Swaycontrol

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Rjs777

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Pinedale,wy
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2015
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I drive a 2015 Ram crew cab short box Cummings diesel 4x4, the issue is that I tow a 23’ camping trailer and behind that I pull a single axel 2 place ATV trailer loaded, the problem is with the ATV trailer swaying at speeds above 50 mph, I have a sway bar on the ATV trailer & crank it down almost as tight as it will go & I still get the sway problems, the camping trailer tows level with the truck I have no equalizer hitch on it, I’m thinking of putting an equalizer hitch on the ATV trailer to see if that might help ? Any ideas would be appreciated.
 

Travelin Ram

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Have you weighed the tongues and the trailers? Need to weigh the rear trailer and then weigh the front trailer with the rear trailer attached. Adding the second trailer will unload weight from the front trailer tongue.

Is the camper tandem axle? Single axle small trailers are less stable to begin with.

Are the spring shackles tight? Typical dry bolt trailer shackles wear fast and when they get loose you have sideways movement.
 

tron67j

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The above is a problem that magnifies when towing two trailers, the weight of the second one reduces the tongue weight of the first one. If you are going to do this you have to spend the time to get it all right, make sure you weigh it all with all of your gear, just like you are leaving for the week or two. You need to properly place weight and always load each trailer the same exact way every time you travel. Things like 40 gallons of gas in cans on second trailer will throw everything off as well, that needs to be in bed of truck.
 

NewBlackDak

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Any little bit of sway will magnify as you go back.

Does the ATV trailer sway when hooked directly to the truck while loaded the same?
If yes, the trailer is loaded improperly with too light a tongue.

Does the camper sway without the ATV trailer?
If yes you need to solve this. You mentioned a single sway bar. I would suggest something like an Equalizer brand hitch with 4 point sway control.

If both of those are solved…
As soon as you hitch the ATV trailer to the camper, you unload the tongue of the camper. Too light a tongue on a box trailer is asking for trouble. It might be as simple as moving stuff from the rear to the front of the trailer. Remember that it’s a lever around the axles. Adding a 200 lb(estimated) tongue from the ATV trailer does 2 things. It unloads that much from the camper tongue, while making the overall camper weight heavier.

Easy numbers…
Let’s say your camper weighs 5000lbs loaded with a minimum 10% tongue weight of 500lbs. Now add the ATV trailer which increases the weight of the trailer by 200lbs(assuming from above). Your safe camper tongue weight should now be around 520 lbs. instead it has been reduced to 400lbs(again guess, because it depends on many factors).

What is in the camper pass through storage? It might be as simple as carrying the fuel for the ATVs there.


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Rjs777

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Thanks to all three of you, you have given me a lot of good info. Need to get working on tongue weight on both trailers to see what I need to correct.
 

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