Towing a 224BH without WD or Sway control

[Psucivil13]

So hear me out before you jump all over me lol. I recently upgraded my tow vehicle from a 2016 F-150 5.0 to a 2019 F-350 SRW CCLB PSD. Last year when towing with my F-150 I utilized an equalizer WD hitch and this combination proved more than adequate. My new truck is going to allow us to upgrade to a fifth wheel next year but in the meantime for this camping season it is going to be overkill for my current TT.

When setting up the equalizer for my new truck there is tons of slop due to the 2 reducers in the receiver to go from 3” down to 2”. I haven’t had much luck finding a 3” drop shank that is compatible with the equalizer and ended up purchasing an 8” drop weigh safe hitch for my 3” receiver to use with my other trailers. I was wondering with this set up if I would run into any sway issues towing my relatively small travel trailer with the weigh safe.

[Rustic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Psucivil13

snip.....I was wondering with this set up if I would run into any sway issues towing my relatively small travel trailer with the weigh safe.......snip

IMO a Weigh Safe style hitch isn't ideal for towing a TT, even with your particular TV/TT combination. Under ideal towing conditions your particular TV/TT combo may not incur any handling issues, but unfortunately less than ideal towing conditions to often surface unannounced (sudden TV maneuver, poor weather, cross winds, etc.).

Should a sway event take place even a 26ft long TT could easily compromise a 1-ton TV's ability to control and/or recover from a sway event.

I don't recall if any 'add-on' sway control product is compatible with the Weigh Safe hitch.

Bob

[twoballscrewball]

I've towed my X23F without the bars hooked up with my 1/2 ton Silverado. It tows fine. Just a little more bounce. I've only done this for short trips and other than the additional weight you can feel on the hitch, there were no other issues.

My friend recently purchased a ~7500lb dry 36' travel trailer. The dealer we picked it up at would NOT let us install the L brackets on the trailer in their lot, it was either "pay us to do it or good luck".

He drove it about 4 miles at no more than 40mph to the nearest place we could park and set up the hitch, and it was a nightmare. Sway like crazy. I was riding passenger and I was sure we were going to die. Well, not really, but it was not fun.

He has a 2018 F150 Crew Cab Short Bed. I was showing him how to feather the trailer brakes to help control sway. At one point she really got rocking, and there was an alarm bell from the dash and the truck automatically applied the trailer brakes. Hard. Something to the effect of "Trailer Sway Control" popped up on the dash. It was pretty cool.

We parked it about a minute later and got the L brackets installed and it towed great the rest of the way home.

Moral of the story:

#1, apparently Fords have this anti-sway stabilization in their trailer package, which I thought was very cool.

#2 - best way to find out how it's going to behave is take it for a few short drives and see.

[hboy]

Originally Posted by Psucivil13

I was wondering with this set up if I would run into any sway issues towing my relatively small travel trailer with the weigh safe.

Could you, yes. I would have no problem towing without the weight distribution set up on that trailer. As you can tell the towing is night and day between the half ton and 1 ton. If the trailer is loaded right I would not expect to have any sway problems.

I have a 1 ton srw and towned a 28bhbe with and without the distribution/sway hitch. I could not tell any significant difference between the two in the one ton.

[CampNow]

Originally Posted by hboy

. . . towing is night and day between the half ton and 1 ton. If the trailer is loaded right I would not expect to have any sway problems.

I have a 1 ton srw and towned a 28bhbe with and without the distribution/sway hitch. I could not tell any significant difference between the two in the one ton.

Agree.

We towed a 306RKDS (9,900 lbs. loaded; 1,400 lbs. tongue weight) with a 2016 Ram 3500 SRW diesel with no WDH or sway control for thousands of miles with zero sway, handling, or sag issues. We did try towing with a WDH. There was a slight (1/2") reduction in rear-end sag, but it certainly wasn't worth installing, adjusting, removing, and storing a 100 lb. WDH just to get that slight reduction in sag.

A WDH is just about mandatory on a 1/2-ton truck when towing larger TT's. Primarily because most OEM CAT IV 2" receivers found on 1/2-ton trucks are only rated for 500-600 lbs. of tongue weight when a WDH is not used. Not to mention, most 1/2-ton trucks are near their maximum RAWR when towing larger TT's. On a 1/2-truck it's necessary to get that excess weight off the rear axle and transfer it to the front axle (by using a WDH).

If you're towing a larger TT with a HD (especially a 1-ton) truck and encounter a significant improvement in handling and sway when using a WDH and sway control, odds are you're simply compensating for too little or too much tongue weight. Get the tongue weight within safe tolerances (close as possible to 14-15%), chances are you won't need a WDH or sway control (especially with a 1-ton HD truck).

FWIW, we briefly towed our 9,900 lb. 306RKDS with a 2.5" Weigh-Safe ball-mount (with tongue weight scale, 8" drop/rise adjustment, and 14,500 lb. rating). Worked great. We returned the Weigh-Safe simply because we decided we didn't need the adjust-ability. We replaced it with a forged 2.5" Curt ball-mount with a 20,000 lb. rating for $60.