back due to the previous owner using a small suv to toe with

Wannafbody

I'm under the impression that boat trailers don't use a WDH setup.

brulaz

A lot of people don't because with a boat you can run pretty low % tongue weights without sway problems. Unlike a high side travel trailer. Often 10% is used. So for a 5000# trailer that's only 500# and Ford's ok with that, not using a WDH.

But once you get over 5000# and 10% TW, Ford recommends a WDH.
Boat trailers without an A frame tongue will require a "pole tongue adapter" for the WDH to work. etrailer.com and others sells them.

Also some claim surge brakes may have problems with a WDH. But Equal-I-Zer, for one, claims that surge brakes work fine with its WDH.

bsboothe

I have a similar issue towing my 20' bass boat on a dual axle trailer. One thing I found that helped was airing up my truck tires closer to 40 psi and made sure the hitch was level/parallel to the ground. Plus I also got a shocker air hitch and it helped as well to eliminate some of the bouncing and double jerking of the pickup whenever I got over a bump.


What's odd, is I never had this issue when towing my boat when I had a 3/4 ton pickup or my 09 Ram with the coil springs in the rear. Not sure if the 11+ F150's went to softer springs or if its the P rated tires to get the car ride feel that affects towing somewhat.

BAM298

I will weigh the boat on trailer and the tongue weight as well. It's a brand new tandem axle trailer so I can't imagine the axles are placed incorrectly. I guess it's possible I have too little tongue weight but it's not squirrely or anything while towing.

Another way I could describe it is it feels similar to how it felt when my old single axle camper trailer would cause my truck to "rock" when going over uneven surfaces. Like the truck would do a seesaw action, does that make sense?