Adding weight when towing?

Occasionally when towing a TT I would sense some slight sideways movement at the rear of the truck. After growing weary of digging stuff out of the trailer storage, I got one of these plastic “sportsman” trunks and moved some things to the truck bed. I have not experienced the sideways movement since. Has anyone else experienced this? Total weight moved to the truck is 100 lbs at most.

 

I don’t think 100lbs would make much difference, but you never know. What’s your combined gross vehicle weight? Do you use a weight distribution hitch with a sway control? It really helps reduce the effect of the “tail wagging the dog”.

 

^^agree with this. 100# will not make a difference. Heavy trailers with a lot of tongue weight can push the tow vehicle around a bit. If that is the issue, a WD hitch would help. Also look at the weight balance with the trailer itself so that you have the right tongue weight (not too much and not too little). This can be hard if not impossible to balance with a travel trailer. Towing a vehicle on a flat bed is super easy by just moving the towed vehicle forward or back to get the right weight on the truck. Good luck.

 

Agree with all of the above. You really, really need a WDH.

 

Too little trailer tong weight can cause a sway if most of your stuff was behind the axle of the TT I can see why that had an effect.

 

Your trailer is loaded with too little tongue weight, hence the sway...

 

I have had a Equalizer WDH since I got the trailer.

 

We

The weight of my truck and trailer was 9620 lbs on a truck stop Cat scale. The truck by itself was 4800.
Also from the scale, trailer axle was 4240, drive axle was 5380.

 

The only thing I can add is to make sure the weight is properly distributed in the trailer with 60% of the weight forward. Can you add more tension to the sway bar?

 

It is how the weight is distributed inside the trailer. You need more weight up front in the camper if you have swaying. I pull a 17' no WD hitch no sway.

 

There is really not much I can move. The back of the TT is the dinette and love seat. Water heater, furnace under love seat. Don’t store much under dinette seats, I’d be surprised if the stuff weighs 25 lbs. I even hestitate to call it sway. It’s just a sometimes, barely perceptible feeling of movement. I know pickups are light in the rear. The truck has some type of sway control and I wonder if that is kicking on, no lights on the dash though.

 

From your description it maybe normal movement have you had the camper very long? When a camper is way out of balance the sway maybe pretty severe kind of like the tail wagging the dog. My current camper is dual axle and is dead nuts stable no sway but I can feel it on dips in the road.

 

I’ve had the TV and TT almost 2 years. Went from Wisconsin to Arizona to Florida and back to Wisconsin. If it was happening all the time I would do something about it. It has never felt like I was going to lose control or anything. I was just curious what others experience was.