Towing Problem

[siskiyou]

I have an '02, ext. cab, short bed, Z-71, 5.3. I have towed my '89 22' Komfort Travel Trailer that weighs 5500 lbs. loaded twice now. It has plenty of power the problem that I am having is with the handling. When I go around a corner it feels almost like I have 4-wheel steering, maybe a little oversteer, and it is also tends to wander with the trailer attached. I have towed this trailer for years with two other trucks and never had these problems. I put 10ply 245/75 R16 tires on it with no success at eliminating the problem. I then took it to the dealer and they checked the suspension and found everything to be torqued properly and no other problems. They told me that adding another leaf to the rear springs and maybe a sway bar to the truck would probably solve the problem. Has anyone run into this or have any ideas? Thanks

[Shaners]

First off welcome to the forum.

 

Obviously you have some towing experiance so you probably know all this stuff, but here goes...

 

What air pressure are you running in your new tires?  I would want about 50-60 psi in them.  The only prob is that I don't know what the max pressure is for the stock rims.

 

Your tounge weight should be between 10-15% of the trailer weight.  So you should be running 500-700 lbs on the ball.  At this weight GM recommends a weight distributing hitch.

 

Are you using a sway bar between the truck and trailer?  If not, then it might not be a bad idea to use one.

 

Is the tounge of your trailer absolutly parallel with the road?  If it is raised up at all, then that can cause handling problems.

 

Your trucks rear suspension shouldn't have any problems handling the weight of this trailer.  Especially with the Z71 package.  (heavier shocks).

 

I hope this helps a little...

[SilveradoWV]

Yeah Shaners pretty much has it covered. Sway control between truck and trailer, weight distributing, and make sure it is level (trailer) and crank up the weight distributing bars so the rear of the truck isnt dragging the ground, which it shouldnt anyway.

[siskiyou]

In my tires I was running 60 lbs. all the way around. I don't have a sway control between my truck and trailer but I am going to have on installed next week. In the past I have never needed one even in heavy wind. My trailer was level but I lowered the front an inch or two and tested it again and it did help but did not eliminate all of the sway. I have adjusted the bars tension up and down and I think it is correct now and the front and rear are both down about 1/2-3/4 of an inch. Thanks

[Shaners]

Hopefully the sway bar will help you out.  Just remember to take it off when doing any tight manuvering, because it is possible to bind them up.  You'll see what I mean once you get it installed.

 

I wonder if the wind vortexes over you new truck are so dramatically different than you other tow vehicles, that it may be causeing some of your problems.

 

One last thing you may want to try, is running with the Torsion Bars on the very last link, or try it without them at all.  A camping buddy of mine bought the whole set-up of bars and he could hardly control his rig down the road.  He finally started running without the torsion bars at all and just the sway bar, and he can run all day at 70 mph.