Quote:
Originally Posted by boiler27
My family and I plan to pick up our 09 Cougar 307BHS in a week or so. I drive a tractor trailer for a living, but have never pulled a travel trailer of this size and could sure use some advice on a hitch setup. My tow vehicle is an 07 Ram 2500, 4x4 Quad Cab, short bed, 6.7 Cummins, 6spd auto. Thanks for the input, I've read a lot on this forum already and figured advice from someone with a similar setup would help a whole lot!
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Not being familiar with every model from every year from every product line, I had to do some hunting to figure that this a TT and not a fifth wheeler. Just pointing that it's easier to answer a question when all the info is on the table up front.
Your 307BHS is a 35 foot travel trailer with a GVWR of 11,000# and a factory hitch weight of 840#. Actual tongue weight should be 12 to 15% of loaded weight. That means you do all your calculations and product searches based on GVWR only.
First the tongue. Since you are looking at tongue weights of as much as 1,500# or so. Real world weights will likely be less, probably around 1,100 give or take a hundred. That means that everything has to be rated around those weights. Starting with the receiver on your truck, check the max trailer and tongue weights for weight distributing towing. There should be sticker right on the receiver. If the receiver can't handle an 11K trailer with 1,100# of tongue, you might want to think about a better receiver.
A bigger receiver may also mean a bigger hitch system. Go over to reeseprod.com and look at their regular 12k/1,200 WD hitches. (Not pushing Reese, but their website is easy to navigate and they have lots of ratings that are easy to find for all their products.) If your receiver is up to it, the 12k/1,200 WD system with Dual Cam sway control is a very good choice.
If your receiver needs to be upgraded, you have three choices. A beefier standard 2x2 receiver with numbers to match your trailer is the first one. It's probably the most economical because you can use their standard hitch system with it. They also offer the Titan (2.5x2.5) and Super Titan (3x3) receivers and hitches. These have numbers upwards of 20K# and beyond. They have hitches to match, but they'll be very pricey.
I like the Reese Dual Cam sway control because it uses the weight of the tongue to control the sway. There are some other systems out there like the Blue Ox and the Equal-I-Zer that are very good as well. I do not recommend friction anti sway bars. They are only good on smaller trailers and are very finicky to set up correctly. They also have to be set up and adjusted every time you hitch up. Sway control units like the DC only require one fine tuning and then will be the same every time you hitch up.
Your tow vehicle is certainly up to the task of towing the trailer. A well matched hitch and sway control system will connect the two safely and securely. You'll get some more ideas, suggestions, and opinions from others here. Mine are not the only good ones by any means, but do keep in mind that you've got a big trailer and the hitch system needs to accommodate it correctly.
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