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Old 10-13-2016, 02:39 AM   #1
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2018 27' International
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New Tow Vehicle - Thoughts on setup

Thinking I may want to take on some hills eventually, I traded the Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland in for an F-350, 6.2 gas Lariat. I chose this after looking at some 1/2 ton trucks with payloads around 1400 lbs. The Ford has a payload over 4000 lb which will come in handy if I haul cars, etc and I'm guessing will work with the Bambi. The trailer controller is integrated (the gain is set at 2.0, I'll need to figure out how to adjust the gain). Using the drop hitch I hooked up to the Bambi 19' to see how things lined up. I was pleased with the results, looks like the same drop hitch from the Jeep will work, but will take the rig to the dealer where I got the AS to get it checked out.

The rear of the truck dropped about 1.5" and the trailer sits level. The tongue weight on this trailer was about 800lb when I purchased it and it weighs about 4000 lbs ready to camp.

I'm planning to use the single friction sway control but wonder whether the WD bars are necessary. Can't see any reason to transfer any weight on this truck. I'll keep the WD bars for the larger Airstream that now seems inevitable. Thoughts?
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Old 10-13-2016, 02:42 AM   #2
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Here's the drop hitch, hooked up for measuring.sorry, tried to rotate the pic?..
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Old 10-13-2016, 03:43 AM   #3
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If you use your edit function to crop a picture down a bit, it will post correctly.


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Old 10-13-2016, 04:04 AM   #4
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Nice Truck !!
To increase/decrease the gain use the + and - buttons on the controller.
No one will say you don't have enough truck for your Bambi.
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Old 10-13-2016, 05:28 AM   #5
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Nice truck!
My thinking is that the anti sway hitch won't hurt anything...
All it takes is one bad event and you will wish you'd had one.
As for the weight distribution bars, take it to the scales and check the numbers. It is easy to do and then you will know. We run the bars but it is part of the hitch so we don't really have any choice.
Anyway, welcome to the "Towing a Bambi with a Big Truck" club!
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Old 10-13-2016, 07:12 AM   #6
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Boy, you had a change of heart for sure. It was like last week you were voicing all sorts of concerns about pickups :-)

Its a great looking truck, and you were smart to bypass 3/4 ton and go directly to 1 ton. Congratulations!
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Old 10-13-2016, 01:17 PM   #7
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With a truck this large you certainly have no need for WD bars...at least until you get that much larger trailer that you hinted at.
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Old 10-13-2016, 02:21 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by rostam View Post
Boy, you had a change of heart for sure. It was like last week you were voicing all sorts of concerns about pickups :-)

Its a great looking truck, and you were smart to bypass 3/4 ton and go directly to 1 ton. Congratulations!
I can definitely feel the high center of gravity I mentioned in my posts. Lots of people get into trouble with these trucks in winter around here. But I've driven these before, just have to change some driving habits form the Jeep. The biggest concern I had was merging and payload, both are nonissues now, neither is the 800 lb tongue load lol
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Old 10-13-2016, 06:57 PM   #9
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Setting the gain is easy.
Just drive slowly on a deserted road, (? is there such a thing??) with the gain set at it's lowest.
Try the brake lever, without using the TV brakes. Keep going higher with it until the trailer brakes lock up and slide. Then back off the gain by one or two 'kliks'.
There you are for a start. You may or may not decide to adjust it as driving conditions give you feedback on it. Easy-Peasy.

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Old 10-14-2016, 04:32 AM   #10
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Is the brake control supposed to be set so the trailer wheels lock when the lever is squeezed on a dry road? Seems like this would cause a problem when towing in wet weather. I don't think the Bambi is gonna pull the F350 too hard but would hate for the trailer wheels to lock during moderate braking on a curve in wet weather. I'm going to do about a 300 mile tow this weekend and see how everything shakes out. Can Am has new leather cushions for the Bambi and I figured this would be a good time to pick them up.

I've towed lots of utility and car trailers without worrying but I'm a little more picky about the Airstream.
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Old 10-14-2016, 05:34 AM   #11
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No lockup, that's why you back off the two or so clocks. A locked brake is not as good as a brake near lockup.
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Old 10-14-2016, 06:02 AM   #12
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One time I forgot to take the weight distribution spring bars and our 25' was bouncing up and down on the hitch. It was very annoying and not the safe feeling of
having the tongue locked down on the ball with spring bars attached. Also, someone mentioned on the forums they thought weight distribution hitch was required in some states for trailers over 2500 lbs?
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Old 10-14-2016, 08:00 AM   #13
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Holy overkill. You barely need trailer brakes for that on a F350. (jk, but you could in a pinch)

But it is good to have extra truck capacity if going bigger in the future.
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Old 10-14-2016, 11:07 AM   #14
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Quote:
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One time I forgot to take the weight distribution spring bars and our 25' was bouncing up and down on the hitch. It was very annoying and not the safe feeling of
having the tongue locked down on the ball with spring bars attached. Also, someone mentioned on the forums they thought weight distribution hitch was required in some states for trailers over 2500 lbs?
Not sure the Bambi is gonna bounce much on this truck. I Thought the function of the WD bars was to transfer some of the weight to the front axle by adding a torque to the hitch, not prevent bounce. Never used them on the large pickups I had before and I towed pretty heavy stuff.

Any of you large truck/Bambi guys use WD BARS? Or just the sway device?
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Old 10-14-2016, 04:44 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Countryboy59 View Post
Not sure the Bambi is gonna bounce much on this truck. I Thought the function of the WD bars was to transfer some of the weight to the front axle by adding a torque to the hitch, not prevent bounce. Never used them on the large pickups I had before and I towed pretty heavy stuff.

Any of you large truck/Bambi guys use WD BARS? Or just the sway device?
It seems like the bars change the bounce. Not sure why...
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Old 10-15-2016, 11:34 AM   #16
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Towed it to Can Am, looking at a 25' or 27' now. No issues towing, even carefully passed a few semi trucks without issue. Averaged 10 mpg...😁
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Old 10-15-2016, 01:15 PM   #17
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Look, all this hair pulling over a Bambi behind this huge pickup is nuts. I've towed my Argosy 20 (sim in size to a Bambi) thousands of miles over all kinds of roads behind my 2014 Tacoma TRD with the factory option tow pkg. There has been no problem with sway, bounce, braking or anything else to be worry about. The tongue weight slightly changes the front-to-rear balance of the truck, but not enough to warrant distress. The worst effect is night driving where the headlights aim a little too high. To correct that I added a set of rubber air lifts over the truck's rear springs. No discernible effect on ride and problem solved. So hook up your Bambi with nothing more than the ball hitch, my friend, and drive away with confidence.
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Old 10-15-2016, 09:37 PM   #18
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Quote:
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It seems like the bars change the bounce. Not sure why...
Bruce
The bars did make a difference. I ended up putting them on. The setup is rock solid. The hitch height needs a slight change but I'll get that done later.
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