How big have you towed? w/Pics no tricks!

[Truck1]

Already have the WDH With a sway bar on the truck/trailer. I wouldn’t tow without it.

 

[My1stHemi]

I don't own my own TT but rent them from rvshare.com. So far they have all come with WDH's but I never knew that you could tune them for a specific setup. Are they helpful even when not dialed-in? I felt pretty comfortable last time I towed, not too much sway, no sag with the air suspension.

 

[jdefoe0424]

I don't own my own TT but rent them from rvshare.com. So far they have all come with WDH's but I never knew that you could tune them for a specific setup. Are they helpful even when not dialed-in? I felt pretty comfortable last time I towed, not too much sway, no sag with the air suspension.

That's the point of the air suspension, to remove sag. And yes, having the air suspension active while setting a WDH will cause the settings to be incorrect. I'm sure they are still helpful even when not completely dialed in, but I couldn't speak to if they could make anything worse.

 

[VernDiesel]

My1stHemi, Sure just from measurements you can normally get it in the zone so to speak where it will help a lot. Assuming you are starting with appropriate size spring bars for your trailer/ tongue weight. Lol. That said some consumers never research instructions etc and have no concept of the weight distribution part of WDH.

 

[Trooper4]

Own an RV park, and see some right and some wrong. See a lot of SUV's on the road with the headlights spotting airplanes.

 

[VernDiesel]

The air plane spotters think the only thing wrong is “sag”.

When the reality is with no weight on the steer tires they have squirrelly handling with a raised center of gravity. If they have to swerve around someone or they get trailer sway they are likely to end up backward upside down in the ditch with their trailer debris scattered all over the highway.

And with little weight on the steer tires minimum stopping distance goes up so they are likely to slide into whatever they needed to stop for. All auto Mfgrs recommend a WDH for TTs over 5k. Can you somewhat safely pull more without a WDH? Sure but who knows when you are going to wish you hadn’t and what that is going to cost who’s family.

 

[JF19Longhorn]

Around 8k lbs. (Pic just prior to setting up the WDH)

 

[Ram92131]

The Andersen is doing its job if it has replaced your unloaded steer weight. Unloaded steer weight Ideally being taken from a truck only scale slip. But 3,500 should be about right for a limited with Hemi & Etorque. You also need the unloaded truck only weight slip to use with the slip you posted to calculate your actual scaled or seen with WDH (dynamic) tongue weight.

Assuming tongue weight is in the 10 to 15 percent of gross trailer weight you should have a very safe stable setup. IE it looks to have replaced unloaded steer weight and is below steer axle rating. Drive axle is also below max axle rating. 13,720 is also below CVWR combined vehicle weight rating. All which suggests a safe stable tow setup. It also shows the truck axles shouldering more weight than the trailer axles. This is not necessary but is ideal as the tail is less likely to try and walk the dog as the saying goes.

With both slips you can calculate actual seen tongue weight, gross trailer weight, the effectiveness of your WDH setting and therefore can adjust your WDH and bed and trailer loading to get or work toward the most stable setup. From experience with many box campers I work toward 12.0 tongue weight. It’s enough for sway & wind stability for towing 65 mph with a half ton truck but doesn’t put more weight & strain on your truck than necessary. With a flat bed 10 percent is enough.

This and Turin's post are both great feedback. Yes, taking additional passes without trailer and without the WDH engaged would reveal more info and the tongue weight. Will try that soon. In the meantime the published specs, while not 100% accurate, nevertheless would provide some rough insight. In my case, it looks like the steer axle is normally around 3200# and the drive axle around 2200# (unladen), and that must be without fuel if the drive axle is so low. As you say, at 3500#/3900# I'm below both axle ratings, and I have largely replaced the steer axle weight, if not exceeded it a little. Seat of the pants analysis is that the setup feels much more relaxed and stable than it did before.

 

[NYNJ8]

29 Foot super slide 33’ tip to tail. 6000# dry loaded to close to 7500# in these photos. Maxed on cargo I both photos. Equalizer 4 point hitch made a towing very comfortable but it wasn’t set properly and I didn’t bring tools to adjust it. In the second pic I was able to reposition weight to take away some hitch weight but still plenty of sag.

Short 40 min interstate tow but the ride was solid and smooth. Some porpoising on uneven country roads with all that weight on the rear axle.

Next time I’ll dial in the hitch and may add helper bags thereafter. I’ll always be at max cargo when I go camping. Might consider moving the yaks over the cab and the bikes further forward if needed.

 

[19RebelZ]

I’m glad to see other rocking the Anderson. My trailer is 34’ 6900 dry, I’d estimate around 8k loaded out haven’t made a trip to the scales. After 4 or 5 tweaks I believe I’ve got it setup pretty much as good as it’s gonna get (eyeball test). Running 2” level, airlift 1000hd bags (40 psi) and hellwig sway bar. The photo with the two views is what it looks like now (top) what it was before my tweaking. Had a short 30 min drive this past weekend and it felt great, had to remind myself it was back there several times. She screams when getting up to speed with borla atak, but once cruising speed she’ll actually go into eco mode .

 

[Trimanjoe]

2019 Lone Star 4 x 4. 3.21 rear end, Hellwig Sway Bar, EAZ-lift WDH with sway control towing an Airstream International 23FB @ 6,000 GVWR and fully loaded hitch weight of 630 lbs.

Took a trip from Central Texas to Southern California last month (early July 2020).

I’‘ll say with certainty that after having owned Class C and Class A motorhomes in the past, this was the most comfortable trip on the road we’ve ever taken. I NEVER and I mean NEVER felt the trailer sway from any external source - including tractor trailers passing and wind gusts.

BTW, I had Pedal Commander set at Sport and averaged 12.1 mpg. In fact, at one point in the trip the cumulative average mpg hit 15 for a brief time; however, the headwinds eventually resulted in the 12.1 for the entire trip.

Before the trip, I was prepared to stop every 200 miles as I have the 22 gallon tank, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the smaller tank was not an issue at all as the fuel economy was much better than expected. I did find that the sweet spot for mpg was 62-64 mph, so I set the cruise control and let the Ram do the rest.

I appreciate all of the wisdom that folks are willing to share on this site. It sure helped me!!

 

[VernDiesel]

If you pulled off 12.1 with the Hemi that’s real good. You would likely have gotten the same fuel economy towing with the 3.92 it just would have accelerated it more quickly & easily. The aero Airstream helps it generally seems to be a solid 1 mpg better than an aero box TT & 1.5 mpg better than a flat box front TT of the same ish size & weight. I say this because I have 700k transporting TTs commercially. With my Eco I would have gotten 15.5 running 65 with that TT but diesel is a different animal.

 

[txramguy910]

I’m pulling a new Transcend Xplor 265BH with a 2019 Limited. 33ft long, 6734 dry with 654 tongue weight (as built per VIN sheet from factory). It’s probably around 8k loaded. Started with an Andersen and hated it, so swapped it out for a 10k Equal-i-zer hitch. RV dealer setup the hitch with trailer relatively loaded but no water, and truck empty. Driving it that way with only me in the truck, it pulls like a dream.

Took it about 45-60 miles this weekend fully loaded, and it was a completely different story. Outbound I had a full water tank (62 gal/516lb) and a loaded truck with me, wife, son, 2 dogs, and 65 quart RTIC with drinks and ice. I was getting pushed around like crazy, white knuckling it at 55 mph, & probably had a good 20 mph cross wind. I saw a CAT scale, so I did a single weigh just for reference, as I couldn’t really change anything at that point and only had another 10 mins to go. I was overweight on the truck, but I don’t have any unhooked weights to compare to.

Coming home, I had dumped all the tanks. Interesting thing about this trailer, the fresh water tank is at the very back, so that’s 516lbs of back end weight gone. I stopped at the same scale and weighed again. The return trip home felt completely solid and comfortable, and if it weren’t for the scale showing me being overweight, I never would have known and wouldn't be looking to change anything.

I'm thinking the water in the trailer made me tail heavy and the load was therefore unbalanced. I’m going to do another round of scale weighing before the next trip. Hopefully I can move some weight (the cooler) from the truck bed to the trailer over the axles, and also adjust the WDH to get the measurements closer to the GVWR, and shift more from the drive axle to the steer axle. Max load capacity is 1154lbs, GVWR is 7100, but GAWR is 3900 front and 4100 rear for a total of 8000 GAWR. It does strike me as a little odd that there is a 900 lb difference there. If it drives comfortably and solid, do I really need to be all that concerned about being 260 over the GVWR even though it’s under the axle limits? Any advice?

 

[Trooper4]

If you have too much weight on the tail, you are loosing weight on the drivers, hence a loose /underweight pickup rear axle. That might let the centerpoint of the tow move around. When loaded try to have the weight of the truck close to the unloaded front/rear ratio. Might help with handling.

 

[devildodge]

Your weigh slip looks good. I would say the water tank is the reason.

You are over GVWR...but under on all Axle ratings and under on combined. That is important...and you did good.

The length of the trailer probably made that extra weight in the tank act like a pendulum.

Thanks for sharing

 

[jdefoe0424]

I’m pulling a new Transcend Xplor 265BH with a 2019 Limited. 33ft long, 6734 dry with 654 tongue weight (as built per VIN sheet from factory). It’s probably around 8k loaded. Started with an Andersen and hated it, so swapped it out for a 10k Equal-i-zer hitch. RV dealer setup the hitch with trailer relatively loaded but no water, and truck empty. Driving it that way with only me in the truck, it pulls like a dream.

Took it about 45-60 miles this weekend fully loaded, and it was a completely different story. Outbound I had a full water tank (62 gal/516lb) and a loaded truck with me, wife, son, 2 dogs, and 65 quart RTIC with drinks and ice. I was getting pushed around like crazy, white knuckling it at 55 mph, & probably had a good 20 mph cross wind. I saw a CAT scale, so I did a single weigh just for reference, as I couldn’t really change anything at that point and only had another 10 mins to go. I was overweight on the truck, but I don’t have any unhooked weights to compare to.

Coming home, I had dumped all the tanks. Interesting thing about this trailer, the fresh water tank is at the very back, so that’s 516lbs of back end weight gone. I stopped at the same scale and weighed again. The return trip home felt completely solid and comfortable, and if it weren’t for the scale showing me being overweight, I never would have known and wouldn't be looking to change anything.

I'm thinking the water in the trailer made me tail heavy and the load was therefore unbalanced. I’m going to do another round of scale weighing before the next trip. Hopefully I can move some weight (the cooler) from the truck bed to the trailer over the axles, and also adjust the WDH to get the measurements closer to the GVWR, and shift more from the drive axle to the steer axle. Max load capacity is 1154lbs, GVWR is 7100, but GAWR is 3900 front and 4100 rear for a total of 8000 GAWR. It does strike me as a little odd that there is a 900 lb difference there. If it drives comfortably and solid, do I really need to be all that concerned about being 260 over the GVWR even though it’s under the axle limits? Any advice?

View attachment 64215View attachment 64217
View attachment 64216

I had the same issue(my tank is at the back of the trailer too), filled up some water to be able to use the bathroom on the road...wound up putting too much water in and had the exact same feeling you explained. Used some water at the campsite and the last leg of the trip was much better.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

[txramguy910]

Thanks for the responses. Definitely makes me feel better getting some extra opinions. I’m still going to take it and have the dealer readjust the WDH with the setup as close to loaded as I can (less the water tank, that’s staying empty). I’ll probably run it over a scale again just to get truck alone, whole rig without WDH engaged, and whole rig with WDH engaged. Next trip isn’t until Labor Day, but I’ll repost afterwards with any changes and how it went.

 

[VernDiesel]

Understanding and using the CAT scale properly is far better than any guesstimate the best guestimator at a dealership can do. You are already on the right track.

You need the slip of just your truck. Unloaded steer & drive axle weights.

Then we can tell you your actual TW (tongue weight) and TW percentage. (When using a WDH TW is no longer a static number but becomes dynamic) IE it changes with WDH adjustments, truck bed, & TT loading.

As you & others have said I would bet your first tow was "unbalanced" more specifically your TW percentage was too low for proper sway stability. Hence the unstable unsafe tow experience. But without your truck only slip its only speculation because you don't have all the numbers to do the math.

"Move weight from bed to over the TT axles." (great move) Don't adjust WDH to measurements when you have CAT or truck stop triple scale slips. CAT scale slips weigh steer, drive, & TT axle weights separately at the same time to accurately see what eyeballs & measurements cannot. WDH companies instruct to measurements because not everyone has access to scales and at minimum you use measurements to get you in the ball park or to the scales. ("in the ballpark" is generally good enough for the WDH to do its job anyway) But when you are pushing the Mfgr stated limits of your tow vehicle adjusting by weight slips is far more accurate and better. Just by adjustments per scale results you could have made that first tow weight set up just as stable as your last setup without losing any weight but through proper weight distribution including TW percentage. (I have done this for people)

In short for safety & stability getting steer weight & drive axle weight distribution good and TW percentage in range is more important than being under GVWR.

 

[TR5th GenRam1500]

I'm pulling a 36" Sandpiper fifth wheel at 9000# approx. with 1000# tongue. Towed from Tucson to central Washington with no problems.

What size is your truck? 1500 and what trim? Didn’t think the 1500 could handle a fifth wheel? I currently have a 1500 bighorn with the 5.7 Hemi and 3.92 rear. Pulling a 35 foot travel trailer and overall happy but had to add airbags for the tongue weight (800lbs).

 

[TR5th GenRam1500]

here is my biggest tow. 8429lbs in this pic scaled ready to camp.View attachment 43383