Uwe - You towed your TW with the same TV with a different hitch setup, did you have any issues with that?
The Dual Cam is one of the perfered setups. It should work better.
Uwe - You towed your TW with the same TV with a different hitch setup, did you have any issues with that?
The Dual Cam is one of the perfered setups. It should work better.
It seems that my tradewind had it's axles farther back on the frame, with more tongue weight, relative to it's size. I was using a Eaz-Lift WD only, no sway control. It towed better than the Overlander with the Dual Cam HP.
There were other factors that differed on the trdewind, such as the tongue being wider at the point where it enters the body, and also a little bit longer. The bars were spread apart farther. I don't know if any of that makes any difference.
I can't wait to tow with the new Suburban, maybe it's better controlled. But I need a new shank, since the hitch receiver is 21 inches off the ground, instead of the old Suburban's 14in.
Is a 6000lb equalizer enough for my 5200lb trailer with appr. 550lb tongue weight?
As long as you do not exceed the weight limit for the hitch, you should be fine, IMO.
My TW towes great also. I have the hitch that came with the trailer. It's a trunion head Reese WD with 750 lb bars. I added a friction sway setup which does help eliminate alot of the suck and push you get from th 18 wheelers.
What weight arms do you have on the DC setup. If they are too stiff you might not get any load into them. I think you need to get the bars proplerly loaded for the DC to work properly. I have looked at the DC setup and thought that it would be my next hitch. You are giving me reason to reethink that now.
Didn't you have an issue with a bent cam bar when you first got that hitch? I think I remember they sent you a new one.
I am headed out at noon today (1/2 work day for my wife). I will be at a rally with Brad and a few other 4CU members. We will kick this one around the campfire and report back.
As long as you do not exceed the weight limit for the hitch, you should be fine, IMO.
My TW towes great also. I have the hitch that came with the trailer. It's a trunion head Reese WD with 750 lb bars. I added a friction sway setup which does help eliminate alot of the suck and push you get from th 18 wheelers.
What weight arms do you have on the DC setup. If they are too stiff you might not get any load into them. I think you need to get the bars proplerly loaded for the DC to work properly. I have looked at the DC setup and thought that it would be my next hitch. You are giving me reason to reethink that now.
Didn't you have an issue with a bent cam bar when you first got that hitch? I think I remember they sent you a new one.
I am headed out at noon today (1/2 work day for my wife). I will be at a rally with Brad and a few other 4CU members. We will kick this one around the campfire and report back.
I have 1000lb bars. During my last trip, I had them stressed pretty good, though. Ask anyone that saw me....
Reese di dsend me a new cam, which fixed the problem with the bar not lining up squarely over the cam.
I tried everything short of buying new weight bas with lower pound rating. As I mentioned, so far it's been with poor results.
Maybe I am just too picky.
It sounds like your trailer has some stability problems going on. Not just the hitch, but the trailer itself. Have you checked things like to see if the front axle is parallel to the rear? There are probably 100 variables you could be looking at, but it sounds to me like your loaded aft CG. Your idea of moving some heavy stuff forward is very valid.
Balance on trailers is very important. I dug into this a few months ago and was amazed at how similar they are to airplanes. Just in 2-D. The whole tongue weight thing is just a crude measurement of the CG of the trailer. What you really want is for the center of gravity of the trailer to be about 15% ahead of the centerline of the two axles. So say your two axles are 3' apart. The centerline we use for reference is right in the middle, so it'd be a foot and a half rear of the front axle. Now say your trailer is 30' long from ball to bumper (just for math's sake). You want the CG to be 15% of that ahead of the axle centerline, so 30' * 15% = 4.5'. OK, so you measure 4.5' ahead of axle centerline and you find that you want the trailer to balance about a point that is 3' ahead of the front axle.
With airplanes, tailheavy = unstable; noseheavy = stable. It's the same with trailers.
We use tongue weight as a crude way to determine this, but you could do it more accurately. Bottom line is that if your trailer is too aft CG, it will naturally unstable, and no hitch will really correct that.
All this being said, I'm a huge Equal-I-Zer fan as I own one and have had good results with it. But I think the Henseley is the best, bar none. Just too expensive for me right now.
There's an SAE paper out there on trailer stability that goes into all the math if you really want to figure it all out.
Have you checked things like to see if the front axle is parallel to the rear? ,
Did check that during the build. It is perfctly parallel to the front of the hitch, as close as I cold measure it. And the axles are indeed parallel to each other.
This trailer was almost balanced when it was empty, without any interior. The tongue would not hit the ground at all, with teh jack all the way up. It would balance on the two axles, just dip a bit by the nose. I already moved the water tank and water heater forward from where it originally was.
I think that once the batteries are relocated and a spare tire added, my tongue weight should be heavier by quite a bit. The batteries are right now immediately behind the curbside rear wheel.
There is room behind the propane tanks for a battery box. That's 120lbs real far up front.
Other than that, not much can do, I guess.
Well, I don't profess to be a super expert on this topic, but from what I read in that SAE paper, it sounds to me like she's a bit tail heavy. At least, not nose heavy enough.
You might try a simple test. Hitch up and just get 3-400 pounds of something heavy and put up in the front. Maybe get two of your buddies to sit in the front as far forward as they can. That or borrow some weight plates or something. Just put 300-400 pounds as far forward inside the shell as you can, such that it stays there. Then take her out on the road and see if you notice a difference.
If you do, then at least you'll know what the deal is. Tire + batteries up there should help a lot, I'd think.
Until I read that SAE paper, I would never have thought trailers acted like this. I would have thought you'd want near zero tongue weight. (I mean, if the guy pulled it with a bicycle, it can't have much tongue weight.) But that ain't the case. You gotta be nose heavy or it will want to fish tail on you.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but if that does cure it, you may just need to ballast the trailer. Boeing sometimes has to ballast airliners to prevent flutter, which is a dynamic event also. Adding weight to an airplane is the last thing you want to do, but it's the only way to solve the problem sometimes.
Well, first things first - moving the batteries and getting a spare tire on the tongue would be a good first step.
It's not that it doesn't tow well at all, it's only when trucks or buses pass me on the freeway that things get uncomfortable. Simly towing etc. works very well, uphill, downhill, tight and twisty roads are no problem at all. The trailer handles very well under those conditions.
I used to tow with a GMC 3/4 ton Suburban, both our 31' Excella II and a 24' box trailer with my '37 Packard in it. I always had to hug the right side of the road when 18 wheelers came, to avoid getting thrown into their lane.
In April we acquired a 2001 F-250 with a Pull-Rite hitch. the Pull-Rite pivots behind the axle and simulates a 5th wheel rig. Now I am totally relaxed while towing...totally oblivious to 18 wheelers. NEVER feel any sway! Yes, it is expensive (but so are Airstreams!). I'd be the first in line to write a testimonial about Pull-Rite.
__________________
Bob (K5RPS) and Gail (MAAAA)
31' 1981 Excella II
2001 F-250 7.3D Crew w/8'bed and Pullrite 180degree
"Ask the Man Who Owns One" (Packard, Of Course)
or
"Ask the Woman who lives with one...or more!" (Gail)
'
I agree with the merits of the pull-rite.
Its on my 1991 burb. But I have not used it on our newest TV, a 2001 burb.
The thing is, the spare tire is located inside the '91 and under the '01.
I love it so much that I am about to put it on the '01 and just put the spare tire inside in the luggage area. I know it uses up tons of storage space this way but I can't think of other options for the spare. The pull-rite is the best towing system I have ever used, but then again I have not pulled with the Hensley.
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