Sway when towing an RV? Watch this!

Good stuff

Our little camper is only 14’ and we pull with our Pacifica mini van. We were told by the dealership as well as the company (Travel Lite), NO sway hitch can or should be used when pulling this little camper with a vehicle that is double the weight of the camper.

What happens to tongue weight when you do this

Amazing and informative video. I love it.

Toy haulers are great, but when you strap down 2 heavy bikes in the back "garage" area of a travel trailer, counterbalancing for proper tongue weight is critical. Rear loaded trailers are the most dangerous thing on the road. They sway and wander with the slightest provocation. Losing your trailer, bikes, truck, and maybe even your life all in one fleeting moment of terror ain't why we RV.
There are hitches that measure the tongue weight, as well as control sway. Spend the money, spend the time and do it right. This is supposed to be fun.

What about fifth wheels on a non-dually truck?

my truck tundra crew max only has a 5.5ft bed. the weight distribution system i was going to buy uses chains to lift the bars. will this work the same way.?

Found background music extremely distracting for your excellent instructional/technical video. Otherwise, we’ll done. Thanks.

Plus, don't Pull your Travel Trailer or 5th Wheel 75 MPH.... Slow the hell down and stay alive!

I am surprized that no one knows what to do if a caravan or large trailer starts to sway, A swaying caravan or trailer will start steering the car in either direction, Do not try to fight this as you will only make things worse, Lock your arms and steer straight ahead take your foot of the accelerator, do not apply the brakes or accelerate the vehicle, You can apply the trailer brakes if you are able. I have used this method and it does work.

Message received and understood.Thanks heaps

Great video I learned a lot.

I think there is one other factor in towing trailers that use a bumper trailer. Too much weight at the rear of the trailer means when the trailer/truck combo does move a bit, that excess rear weight on the trailer exerts a more powerful side to side leverage onto the trailer hitch. And there is less weight and traction on the tow vehicle rear tires

JD, I have a 2018 f450 and I still encounter sway pulling out Rockwood Ultra-lite. What do you think could be causing my issue? I am currently using a Reese dual cam wdh. Thanks

Great explanation!

Do you take the sway bars off when you are trying to back the RV into your RV spot

If there are people who tow long trailers and need to watch this video - Im scared!

Amazing explanation. You did great

Awesome explanation!

Slow the trailer, eliminate the sway. Use the brake override and feather it with experience. Do not fight physics.

If the axles or wheels are not aligned properly you will notice unusual wear on your tires! If you ow n and haul an RV, please read and follow your owners manual. Weights are hard for most of us to understand, but worth studying and following! A lot better than jack knifing your rig or seriously injuring yourself or family.

Thank you that was very helpful.

I think a lot of it has to do with the trailer that you are pulling because I have pulled other travel trailers that don't sway as bad as my current travel trailer and I'm not sure what the difference is

I find it unique the way it does it it almost reminds me of my bass boat when it starts trying to walk but in the bass boat you can go from 12 and 4 and jerked that thing about an inch to the left a couple of times and it will line out if it ever starts doing that but you can't do that with a pick up so the rules of the road versus the water seemed to be a little bit different I know it's a pain in the butt and this current camper reminds seems to be worse than the other one thought I would get on here and find a decent fix. This is an older camper a little bit older a little bit older that I chose to go with to drag back-and-forth to jobs on the road I'm sure the newer ones have fixed this problem a little bit.

Excellent explanation and demo….it was easy to understand! As a newbie looking to possibly tow an RV in a couple of years this was extremely educational!

How about propride 3p wdh system which claims the setup as same as fifth wheel on travel trailers.

So I’m screwed trying to pull a 8.5x28 enclosed with a F150 with a 5.5 ft bed.

mmmmmm Noice!! great explanations! Hell yea !! 🥲

With a 5th wheel trailer placement of the 5th wheel back and forward will control front to rear weight distribution on the truck.. Experience from 45 years of driving semi trucks..

Absolutely OUTSTANDING information, especially for us getting our feet wet in towing a trailer!

Thank you so, so much! This explains a lot, and I’ll be pulling with a weight distribution hitch from now on! 🤗

You do such a great job explaining! Thanks

This is the most useless video ever. The biggest cause of sway is to low of tongue weight. A weight distribution hitch does not get rid of sway.

Amazing video so down to earth thank you sir❤️👍🏼👍🏼

Awesome video….thanx

So thank you for explaining that so I can understand it. But how does a wdh not fuck up the trailer A frame?

I can't understand why it is never explained on what the trailer brake is used for. I agree with everything your saying, but as a truck driver for 37 years, it was always taught that whenever your trailer starts to sway or slide on ice to slightly put pressure on only the trailer brakes by moving the brake lever. This creates a tug of war effect on the hitch where the truck wants to pull forward and the trailer wants to pull backwards which eliminates the slack at the hitch for the sway not to happen. This method has saved me dozens of time. You will notice by doing this it straightens the trailer immediately. NEVER apply the truck brakes during this procedure! Just my 2 cents.

right

Having the right tires is a big start to not swaying

Been there done that. Always not fun watching an inexperienced driver overtaxing their vehicle trying to maintain a towed item that is swaying side to side. I’ll give them all the space I can.

Employing a 5th wheel system is ideal, if that is not possible, we should aim to reduce the horizontal distance from the tow vehicles rear axle to the tow-ball. This reduces the side levering force of the tow vehicle if the trailer has even minor sway movement. As far as the anti-sway mechanism, I would prefer to invest in a trailer with an independent braking system or even better an independent automatic trailer stability control system.

Excellent video sir. I’m new to towing a toy hauler. I’ve towed a 17 foot boat but never anything heavier.

I purchased a Ram Dually and a toy hauler and was curious what your thoughts were on using an anti-sway system for this setup. I believe my travel trailer toy hauler will weigh appropriately approximately 9,000 lbs fully loaded and is 26 ft long. The Ram Laramie 3500 Dually is the 6.7 Turbo Diesel. Also I do have a Curt MV Weight Distribution System with no sway control on it.

What are your thoughts on adding sway control to my Curt weight distribution system?

Thanks.

This makes me want to get a 5th wheel.

Thank you! Always learning.

We were on the nys thruway today I was towing our grand design travel trailer that is 27 feet long and I am towing with a 2022 ford f150. All my numbers, tow rating, payload and gvwr are within the limits. There was alot of wind and even semis were swaying, a dually passed me with a 36 foot fifth wheel so I kept up with him because I wanted to see if he was swaying we were going between 65 and 70 and guess what, he was swaying just as much as I was. So stop upsetting people about towing a bumper pull with a half ton. According to you that dually fifth wheel should not have been swaying at all. You talk alot of, well you know.

Your explanations address some points that deal with symptoms. It's a video for persons that want to counter sway control with a secondary device, but the video does not address the causes of sway control and how sway works. Wind could be a factor in setting sway off, but sway will happen even in a no wind situation, like if you have a strong wind from the rear - in fact this no wind scenario is akin to going downhill, which we all know exacerbates sway. The answer lies in understanding trailer and towing dynamics - weight, weight distribution, higher COG's and softer suspensions are the major contributing factors. The new style independent trailing arms must be the single biggest contributor to sway prone rigs. Lifted two vehicles with upgraded shocks adds to your misery.

Whoever narrated this is missing a lot primarily focusing on hinge point of truck n trailer connection. Need to redo this video leaving a lot of info out

If a bad sway occurs use the electric trailer break controller to slow the trailer and the tow vehicle

Yeah but all rv trailers are a dangerous designe ,the axils need to be moved back to the rear of the trailers with about 4 foot of rear overhang ,

great explanation