Truck Sway

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ogstoner1

Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2015
Posts
19
Location
Central Calif
Hi all,
While towing my 11,000 new 5er, I occasionally get a medium
sway on the truck.If I let off the accelerator it stops immediately.
What options are available to stop the sway.

Cheers,
Greg   
 
Ogstoner1: Please tell us more.  Is "sway" a side-to-side motion? Extremely unusual with a 5W and suggests to me that something is set up wrong. But if it's an up and down motion, you may be experiencing a harmonic motion caused by the spacing of the gaps on a concrete highway.

 
What tires are on the truck?  Please give complete size and load rating.

What is your tow vehicle?

A ? ton truck with softer, better ride "P" tires will certainly cause this!
 
The specs I'm seeing for the 309 RLS show a GVWR of 14,105 lbs.  So that's a hitch weight of around 2,800 lbs.  Plus the weight of the hitch itself.  Plus your cargo and passengers.  As a guess, your 3/4 ton truck may simply be overloaded.
 
2500 RAM is not enough for the FW.  Unfortunately, most 2500 RAM do not have enough payload for that FW.
 
Two reasonable possibilities above, tires and inadequate payload, but I'm not sure either would explain this specific symptom, i.e. a side-to-side sway that goes away when he backs off the go-peddle. If it were a travel trailer, I would suspect insufficient tongue weight. That's unusual in a 5W, but it could be excessive weight behind the trailer axle, such that the balance is off and the trailer begins to sway. That sort of trailer sway goes away as the truck slows because trailer weight/balance transfers forward when decelerating.

ogstoner1: Is this an all the time thing or just once in awhile?  What speed? Is the trailer obviously oscillating, pushing the truck around?

My first action would be a trip to the  scale with the truck & trailer loaded as usual for travel. Get truck & trailer weights, hitched and unhitched, with separate weights for both truck axles and the trailer axle weight as a pair. That will let you the trailer derive pin weight too.
 
Have you checked your payload on the sticker located on the drivers side door jam? I would do this so you know what weight you can place in the bed of your truck.
My guess is that you don't have 14,000 pounds in the trailer. I looked at the unloaded weight which, by the way, will be incorrect. Look at the shipping weight and you will see the correct unloaded weight.
You are more than likely exceeding your trucks payload, but I see that every time I get on the road with my trailer. Diesel 3/4 ton trucks pulling trailers similar to yours with zero sway. Not saying it's right, but it happens all the time.
I think once you find your trucks payload rating and weigh your trailer, you will find that you need a 1 ton.

Good luck, Stan
 
Maybe not the full 14,000 lbs, but well north of 11,000. That puts the pin weight in the vicinity of 2800 lbs, so potentially really stretching that Ram 2500's payload rating. Pointless to conjecture, though, so let's wait till he gives the truck specs from the weight placard on the door post.
 

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