hitches, sway control

[rog4kneer]

Am somewhat curious about what people are using for hitches and sway control. After reading extensive material on line, am wondering what your personal experiences might be and why.
Are Hensley and Pro Pride hitches overkill?
Looking for honest opinions, not just an endorsement for what you personally have.
Thanks

[bbhoth]

I prefer the Equalizer brand. I have used it for about 5 years. I pull doubles with it and have never had a white knuckle experience yet! I have the 1200/12000 4 point sway model.

[hammerdown]

Husky http://www.huskytow.com/Products.aspx has been around for a long time has quality hitches and priced right.

[Denise]

Our original hitch on our 29' tt was a huskey with only one sway bar (dealer ran out of the Equalizer we paid for). We had lotsa problems with the sway still and our front end was still much higher than it should have been. From this situation, we learned that a tt over some many pounds and so much length (like ours) should have two sway bars. When we returned home, the Equalizer was installed. We could back up without disconnecting them, and even nicer, our sway was essentially gone on the interstate's and in wind. The front of our truck also rode lower. Anyhow, the Equalizer works well for our tv/tt set-up for those reasons. We did have a failure with our Equalizer and there is an easy fix for this which I should post in a new thread

[David472]

Our Jayco Dealer is going to set us up with a Reese hitch and sway bar. I think just one sway bar, as our trailer is the 22FB. We had a Reese hitch with one sway bar on a 24 ft trailer in the 1970's which worked out just fine, but that was many years ago. I too am curious what others use and what their experiences have been.

[Denise]

Ya know (pulling from my ever failing long term memory!), short of researching again, it seemed that the magic number for adding the second sway bar to the wdh for tt was 4500 lbs. *yikes* Don't hold me to this though!

[Denise]

Originally Posted by rog4kneer

Am somewhat curious about what people are using for hitches and sway control. After reading extensive material on line, am wondering what your personal experiences might be and why.
Are Hensley and Pro Pride hitches overkill?
Looking for honest opinions, not just an endorsement for what you personally have.
Thanks

BTW, can't remember if you mentioned elsewhere... what size tt do you have (going to buy?)?

[Crabman]

Many trailer owners have had good results with WD systems that integrate sway control right into the system such as the EQU-A-LIZER, and the REESE DUAL CAM. These systems are mid range in price, higher then "sway bar" systems and cheaper then Hensley/Propride/Pullrite systems. I think some times there is confusion about just what "sway bars" are. The picture in the link shows an Eazilift friction sway bar. These are independent of the WD system and generally for smaller trailers. They hook up to a small ball each on the frame of the trailer and the hitch head. Some use 2 such bars on larger trailers, one on each side of the A frame. Heres`the link with also a reference to the Reese Dual Cam at the bottom of the page. My personal preference is for the integrated systems mentioned above. Good performers at a reasonable price. I must add I have never owned one of the high end systems like the Hensley so I cannot compare to them. -Lee



http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/r...ol-ez-lift.htm - Lee

[hammerdown]

If you have a Ford pickup and some Dodge pickups 2009 or newer you do not need a sway control bar as sway control is built in. http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/04...uper-duty.html

[David472]

Crabman; I like the idea of having sway control built into the WD hitch, rather than a friction bar. The Reese Dual Cam looks interesting.

[Crabman]

Originally Posted by David472

Crabman; I like the idea of having sway control built into the WD hitch, rather than a friction bar. The Reese Dual Cam looks interesting.

Yes they get very good reviews on the "Big forum" from guys that have been towing for quite awhile. So does the Equ-a-lizer. One advantage with the Equalizer is no holes to drill in the frame. On the Dual Cam the downward force of the trunnion bars on the cams helps to hold the Trailer straight. When you turn the trailer, they slide on the cams back and forth so they do not bind allowing you to turn. This can cause some loud metallic sounds going around turns and backing up, but that`s normal. -Lee

[Denise]

Originally Posted by hammerdown

If you have a Ford pickup and some Dodge pickups 2009 or newer you do not need a sway control bar as sway control is built in. http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/04...uper-duty.html

Ummmmm sorry, but our experience was... the sway on our truck did not help with our 29' tt..... we had a Huskey wdh with one sway bar with our F-150 (check signature). Even with our built in sway F-150 set-up the Huskey still had us experiencing major sway. I know our F-150 has the built in sway, but with our experience (keep in mind our tt/tv set-up) with the amount of pounds we tow vs what we can tow we have he Equalizer, I can tell you right now, neither Don or me will tow our tt without a wdh/stabilizer bars

[clutch]

Healthi you probably had sway because you are towing with a half ton truck. When I towed our trailer from Quartzsite to Parker I was amazed at how solid it felt. We have an equalizer with one sway controll. My truck is a one ton and sway was not noticed on the initial tow to Parker. It felt steady just like the 5er we traded in.

[hammerdown]

Originally Posted by healthi

Ummmmm sorry, but our experience was... the sway on our truck did not help with our 29' tt..... we had a Huskey wdh with one sway bar with our F-150 (check signature). Even with our built in sway F-150 set-up the Huskey still had us experiencing major sway. I know our F-150 has the built in sway, but with our experience (keep in mind our tt/tv set-up) with the amount of pounds we tow vs what we can tow we have he Equalizer, I can tell you right now, neither Don or me will tow our tt without a wdh/stabilizer bars

I have almost the same set up 2009 F150, 2009 28' Jayco TT, Husky WD hitch and do not have any sway, I can feel the Ford electric sway control kick in when there is high wind and when large trucks pass us. It does a fantastic job of keeping the rig straight, check out the video in my post above. Maybe you should take it into Ford and have it checked out.

[David472]

Please correct me if I'm wrong;
My understanding of sway control built into the truck, is that it uses brake application of both the trailer and truck, in a programmed sequence/pattern. Somewhat like anti-lock brakes, but different. If this is true, I wonder what that means for the life span of the trailer brakes?

[rog4kneer]

I will be pulling a 22 foot single axle trailer with a Toyota 4 runner. The trailer is a Jayco Skylark. Tongue weight is 300lbs, and the gross weight of trailer is 3500
From all the research I have done and the information provided here I believe I am leaning towards the Reese Dual Cam Straight Line hitch that has integrated WD and Sway control on same unit. Am also limited in what can be used because the trailer is a V nose trailer, not much hitch exposed.
Great forum, love the idea of a place for people to share information. In appreciation of the time you spent with your answers sincere thanks.

[Denise]

Originally Posted by clutch

Healthi you probably had sway because you are towing with a half ton truck. When I towed our trailer from Quartzsite to Parker I was amazed at how solid it felt. We have an equalizer with one sway controll. My truck is a one ton and sway was not noticed on the initial tow to Parker. It felt steady just like the 5er we traded in.

LOL, getting the Equalizer Brand integrated WD and Sway was a lot cheaper than upgrading to a F-250, and still got rid of the sway well

Originally Posted by David472

Please correct me if I'm wrong;
My understanding of sway control built into the truck, is that it uses brake application of both the trailer and truck, in a programmed sequence/pattern. Somewhat like anti-lock brakes, but different. If this is true, I wonder what that means for the life span of the trailer brakes?

I think it's something like that. We can tell when the integrated system kicks in, but I don't believe (per Ford mechanics) that it's meant to work on it's own for heavier loads like rv's.

[David472]

Here's the follow-up with my plans here, which may be of interest to rog4kneer.
I went to see our Jayco dealer, asking if we could get the Reese Dual Cam for our 22FB trailer. The technician there was not sure there was enough room on the TT tongue for that system. The propane tanks may interfer. He suggested the Equal-i-zer brand. This is the other system which Crabman and Healthi mentioned. The Tech was certain this system would easily fit our trailer tongue. So, the Equal-i-zer WDH with integrated sway control is what I'm going with.

[mikefos]

Originally Posted by David472

Here's the follow-up with my plans here, which may be of interest to rog4kneer.
I went to see our Jayco dealer, asking if we could get the Reese Dual Cam for our 22FB trailer. The technician there was not sure there was enough room on the TT tongue for that system. The propane tanks may interfer. He suggested the Equal-i-zer brand. This is the other system which Crabman and Healthi mentioned. The Tech was certain this system would easily fit our trailer tongue. So, the Equal-i-zer WDH with integrated sway control is what I'm going with.

That is the hitch that we use for 22FB. Worked great on both the 4Runner and now the truck.

[Crabman]

Here`s a quick link to the Equal-I-zer hitch with its 4 point sway control.

http://www.equalizerhitch.com/