Trailer Sway

[dewey89]

In all my driving I have NEVER seen a 1/2 ton with a camper piled up in a ditch! Hell, Ive never seen a 3\4 or 1 ton with a camper piled up in a ditch. I will continue to pull my rig with my 1\2 ton to the distain of all CDL and big rig drivers out there. SORRY!!!

To answer the question at hand. Sluggo, it is absolutely a weight transfer issue, Sweeney nailed it. I pull a 28' 5th wheel and a 21' boat behind my 1\2 ton Ford Ecoboost all the time and it drives straight and no tail wag. I did have to raise my campers kingpin (which lowers the front of the camper when hooked to the pickup) and flip around my campers receiver hitch so I had a 2" raised instead of a 2" drop. Also needed to raise the 5th wheel plate in my pickup so the camper would clear to box sides, I think I have like 8" from box rails to the bottom of the campers nose where it over hangs. You ultimately are trying to get the frame of the camper level with the road and the boats trailer frame level with the road. Get it as close as you can and you should have zero issues. Happy trailering!

- - - Updated - - -



I don't disagree with you on this point. I think there are way too many people that shouldn't be aloud to operate a blender, let alone a vehicle!

It's not really about if you can pull over GVWR its if you should and can you stop the train when you need too. Theres a huge difference between a 8,000 lbs diesel and a 5,000 lbs gasser when it comes to stopping the mess behind you.

 

[Sub_Elect]

I disagree. Here's why, my camper has trailer brakes and it has the ability to lock tires up with the squeeze of a button and my boat has brakes on all four of its tires. So, basically when I go to stop that wagon train I have at least 10 brakes working to stop it. Trust me it stops very well!

 

[Sluggo]

I was talking about lowering the boat hitch point, not the camper.

I think the problem is the boat hitch point on the camper is TOO low already because the nose of the camper is up a tish (because for some reason unbeknownst to me, they have to make all truck boxes so stinkin high nowadays, but I digress) which might be causing the boat nose to also be down some. I shall check its levelness with a tape instead of eyeballing it.

 

[sweeney]

Here's the thing talking from experience of moving hitch height, king pin, and boat height. If your camper is riding high in the front and low in the back you probably don't have your weight distributed correctly on your camper axles. Beings you don't seem to tow a long ways often you probably haven't seen what this does to tires, bearings, brakes, and the overall towability of your rig. You need to level out the camper first, flip your camper axles to raise overall ride height if you haven't already, maybe even bigger tires, next move your hitch height and/or your king pin height in order to get the weight distributed across both camper axles more evenly, and of course do all that without hitting your boxrails. You don't need an extreme amount of clearance between your camper and box rails. Maybe take a picture of your whole rig loaded up on flat ground, so we can see what it looks like. Unless your boat always sways even when its just on the truck, just moving your boat hitch is like putting a band-aid on your broken arm. Is your boat trailer tandem or single axle because that will make a difference too. Does your rig set up look like any of these or is the nose of the camper way higher?





- - - Updated - - -

I'd just hate to see the whole rig end up taking someone or your self out traveling down the road when you know there is a problem.

 

[tikkalover]

Here's my rig. First fifth wheel I owned (not this one) I had the camper raised up on the axles 4 inches to level it out and get enough clearance above the box of the pickup. This one pulls straight as an arrow.

 

[westwolfone]

You need to hook up a utility trailer with a John Deere mower on it Behind the boat.

You're welcome