Unstable Towing with our 1500

[JRs 17 Ram]

You have gotten some good advice here, I used to be a service manager and then general manager of a trailer sales lot. Most WDH do not compensate for sway. You will have to add a sway bar. I’ve been out of the business for some time now and am not familiar with your Reese hitch.

 

[2019RamInSC]

your trailer wt. numbers are very similar to mine and my 1500 laramie pulls it fine..looking at the wt. on the rear axle..looks to me to be too heavy tongue wt. too light on the front axle. wdh could be improperly adjusted or you have loaded too much gear in the truck bed and front storage area of the trailer. when I tow my 28' 6000# trailer the wt. on front and rear truck axles is nearly equal, with the front being a little more. I get no tail wagging and if the terrain not too hilly, can set cruise for 68-69 and it holds fine just under 2000 rpms. go to an rv dealer and get your wdh readjusted..add airbags..be careful how you are loaded..

What he said

 

[MAC830203]

Sounds scary!! My father in law used to pull a massive trailer. Didn’t get squishy till he used retread tires!! Be great to hear what the solution is.

 

[OC455]

Reese hitch 49911

It looks like your Weight Distribution Hitch is not cutting it for your trailer. The specs for your trailer say it is a 640lbs hitch weight, which is probably going to be closer to 700 + pounds in reality. Your GVWR for you trailer is 7680lbs. 4815lbs dry weight and 2865lbs cargo carrying capability. Even though you probably do not tow with over a ton of cargo in your trailer, you are going to be over the advertised dry weight when loaded up as you know.

My 2018 Ram 1500 I was pulling a Keystone Hideout 260LHS (29'11" feet overall, 5182lbs dry weight, 645lbs hitch weight) My actual hitch weight is 710lbs., and was about 5600-5800lbs loaded out to go(empty tanks). I pulled it fine with my 1500, almost maxed on my axle weight for the truck. Over payload on the truck, but still under gross combined weight rating (truck & trailer together). Kids got older & bigger/heavier....

I would go back to the dealer you got the hitch from and get another one rated for 800-1000lbs instead of the 600lbs./6000 rating. RV dealers usually do enough to get you down the road to make the sale.

If you want something that is easy to setup, look up Weigh Safe TruTow WDH. I want one of them for my setup.

As for what others have said, numbers don't lie and you need to make the best decision for what to do.

 

[Pttrader]

I agree what others have said your WDH is too small! I weighed my 30 foot travel trailer on a CAT scale when they weren't busy then unhooked the camper and got a total loaded weight 8400# I bought a Sherline 2000# trailer tongue scale from Amazon. My current tongue weight was about a 1000#s on the hitch, but still had some sway. I had an equalizer 1400# WDH. I checked the attitude of the trailer and had the nose slightly lower than the rear.
I put my hand on the back of my truck box one day (without the camper) and gave it a few jerks side to side. I could see some sway there. I pumped the tires to full sidewall pressure and it helped, but still the sidewalls had some sway. Rather than go with the hard riding E rated tires I bought some D rated KO2s. I tried the same side to side jerking and saw virtually no sway in the sidewalls.
I towed my TT with empty tanks, tried adjusting the WDH weight shift multiple times ,but found out by loading more weight to the front of the travel trailer to about 15% I had eliminated sway even when going down steep hills (7%) with semi trucks passing me. Now at 8400 and 1200#s on the hitch I had very little payload left considering the RAM towing chart said 1480#s. I moved up to a 2500 and eventually a 5th wheel camper. Good luck getting it sorted, I know the uneasy feeling of having the camper swaying around.

 

[dhay13]

Yep. Not sure if I posted this in here already but my son has a 2018 Grand Design Imagine 2670MK. Dry weight advertised was about 6600lbs with 690lbs advertised tongue weight. He was actually at 1100lbs tongue weight but he was loaded heavy. The TT weighed in at 8100lbs. He has a Husky Centerline TS WDH with the 800/8000 bars I believe. I towed it with my 2013 1500 about 150 miles but it was new off the lot and completely empty so didn't weigh that much. He now tows it all over the country with his 2018 2500 6.4 with no issues at all.

My step-son just bought a 2021 Imagine 3250BH. We weighed it at 9300lbs. He has an Equalizer 1200/12,000lb WDH.

Here are weigh lips from both:

 

[AlexC2350]

I pulled a very similarly sized trailer for a summer with a Tacoma and experienced a fairly stable ride. Only moved up to half ton ram because I was worried about drivetrain longevity. I was really happy with the performance of the ram and that trailer. So I wouldnt say that not enough truck is your problem. Although you do need to be mindful of how you load it, and how your wdh is set up like others have said being you only have 1300 pounds or so of payload to work with. I’d start by looking into getting a different hitch with heavier bars. I’ve had my Reese steady flex hitch on 2 different campers and 4 different trucks from the Tacoma to a half ton ram and 2 3/4 tons rams. It’s been great.

 

[clayinfla]

I thought the 1/2 ton Rams were only rated at 500lbs tongue weight?
.

The low end 1500s with class III hitches are rated for 500 pounds. The trucks configured to tow with Class IV hitches are rated for 1275 pounds.

 

[OC455]

The 500lbs. rating is for the old school, ball in the bumper.

Types of Trailer Hitches and Hitch Classes - Towing 101 (curtmfg.com)

 

[CaptOchs]

"Reese hitch 49911 - max gross wt/tongue wt: 6000/600"

Why so undersized? I probably would have gone one step higher to 8000-10000 lb bar range. Sounds like you don't have enough tension on the bars. You have a few options:

• Replace the WD kit with something higher rated. Have it professionally installed and adjusted. There are better kits out there that should eliminate sway.
• Upgrade your WD kit. Call Reese customer support. Give them your CAT scale weights and the WD kit number you have. They will go over all the hardware you have and let you know how you could upgrade it. I upgraded my 600/6000 Reese Dual-Cam WD kit for $60 to 1000/10000 by adding new bars. They gave me the part numbers for new bars and I ordered them off Ebay. I could actually upgrade it to 1200/15000 if I needed to by upgrading the head. Reese customer support is actually really good and they taught me a lot.
• Take it back and get it re-adjusted. As I said, you don't have enough tension on the bars by the sounds of it. I had to get mine re-adjusted once. It was around $70, but well worth it. That said, you might be close to the max weight rating on the bars if they increase the tension.

I really would avoid driving it until you get the situation resolved. You're putting yourself at risk driving like that. No you don't need to upgrade to a 3/4 ton. Trucks are expensive and 3/4 tons are even more expensive and harder to find.

I don't think anyone has mentioned loading. You might have to check how your trailer is loaded. Don't put heavy items behind the axles, etc. There are tips for loading on YouTube.

Good luck!

 

[Yarek]

I sometimes borrow my friend's trailer, a I think it weighs just under 4000 pounds when loaded. Single axle, 20" long. I pull it behind my 2500 on 35" tires. I comfortably pull that thing at 80mph. No sway, no issues, even when I pull it on bumpy dirt roads. Bigger truck, smaller trailer, can't go wrong. Rather than watch the semis and cars pass me by, I'm often the one passing.

 

[GeoffreyXE]

I saw a slant six Diplomat pull a 35 foot boat out of the water. That was in 1999. Those were the days

 

[Wickenburg Geezer]

Been watching this thread but too busy getting ready to hit the road. I've got 45 years of towing most everything with all kinds of vehicles. A few years ago I went through a similar problem with a 2011 F150 and a travel trailer. I was within load, towing weight and tongue limits, but I was close. Anything over 65 especially in crosswinds was not pleasant with the tail wagging the dog.

My wd hitch was heavier capacity than yours so I can't address that suggestion. First thing I did was air up the stock tires to max. That helped a little bit. Then I added a sway bar. That helped a little bit. Then I added a second sway bar which helped a little more. What finally cured my issue was to dump the stupid p-metric passenger car radials and put 10 ply LT tires on the truck. It was like night and day. The truck road like it was on rails. The sidewalls on the stock tires are just to soft for medium to near max towing applications. As an added bonus the Hankook tires had almost 60,000 on them when I traded the truck in with at least 10,000 left on them.

 

[Mainuh]

For those of you out there with a 1500 Limited and a similar size travel trailer, what is your experience? Do you stick with the user manual setup? Do you drive with jack mode left on?

Hi Rick,

I have a 20' 1500 Limited and tow a 29' TT, dry weight aprox 5600# with and an equalizer hitch system. We just got back to Maine from AZ and I have close to 7000 miles towing since I bought the truck in Maine last September. I have not yet put it on a cat scale and done any testing, but have not had any issue towing. The trailer rides behind like it's on rails.

I have not found a way to engage the "tire change mode" as a permanent change. Even if I put it in tire change mode to load the trailer on, it switches it off as soon as I start rolling down the road automatically, typically I think it's at the same time as the blind spot monitor throws up the message that it updated the blind spot monitor system to accommodate the trailer length.

 

[barr0208]

i had a 2014 laramie quad cab with the factory air suspension either than cold weather problems we towed a 28 foot kz spee rv trailer never had problems with wagging drove with crazy high winds enough to create a blinding sandstorm from the sand used on winter roads for over 100 miles. its all about how you set up your equalzer hitch. our hitch had 2 anti sway bars to alleviate the wag.

 

[TITOPOLLITO]

I saw a slant six Diplomat pull a 35 foot boat out of the water. That was in 1999. Those were the days

jajajajaja When I was younger we had a '64 Dart wagon with a /6 ( I miss that car), we used to pull a homemade motorcycle/camping trailer all over California with it. Based on my 30 years since I know that trailer was every bit of 6k as far as weight.

 

[wgreggking]

On my my prior 1/2 ton pickups always used 10 ply E rated tires and a 10K WD/ Sway combo. Was not as heavy as yours, was like it was on rails towing 70 MPH, 40 mph crosswinds. Better rated hitch and E tires, might just do it.

 

[Blkrvrbart]

Gross combined weight rating? All the suggestions to weigh the truck loaded for a trip, the truck and trailer loaded up, and the truck and trailer loaded with the wdh are key. But even if you dial it in, it may still waddle because you are at the top of your gross combined. I have a 29’ Freedom Express ultra lite tt, was pulling it with a ‘19 1500 Silverado with a wdh and air bags (they were just for leveling) which was well within the gcwr and towing capacity, but it was white knuckles over 55 mph in a 10 mph wind. I tweaked the wdh, shifted loads, didn’t make spit difference. We upgraded to the Ram 2500 which put us very well under our towing limits and we tow comfortably now even on gusty days. Best decision we have made in vehicles. Sometimes the math isn’t enough, or at least in my case it wasn’t.

 

[Timsdually]

Keep your weight to the front.
Too much rear weight in the trailer causes trailer sway.

 

[ramffml]

My current trailer towing improved drastically when I fully loaded the fresh water tank up; it sits close to the front, the extra weight on the back of my truck reduced the vertical bouncing and makes the truck feel more planted.