2013 GMC 2500 drifts when towing

[rush2112]

When driving the truck without towing, my alignment is dead on straight. No drifting side to side at all. Except for a little Crown in the road but all checks out fine. With that being said when I hook up my travel trailer the vehicle wants to drift to the right no matter which lane I'm in. My steering wheel has to be cocked to the left about 2 in to keep it straight on the road. I thought that maybe the weight distribution hitch was not setup properly so this morning I did all my measurements and sure enough it was not transferring weight to the front axle. So I set up the hitch myself using equalizers instructions, got the front end back to almost the exact same height, and now driving down the road it feels very stable but still drifts to the right. Not as much as it did before I adjusted The Equalizer hitch but still does it. Any suggestions?

By the way I have brand new tires and just bought the trailer so no previous history with this truck and trailer on old tires.

[JRTJH]

This is a WAG with no basis other than previous experience. I'd look at the alignment of the trailer axles. If the trailer has a misaligned axle, it could be pulling the hitch to the left, forcing the truck front axle to steer to the right (the truck rear axle is the pivot point).

Is there any noticeable wear on any of the trailer tires? That might be a clue to where to start.

Also, a dragging brake or a binding wheel bearing on the trailer could be inducing the steering problem.

As I said, just a guess, but if your truck "tracks true" without the trailer and "pulls right" with the trailer, I'd guess it's "trailer induced"

[sourdough]

I would check the trailer axles. I had a single axle trailer once that burned the spindle off due to a seized bearing (no, we don't want to go there:facepalm:). Took the axle off and took it to a repair shop on the weekend. They fixed it, sort of. On the way home I noticed my truck was always pulling. Watched the trailer and it looked like it was constantly wanting to go to one side. Got home and measured and they either used too short of a spindle or just mis-measured and one side of the axle was a bit shorter than the other. Might be something like that....or just a pure alignment issue. But if truck is OK without the trailer, I would sure be looking at the suspension on the trailer.

[ken56]

Chevy and GMC have had a steering issue with some trucks. Mine did, a 2016 GMC 2500. There is a bolt in the intermediate shaft that can back out and make the steering sloppy. I had to hold my wheel to the left on flat roads to go straight, but you say its dead on when not towing so, maybe, maybe not. You may just want to have it checked out to see if it is loose.