A towing question...

[sequoiacoast]

While visiting our (soon-to-be) tradewind it became apparent that if we did not move her down a muddy driveway we might not be able to next week and therefore not be able to take her home. We ended up buying a standard towing accessory kit by Valley Industries. It is a class III ball mount and is factory torqued. It cost us about 60$. I searched it on the forum and nothing came up.
I'm trying to understand the sway control and weight distribution situation. Should I attempt to take this ball kit back or can I add sway and distribution to what I have? Is this a must before I take her home next week?

[Silvertwinkie]

I don't know what the weight of your tradewind is, but I'm not sure a Class 3 is good enough. I think you need to be in Class 4 or 5. According to the Reese site Class 3 is for 500lb hitch weights and up to 5000lb trailer weight. If you are even close to 5000, I would have gone to the next class (maybe a 5) hitch/mount. Not even sure you can get sway and weight distribution from a Class 3 bar/mount, but don't quote me on that......

For the basics go to www.ressesproducts.com

[Boondocker]

I have a 68 Trade Wind, I can check the title if you want, but I think the dry weight is supposed to be 3,500 ish. Any amount of cargo water or what have you will put you over 4K in a heartbeat (what have you is among the densest materials known to man). I would want the heavy duty hitch option were it I.

[Silvertwinkie]

Originally Posted by Gen Disarray

Any amount of cargo water or what have you will put you over 4K in a heartbeat (what have you is among the densest materials known to man). I would want the heavy duty hitch option were it I.

I agree. Of course you're talking to a Tim Allen mentality here.

[azflycaster]

http://www.airstream.com/airstream/p.../weights-1.pdf Lists the weight for older Airstreams. 68 TradeWind is just under 4000 lbs (dry).

[john hd]

sequoia

you will want something that looks like this:

john