Travel Trailer Recommendations / Feedback

[soutthpaw]

The towing discussion comes up a lot on the FTE Excursion forum I frequent on a regular basis.. Yes you need a load equalizer hitch if you look at the data plate on the hitch its usually any trailer over 5000lb requires the LE hitch.. The air ride option is great because it allows you to level the truck to proper ride height which makes the geometry of the suspension and steering work at its optimum level. I installed air rides on my mom's Excursion for pulling her horse trailer and she loves them... much better ride and better trailering.
If you load the trailer properly you should not have a sway issue to start with. sway is caused by poor weight distribution in the trailer...

[88Racing]

Originally Posted by soutthpaw

The towing discussion comes up a lot on the FTE Excursion forum I frequent on a regular basis.. Yes you need a load equalizer hitch if you look at the data plate on the hitch its usually any trailer over 5000lb requires the LE hitch.. The air ride option is great because it allows you to level the truck to proper ride height which makes the geometry of the suspension and steering work at its optimum level. I installed air rides on my mom's Excursion for pulling her horse trailer and she loves them... much better ride and better trailering.
If you load the trailer properly you should not have a sway issue to start with. sway is caused by poor weight distribution in the trailer...

Yes souttpaw I agree with you on the LE hitch.

But on the suspension upgrade I only listed it due to my personal experiance.

Just remember on the bags I said "if they were plumbed right". But if the LE hitch is used the suspension should not need to be upgraded any ways. That would be more for 5th wheels.

Lars

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by soutthpaw

The towing discussion comes up a lot on the FTE Excursion forum I frequent on a regular basis.. Yes you need a load equalizer hitch if you look at the data plate on the hitch its usually any trailer over 5000lb requires the LE hitch.. The air ride option is great because it allows you to level the truck to proper ride height which makes the geometry of the suspension and steering work at its optimum level. I installed air rides on my mom's Excursion for pulling her horse trailer and she loves them... much better ride and better trailering.
If you load the trailer properly you should not have a sway issue to start with. sway is caused by poor weight distribution in the trailer...

I'm not convinced this is the ONLY cause of sway. That trailer is a pretty big wind sail and it can react strongly to the bow wave of semi's and crosswinds through canyons like we have out here in the wild-wild west.

The reason I've got an anti-sway hitch is because when we first bought our trailer, I had a much lighter, smaller truck - a Nissan Frontier. I simply transferred it to the Ford when I got the more powerful vehicle. All I can say is with the hitch, I've never felt any "tail wagging" in either vehicle, but then, I DO make sure there is proper tongue weight on the hitch too.

The way the Equal-i-zer works is you get anti-sway "for free" through simple friction on the load transferring bars. Seems a pretty straightforward design to me.

And, southpaw, you're right about the need for an LE hitch. In addition to the 5000# trailer limit on a load carrying hitch, there's a 500# tongue weight limit if the hitch is load carrying. My suspension drops 1/2" all around when I hook up our trailer.

- Jack

[soutthpaw]

Yeah cross wind will cause sway too.. I was just pointing out the main cause of the problem that we can control...if you get sway just manually activate the trailer brakes with the controller it will straighten everything back out...
A lot of the Excursion folks seem to really praise the Roadmaster Active Suspensions setup for improved towing http://www.activesuspension.com/