Towing 5500 lb travel trailer

socalledchad · May 19, 2017

So broght it home. Towd about 25 miles to get to my house. Very surprised on how stable it was..considering the wdh was not real tight and it was windy. Though i really felt the drag..keot it in 4th ...wishing i had the 8 speed but...i think it will do alriggt.

Sticker in the cuoboard says 4300 with options

The seller included a wdh without sway link..does the sway bar make a huge differance ?

But the hich wont drop lower so i took most of the air out of the air lift trying to get a littke more level for the ride home. The air lifts were doing their job for sure. I watched the rear drop as the went out.

TRCM · May 19, 2017

You got the same problem I have....the trailer is made low enough for a car to tow it.

With mine, I drop the WDH hitch all the way, and then jack it up to connect and adjust, and even then, the trailer doesn't sit level, but it's way better than yours.

I've considered putting a lift kit on it of sorts by raising the frame up, but with it's age, I'll likely just get a newer camper.

Here's a pic of it set up for hunting season.

fordtech90 · May 19, 2017

TRCM said:
You got the same problem I have....the trailer is made low enough for a car to tow it.

With mine, I drop the WDH hitch all the way, and then jack it up to connect and adjust, and even then, the trailer doesn't sit level, but it's way better than yours.

I've considered putting a lift kit on it of sorts by raising the frame up, but with it's age, I'll likely just get a newer camper.

Here's a pic of it set up for hunting season.

You can always just flip the leaf springs over. Gives you bout .5-1 foot of raise.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TRCM · May 19, 2017

fordtech90 said:
You can always just flip the leaf springs over. Gives you bout .5-1 foot of raise.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, I can't....at least not on mine. If I flipped them over, it'd sit even lower, as they have positive arch.

I guess I could put the axles under the springs...maybe...that might require welding a perch on the axles unless I can unbolt the brakes, flip the axles so I re-use the existing perch, and then and remount the brakes 180 out from how they are mounted now. Not sure the ole camper is worth that much work.

GsRAM · May 20, 2017

You don't flip the axles, you relocate the axle under the leaf spring. It will give you 3-4" of lift. They sell kits to do this. You have to weld new perches on top of the spring. I did it to my Layton and it worked great. No more low rider camper

ronheater70 · May 21, 2017

Umm me's thinking the simple answer is to get a longer shank and drop your hitch down a bit. Anytime the trailer is not level , its going to have an adverse effect on your handling.. Make sure you measure the distance to the top of the arch of the front fender, both before and after you re loaded..should be about 1/2 difference or less preferably about the same. (after you have the WDH hooked up)

TRCM · May 21, 2017

GsRAM said:
You don't flip the axles, you relocate the axle under the leaf spring. It will give you 3-4" of lift. They sell kits to do this. You have to weld new perches on top of the spring. I did it to my Layton and it worked great. No more low rider camper

I know that is the normal thing to do......even said so.

But if the spindles bolt on using a symmetric bolt pattern, I may be able to flip the axle and avoid welding.

Nothing prevents it, it's just a tube with perches.

Just thinking out loud here...likely will just get a newer camper.

ronheater70 said:
Umm me's thinking the simple answer is to get a longer shank and drop your hitch down a bit. Anytime the trailer is not level , its going to have an adverse effect on your handling.. Make sure you measure the distance to the top of the arch of the front fender, both before and after you re loaded..should be about 1/2 difference or less preferably about the same. (after you have the WDH hooked up)

The WDH won't go any lower, and even if it did, I'd be afraid of it hitting in certain situations.

GsRAM · May 22, 2017

Ok, it's possible I'm just misunderstanding you here, if so i apologize. However, you can't just "flip" trailer axles. They have a bend in them, that must be maintained in the factory installed way or the axle alignment and tire alignment will be all out of wack and you'll wipe out your tires very quickly.

Your only option to gain ground clearance is to go to an overslung set up, install larger tires if you have clearance, possibly weld on longer spring hangers, but then your getting into a lot of work. Good luck.

ronheater70 · May 22, 2017

TRCM said:
The WDH won't go any lower, and even if it did, I'd be afraid of it hitting in certain situations.

From the picture it looks like its coming straight out of the receiver with no drop, or maybe 1" or so? Every WDH I have seen bolts onto a shank, in my case a 6" shank.. and I can move it up or down on that shank to raise or lower as needed. on my f150 it was 1 hole down from the top, on my new 2500 its on the two lowest holes. It doesnt look overly low from the picture and looks like plenty of room to lower, but the tongue jack seems to hank down a bit or maybe you dont have that wound all the way up..

I can understand the concerns of dragging I suppose, but from the picture anyway it looks like plenty of room to lower and still be pretty worry free.. BUT I'm not there to see in person and you know how that goes!

Good Luck with whatever you decide!

TRCM · May 22, 2017

GsRAM said:
Ok, it's possible I'm just misunderstanding you here, if so i apologize. However, you can't just "flip" trailer axles. They have a bend in them, that must be maintained in the factory installed way or the axle alignment and tire alignment will be all out of wack and you'll wipe out your tires very quickly.

Your only option to gain ground clearance is to go to an overslung set up, install larger tires if you have clearance, possibly weld on longer spring hangers, but then your getting into a lot of work. Good luck.

MY axles are perfectly straight......like they made them 41 yrs ago..... :roflsquared:

ronheater70 said:
From the picture it looks like its coming straight out of the receiver with no drop, or maybe 1" or so? Every WDH I have seen bolts onto a shank, in my case a 6" shank.. and I can move it up or down on that shank to raise or lower as needed. on my f150 it was 1 hole down from the top, on my new 2500 its on the two lowest holes. It doesnt look overly low from the picture and looks like plenty of room to lower, but the tongue jack seems to hank down a bit or maybe you dont have that wound all the way up..

I can understand the concerns of dragging I suppose, but from the picture anyway it looks like plenty of room to lower and still be pretty worry free.. BUT I'm not there to see in person and you know how that goes!

Good Luck with whatever you decide!

I was talking about my setup, not the posted pic.......his setup does look like he could lower the WDH some

muzupan · May 24, 2017

The best thing to get that trailer level is to buy a drop shank from etrailer.com. I had to buy one when I went to a 2500 for my 1500.While the truck is level the trailer is riding to nose high. Which will create sway issues.

Towing 5500 lb travel trailer

socalledchad

Senior Member

Attachments

TRCM

USN, Retired

Attachments

fordtech90

Senior Member

TRCM

USN, Retired

GsRAM

Senior Member

ronheater70

Senior Member

TRCM

USN, Retired

GsRAM

Senior Member

ronheater70

Senior Member

TRCM

USN, Retired

muzupan

Senior Member

Similar threads

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Share this page