Sway Control

[WilliamsVMAX]

Hey guys, those who tow a trailer, do you use just weight distribution hitch or do you have some sort of sway control as well. I only use a WD hitch but thinking of looking into sway control. Any opinions or suggestions???

[jblakeney]

You need one of these and these.

 

Edgewise You need a weight distributing system and a sway control.

 

What are you towing and what kind of trailer?

 

Jbo

[r1byker]

As was asked, what do you tow? That makes a big difference in whether you need it. I tow a 6 x 12 box trailer and haven't found that I've needed a sway control bar; I bought one and it's sitting in my shed waiting for me to install it. I've driven through some pretty strong wind and the rig has been very stable with it.

 

The one occasion where I thought I needed it was when my wife was driving. She was passing a rig and it started to drift into our lane. She swerved onto the shoulder and then swerved back onto the pavement. I had been sleeping and I woke up to this sickening feeling of the trailer whipping the tow vehicle. Fortunately, she kept it under control but i did have a long discussion with her about not making quick maneuvers at speed while towing. That's when I bought the sway control.

 

If you have a big box trailer with a hitch at the rear, then a sway control would be appropriate. if you have a flat bed, then no, unless you want that extra margin of safety for quick steering inputs.

[Blue2500CC]

As asked, what kind of trailer do you have?

 

We have a Reese Dual Cam Sway Control on our travel trailer. It is listed under the weight distribution hitches. As I understand (maybe just a "sales pitch") it is better than a friction sway control because when set up correctly, it prevents sway from starting. With a friction control, sway can start, but is slowed or prevented from becoming worse by the friction plates.

 

I do not have one on my 6.5x16 TA open utillity trailer.

 

Good luck deciding!

Chris

[music]

We have a Reese Dual Cam Sway Control on our travel trailer. It is listed under the weight distribution hitches. As I understand (maybe just a "sales pitch") it is better than a friction sway control because when set up correctly, it prevents sway from starting. With a friction control, sway can start, but is slowed or prevented from becoming worse by the friction plates.

 

I have the Reese Dual Cam Sway Control, pulling a 32 ft (bumper/tongue) camper. It's not just a sales pitch, as I've used the friction bar previously and now the Dual Cam. It's a very good integrated distributing/sway-control system. The only draw back is that some guys talk about using airbags with WD hitces, but that can be a touchy with the Dual Cam system. It requires the weight to be sitting down on the bars for the friction/sway control to work correctly, so you have to be careful with "unloading" them. Better to get big enough bars to begin with. I have been amazed at how steady our camper pulls, but I did not pull this same exact camper with a friction bar before (that was another, smaller camper). Honestly, the 32 ft camper pulls more steady than the previous 22 ft, even in cross-winds and semis passing.

 

Something else to consider is weight distribution of the camper. You want plenty of tongue weight. Many newer campers have lightened the tongue to match lighter trucks, but they're on the "edge" of not having enough weight (imo) up front. Our camper is ~7k lbs loaded, with ~1k lbs on the tongue. I use 1200 bars to distribute the weight. This puts me right at my ratings (hitch/payload), but ample tongue weight has a lot to do with sway control. In fact, I'd go over payload a bit if needed rather than lighten up the tongue.

 

edit: If you are satisfied with your hitch and weight distribution, I'd look at trailer weight dist and add a sway bar first... and see how it goes from there. If there are still issues, the Reese Dual Cam will probably take care of it.

[sc4808]

I just use a WD hitch, the biggest thing is to make sure that the trailer is loaded correctly and is level, always adjust your hitch so that the trailer is level, this helps tremendously with sway.

 

My travel trailer is a 30ft with one slide and weighs in at 8000 lbs or so depending on how much junk I take with me.

 

I own a friction type sway control but never use it.

[bigbengalbubba]

Reese dual cam for me. But again what you are towing will make a difference in possible suggestions.

[WilliamsVMAX]

I tow this trailer with my truck. It's approx 30ft plus the hitch, and it ways close to 6000lbs dry weight. I just use a DSP weight distribution hitch now and was thinking of adding sway control to it or changing to a sway control/weight distribution all in one hitch. I just noticed from this past weekend with a strong cross wind, it swayed quite abit. My buddy has the same trailer and he has the Equalizer hitch with sway control and his don't sway at all.

 

[Blue2500CC]

It's not just a sales pitch, as I've used the friction bar previously and now the Dual Cam. It's a very good integrated distributing/sway-control system. The only draw back is that some guys talk about using airbags with WD hitces, but that can be a touchy with the Dual Cam system. It requires the weight to be sitting down on the bars for the friction/sway control to work correctly, so you have to be careful with "unloading" them. Better to get big enough bars to begin with. I have been amazed at how steady our camper pulls, but I did not pull this same exact camper with a friction bar before (that was another, smaller camper). Honestly, the 32 ft camper pulls more steady than the previous 22 ft, even in cross-winds and semis passing.

edit: If you are satisfied with your hitch and weight distribution, I'd look at trailer weight dist and add a sway bar first... and see how it goes from there. If there are still issues, the Reese Dual Cam will probably take care of it.

 

I have never used a friction style sway control, so I can only reply what I have read on them.

 

As Music mentioned, I couldn't believe how the trailer pulls with the Dual Cam system. We have a '87 Yellowstone 25' ( I think that includes the tongue if I remember correctly ). And it is a HEAVY trailer, I don't remember the exact dry weight, but it is between 5000, and 5500lbs, no slides at all.

 

It is the reason we got the 5.3 in the new truck instead of the 4.8. The better half would have prefered the 4.8 for the gas mileage, but the trailer "swayed" the vote!

 

VMAX, nice looking set up there!

 

Chris

[WilliamsVMAX]

As asked, what kind of trailer do you have?

 

We have a Reese Dual Cam Sway Control on our travel trailer. It is listed under the weight distribution hitches. As I understand (maybe just a "sales pitch") it is better than a friction sway control because when set up correctly, it prevents sway from starting. With a friction control, sway can start, but is slowed or prevented from becoming worse by the friction plates.

 

I do not have one on my 6.5x16 TA open utillity trailer.

 

Good luck deciding!

Chris

 

Can the Reese Dual Cam Sway Control be used with any type of weight distribution hitch?

[music]

Can the Reese Dual Cam Sway Control be used with any type of weight distribution hitch?

 

The Reese Dual Cam is an integrated system. You have to buy the whole setup to match, since the bars, cam/links, and hitch assembly are unique to the system. The receiver shank may be interchangeable with other Reese hitches (?), but I bought a complete setup together. The Equalizer system gets good votes from users too, but I have no experience with those.

[dlstewart01]

I have the Equal-I-zer brand hitch. It works for me real well and you don't have to drill your trailer tongue frame to mount it. There is drilling required for the dual cam. The equalizer has four point sway control. The best place to get them is RVWholesalers.

 

http://www.equalizerhitch.com/

 

http://www.rvwholesalers.com/catalog/equal...90-00-1000.html

[Blue2500CC]

It is possible you could replace just the "bars" with the Reese/ Draw Tite round bars. (I am only saying it MAY be possible- no personal experience.) Otherwise, you will have to replace the hitch head and bars (as mentioned)(I don't see why you couldn't use the same shank).

 

Good luck!

Chris