do I need sway control?

[soultrip11]

I think I lost my soul in a cubicle somewhere, so I am going to be take some time off from work and traveling around the country with my wife to see if I can find it.

I will be pulling a 2003 19' Bambi with a V8 Ford Explorer 5.0L. Neither my wife or I have any towing experience, but are confident drivers. I was considering investing in a Hensley just to be safe, but maybe that is overkill. Also, we are planning on doing a lot of boondocking, and I am not sure that the Hensley will have adequate flexion between the hitch and the vehicle to get down some of the back trails. Any advice?

[59toaster]

Originally posted by soultrip11
I think I lost my soul in a cubicle somewhere, so I am going to be take some time off from work and traveling around the country with my wife to see if I can find it.

I will be pulling a 2003 19' Bambi with a V8 Ford Explorer 5.0L. Neither my wife or I have any towing experience, but are confident drivers. I was considering investing in a Hensley just to be safe, but maybe that is overkill. Also, we are planning on doing a lot of boondocking, and I am not sure that the Hensley will have adequate flexion between the hitch and the vehicle to get down some of the back trails. Any advice?

Your trailer is small enough that friction sway will probably be fine. Just make sure you set the hitch up correctly. I'm new at this also but there is a LOT of great information available in the forums. One thing I didn't know till these folks pointed me in the right direction is the hitche head is supose to have a 15deg rake. That causes the load bars to act somewhat like a sway control.

The next step up would be the Reese Dual cam. It's good for a mid size camper around 25ft but might be overkill for a Bambi. I think somebody is thinking about giving it a try so might look for that post. It was recent and I think titled Sway control.
Also there is several good posts on Brake controlers that are well worth reading. You will need one of these also.

[dmac]

If you do not have a ball mount yet you might consider this. I use one with my 2003 25' Safari/2002 Ford Explorer and it is easy to hook up and incorporates friction sway control. Much less expensive than the HA, yet very appropriate for the smaller trailers.

If you already have a ball mount with equalizing bars, then an add-on friction device would be even less expensive.

[Silvertwinkie]

I have the '03 Bambi and use Reese (and am from the area too).

I use the friction sway and love it. Tried pulling around with and without. Given the small size there is a slight difference and for the $65-$70 I considered it a cheap insurance policy.

If you had the Safari, I'd consider the dual cam, but the Bambi is just that, a Bambi and unless you plan to upgrade to a larger unit, the friction sway won't do you wrong.

Where in the area are you? Are you able to store your Bambi at home or do you have a place you take it to for storage? I've been looking for a low cost place to park it when not in use.

Regards,

Eric

[soultrip11]

Eric, not only do we live in the same town, and have the same trailer, we are the same age - I just turned 30. I haven't taken delivery of my trailer yet, but I have a pad next to my garage at my house (Oak Park). I am going to keep it there until we sell our house and head out on our trip. When we come back to visit I will probably ask to store it at a friends house for a short period of time. If we are back for longer, I will probably store it in NE Indiana where I have some family, or offer a farmer a couple hundred bucks to keep it next to a barn somewhere west of town (Kane, McHenry, Will countys). Both my grandfathers were farmers and they would always be willing to sacrifice a little space for a little money.

[Silvertwinkie]

Pretty neat. I'm in Glenview. Being 30 something too, I can attest that I was tired of being a cubile jockey. I tripped and fell into technology and started working in education. I found that even though I don't get the summers off, my stress level has gone down considerable. For me, I got my soul back and also found that gettng paid for doing it is kind of like a bonus too.

I've been considering asking a farmer in WI or IN since both are fairly close to home.

Good luck on your quest. Did you buy the '03 from R and R RV near Kankakee?

Regards,

Eric