Trailer Sway

I have a 2013 Keystone Cougar 32 foot. I have weight distribution bars and a friction sway bar attached. It SWAYS! Do I need to add a second sway bar or go up a chain link on the weight distribution bars? Its towed with a 07 Expedition EL. I have only towed this twice and it is still using the same setup from the RV dealer.

I have a similar setup, 30' towing with a Suburban, weight distribution & friction sway bar.

I tightened my sway bar up from what the dealer had it at. When a tractor trailer passes me like I am standing still, I notice some sway, but not a lot. Original tightness from dealer I had much more sway.

I've got the same hitch set up but I don't have any sway issues.

I'm betting yours is no more than an adjustment issue.

Rick

I bet you have a weight distribution issue.  What is your tongue weight percentage?  You need to fix the sway issue before you start using sway bars.  A trailer under normal towing conditions should not sway even without any sway bars or such.  Sway bars should not be used to correct a sway issue under normal towing conditions.  The purpose of a sway bar is to handle the unusual such as trucks going by at 80 mph or emergency braking and rogue winds.

Sounds like you need more tongue weight.  Try shifting some of the load inside the trailer to the front of it to the extent possible.  If you have front fresh water tank(s), fill them too.  It also sounds like you have too many links on the WD bars.  Try loosening things up a bit to get the nose down a tad.  How heavy is that trailer, and what's the expedition rated at?

I tow a similar sized TT and have zero sway.  You shouldn't either. 

As lavarock says, you have a weight distribution issue, but not necessarily with the WD hitch.  Your trailer needs more weight on the tongue to reduce the tendency to sway. You can safely apply more tongue weight because the WD hitch can then be used to compensate for it.

The trailer weight problem is likely caused by loading, i.e. too much weight behind the axle - or not enough ahead of it (whichever way you want to look at it). The location of the water tanks are a big factor - if the fresh tank is behind the axle go light on the water, but if ahead of the axle then try carrying more water.  And move some of your gear around to get more weight up front. Sometimes people mistakenly try to make the tongue weight as light as possible, but that is a recipe for sway.

I currently am using the very first link on the WD. I have filled the water tank which is in the very front of the trailer. The grey and black tanks are empty which are located behind the trailer axels. There is gear stowed in the very front storage compartment. There is absolutly no gear in the rear of the trailer. Expedition is rated for 9000 lbs. 800 lbs tongue weight. Trailer is around 7200 lbs.

Try another link and pull the trailer and see what happens.  The rear of the expedition may be squatting a bit, which will raise the front wheels and aggravate a sway condition.  You may have to experiment a little and see where it's the happiest.  Is that 7200 lbs dry or gross?

The question is, what is the actual tongue weight?  You can weigh it when not attached to the Expedition, or weigh the Expedition both with and without the trailer attached to find the difference.

lavarock1210 said:

I bet you have a weight distribution issue.  What is your tongue weight percentage?  You need to fix the sway issue before you start using sway bars.  A trailer under normal towing conditions should not sway even without any sway bars or such.  Sway bars should not be used to correct a sway issue under normal towing conditions.  The purpose of a sway bar is to handle the unusual such as trucks going by at 80 mph or emergency braking and rogue winds.

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Lavarock is dead on....... I would correct the sway, then add tension to the sway bar. If you can't correct the sway by putting more weight on the WDH and redistributing wt (using no sway control), you may have to look into putting sway bars on the rear of your TV.

That is a very big trailer for any SUV. You are running maxed out and should expect to have to make special adjustments but simply tightening the sway bar to correct a swaying problem is a very dangerous thing to do. A sudden gust of wind and/or big rig passing the opposite direction can flip your trailer before you can do anything about it. The sway bar is designed to help you with that but if you've used up it's capacity under normal conditions, it will be of no help in extreme conditions.

I tow a 26' behind a Chevy Express, and even with black and grey tanks full (at the very rear) I get zero sway, even coming down Daniel's canyon (steep, windy, and passing trucks).

Fix your tongue loading problem FIRST, make sure you're stable under normal conditions, and then add sway bar(s) for added security. Don't run "just enough", or you'll end up pointed the wrong direction into traffic on I-80 in Parley's Canyon with a smashed up truck & trailer where they came together. Ask my father about that.

"I don't think it's possible for any trailer to pull this [Suburban] around", he said. Famous (nearly last) words.

Poe said:

I currently am using the very first link on the WD. I have filled the water tank which is in the very front of the trailer. The grey and black tanks are empty which are located behind the trailer axels. There is gear stowed in the very front storage compartment. There is absolutly no gear in the rear of the trailer. Expedition is rated for 9000 lbs. 800 lbs tongue weight. Trailer is around 7200 lbs.

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I suggest that you get your rig weighed. My bet is, the trailer is closer to 8500# than 7200# (fully loaded)........ Tongue wt should be a minimum of 10% of the fully loaded trailer wt. If the trailer is 8500#, your tongue wt should be ~900-1000#. What is the GVWR on the trailer?

IMHO..... that is too much trailer for an expedition. You may have to work to get the sway issue under control.

BTW........ You probably already are but I'll say it anyway..... be sure that yout tires are inflated to max tire rating on the trailer and max recommended + (not to exceed max tire rating) on the TV. Also be sure that you are running "LT" tires on the TV (not "P" tires). Tires make a big difference in sway control.

It really is a lot of trailer for an SUV.  Something that size is firmly into 2500 series pickup range.  You're nearing the capacity of the tow vehicle if you get anywhere near the mountains. 

Now when you say "sway", do you mean it sways, as in gets tail happy and pulls the tow vehicle around, under normal conditions at highway (55-60) speeds with no wind?  Or do you mean you get the "suck/push" when you get passed by an 18 wheeler?  Some of the Suck/Push is normal, and you learn to anticipate it and compensate for it as a regular part of towing.  The rig getting tail happy and dragging your tow vehicle around is not normal, and needs to be addressed immediately.

I'd really like to know the amount of actual tongue weight, and that figure as a percentage of loaded trailer weight before doing anything else.  Those numbers may tell us a lot.  Our trailers are similar size and weight, and I'm getting zero sway....the main difference is I'm towing with a long wheel based F250.  It's an older truck, but the tow rating is closer to 10,500.  I also run with full fresh tanks and propane tanks (front) and load all my heavy tools and accessories in the front storage bay.  It works great, and I tow in VERY mountainous conditions.....but even I'm looking at a SRW Ram 3500 Cummins diesel for my next truck.

The closer you get to your tow vehicle's capacity, the less fun towing is.

Another point: tightening up the spring bars doesn't generally affect trailer sway on your type of WD hitch. It merely transfers more of the tongue weight from the rear wheels of the tow vehicle to the front wheels. That may help the handling of the tow vehicle but won't change the trailer sway. Now if you had a Equalizer or Reese Dual Cam hitch, that would be a different story because those have built-in sway control and do not use an external friction sway device. Since you do use a friction device, I'm assuming you don't have one of those types of WD hitch.

You could tighten down the friction device more to help slow the sway, but that has drawbacks on normal turns and really isn't all that effective anyway. You really need to fix the trailer weight to increase the tongue weight. Go up to 12 or even 15% if necessary to eliminate the tendency to sway. Get some scaled weights so you know what you have and then start working the problem scientifically.

I'm no expert on this but from what I understand, the Expedition can be downright scary when towing a heavy load.  It may have more to do with the tow vehicle than the towed vehicle.  I know that wouldn't be something you'd want to hear.

Poe said:

I have a 2013 Keystone Cougar 32 foot. I have weight distribution bars and a friction sway bar attached. It SWAYS! Do I need to add a second sway bar or go up a chain link on the weight distribution bars? Its towed with a 07 Expedition EL. I have only towed this twice and it is still using the same setup from the RV dealer.

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I had an Expedition a few years back and used it to tow a TT that weighed about 6200 lbs. If set up right the Expedition will do a pretty good job.

The secret is to get the weight back on the front end of your Expedition. What you are feeling is probably more front-end wonder causing everything to move around rather than actually trailer sway.

Measure the front-end of your Expedition (wheel well to ground) when empty and make sure that that measurement is either the same as or, better yet, a 1/2 inch less when the trailer and the spring bars are connected. If not then add more tension to the spring bars until it is.

I pulled that 6200 lb TT (28 ft) with out any sway control and had no problem at all.

warsw said:

I pulled that 6200 lb TT (28 ft) with out any sway control and had no problem at all.

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That's not surprising..... there is a huge difference between a 28', 6200# trailer and a 32' 8,000#+ trailer.

Wavery said:

That's not surprising..... there is a huge difference between a 28', 6200# trailer and a 32' 8,000#+ trailer.

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Where did you see 8000#? Most of the 1/2-ton towable Cougars that are 32' exterior length are actually 28' trailers and will only weigh about 7200# going down the road. A properly set up Expedition should be able to tow that and more. An improperly set up trailer will not handle well rather it be a 6200# trailer or 8000# trailer. The key is set-up.

warsw said:

Where did you see 8000#? Most of the 1/2-ton towable Cougars that are 32' exterior length are actually 28' trailers and will only weigh about 7200# going down the road. A properly set up Expedition should be able to tow that and more. An improperly set up trailer will not handle well rather it be a 6200# trailer or 8000# trailer. The key is set-up.

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I just did a quick search on the OPs description of his trailer and came up with this:
http://www.hemlockhillrv.com/rv/southington+ct/keystone+traveltrailer/911/keystone+cougar%2Bxlite+32sab
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Shipping Weight 7,380 lbs
Carrying Capacity 1,620 lbs
Hitch 745 lbs
Length 35' 11''
Height 10' 11''
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The above trailer has a "Shipping wt" of 7380# and a GVWR of 9000# (That's why I asked what the GVWR is)..... it is rather typical for a fully loaded TT to weigh ~1,000 over the shipping weight........ All conjecture, I know..... that's why some of us have encouraged the OP to take the trailer to the scales. Until he has the actual scale weight, all we can do is guess. I think that we could be much more help to the OP if he had actual weights.

The problem is, a lot of people will look at the "Dry weight" of a trailer and ignore everything else because they want their TV to be able to handle the trailer that they love....... in reality this can be a very dangerous mind-set. I'm not saying that the OP is doing this but it is common enough to suggest that the OP weigh his trailer so that he can better get help solving this issue with facts rather than guesses.

Where are you getting OPs description? I don't see much more than that he said it weighed 7200#. I didn't see where he gave a model number. Where did you get that?