We bought a new Jayco 224BH today, it came with a recurve R3 weight distribution hitch with built in sway control. I’m pulling it with a 2021 f150 crew cab 4x4. The dealer set up the hitch and adjusted the sway control. On the way home it was still swaying pretty bad at 60-65mph. The camper was completely empty. Do I need to adjust the sway control? Or will it get better once we load it and add extra weight to it?
Unfortunately, your experience is one that we have heard many times before. Most dealers have little success adjusting a hitch correctly off of the lot.
The best way to properly set up your combination is to load it as you would for travel and then take it to your local certified or CAT scale. Here, you can determine your actual tongue weight, axle weights, and properly adjust your hitch accordingly.
There are a couple of "Sticky" posts at the top of the "Towing, Hitching and Tow Vehicles" section of our forum that may be helpful to you. They can be found at the following link.
I have a Fastway e2 WDH. The dealer set it with the trailer at least 5° nose up I've readjusted it, and I'm still tweaking it.
Get the installation manual for your hitch and start at the top. Once you're done you may still need to tweak after each trip until you get it dialed in. I'm still dialing mine in.
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2022 Highland Ridge Range Lite Air 16FBS
2021 Ford Ranger
snip....... The best way to properly set up your combination is to load it as you would for travel and then take it to your local certified or CAT scale. Here, you can determine your actual tongue weight, axle weights, and properly adjust your hitch accordingly.......snip
One additional thing to look at is tire pressure. Only time i have had sway issues, my tire pressure was about 10 psi low. Happened to be the first trip of the season, and I had not checked the tire pressures.
My method is probably not as scientific as some but it worked for me with my Husky Centerline Hitch. My trailer was a bit larger than yours but the hitch set up would be about the same.
The first thing I did was find a good level spot and make sure the travel trailer was sitting level. I backed my tow vehicle close to the hitch and made sure the hitch ball height was pretty close to the hitch on the trailer. Once this was set I hooked up to the trailer and installed the torsion bars. I then measured from the ground to the trailer frame on the front and on the back. The measurements should be very close indicating your trailer is level. I then measured the distance from the top of the tire to the rim of the fender well on both the front and back tire of my tow vehicle.
I ended up having to move the ball on the hitch up another hole but ended up with a level trailer and only 1/2” difference between my front an rear tire measurements.
I’m certainly no professional and would not guarantee this to be the best way or if it would solve your problem, it just worked well for me. Towed for three years with no problems.
Lots of good advice is given on this forum for sure. It is also always a good idea to seek advice from a good professional if one can be found.
One, if not the, most important thing in towing a travel trailer of any size is to make sure you have the proper hitch set up.
There’s a post here somewhere about the proper way to set up the hitch. Mine tows good but I ma going to verify my set up against what is in the post. I set mine up per the OEM instructions but with a different trailer now I just want to see how close the set up is.
As for the dealer setting it up, our old trailer had the coupler on top. The new trailer is on the bottom. I go to hitch the new trailer up when we purchased it and instantly notice something is wrong. The “installer” measured the old trailer and drilled the holes in the new trailer the same distance as the old because he didn’t have instructions for my brand hitch. I downloaded them in about 10 seconds.Luckily they were able to flip the sway bar holders 180 degrees and adjust the length so they are very close to the proper location. I’m still p’d about that. Brand new trailer and not even off the lot and have holes drilled in the frame in the wrong spot. If they would have to drill a second set of holes, I would have canceled the deal.
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2023 F350 Lariat CCLB, 7.3, 4.3
2021 Jayco 33 RBTS
2019 Forest River Wildwood 26 DBUD: Gone
2012 Jayco 32 BHDS: Long Gone
2007 R-Vision 25: Long Long Gone
1965 Frolic Cabover: My First RV
Check your trailer settings. I found my 2018 f150 repeatedly would restore the trucks sway control upon ignition which needs to disabled for the weight distribution hitch and hitch sway control to work. Fords software will try to override the mechanical sway control if left active causing an awful experience
I agree 100% with Midnightmoon - Dealers rarely do and actually CAN'T set up your hitch properly as they have no idea how / what you are going to load. I left the dealers lot with the trailer we just traded for after they "setup" my Equalizer hitch that was transferred over from our trade. There was little to no weight on the spring bars. We drove home and after loading the trailer I did the readjustment myself. It was so far out that virtually no weight was being transferred.
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2022 33RBTS
Progressive Industries EMS - Hardwired
Equalizer 4 Point WDH
2021 Ford F350 7.3
Air Lift Rear Bags w/ On Board Compressor (Pending)
2016 28BHBE - (Traded and Missed already)
I've readjusted it, and I'm still tweaking it.
Linear Mode
