Made it home!

[curtiscapk]

Picked up "Keith" on Saturday from Lincoln, NE. Camped at park in Nebraska city all went well! The trip home to KC was in 20+ mph winds! Only had to hit the controller 3 times to straighten everything up. Glad we went with the rear dining model the amount of light is fantastic! Everything works and looks great! Mounting the tv today then taking him to storage next to the pontoon. Here are some pics.

[travelin texans]

"The trip home to KC was in 20+ mph winds! Only had to hit the controller 3 times to straighten everything up."

This is confusing?
You had to use the brake controller to straighten it out in 20 mph winds?
Hopefully you got a WDH w/ sway control of some sort? If not get one ASAP!
What happens in 30 mph winds? I know in Kansas you can/do have winds even much higher than that.
Otherwise congratulations on the new rv & hope you enjoy many more outings with it!

[flybouy]

Welcome and enjoy your new unit. You do need a good weight distributing hitch with buikt in sway control [not those friction brake pad ones). This is very important on a single axle trailer of that size. From your photos it looks like the trailer may be a bit low in the front. Ideally it should be level when hitched.

[curtiscapk]

Thanks! I ended up flipping the hitch to a rise, it sits much better now (second from last pic). using a WDH on a lightweight single axle actually ends up putting truck weight to the trailer which would make me over my max 4000# camper axle. The F150 also has integrated sway control. Wouldn't have known it was behind the truck except for some of the 25+ mph gusts.

[NH_Bulldog]

Congratulations and enjoy the new camper!

Have you ever experienced the F150 “sway control”? It is not some subtle background activity that goes on unnoticed behind the scenes! It triggers when the onboard gyros sense a drastic side to side motion. Lights flash, warnings appear on the dash, the truck beeps at you and it kills engine power and applies the truck brakes to selected wheels to counteract the effect of the sway.

I have only experienced it once when coming out of a mountain pass traveling at 55 mph with a 50 mph cross wind. It’s enough to make your butt pucker. The onboard sway control is a last-resort action by the truck to save your bacon after all else fails.

One final note to consider is that it is NEVER recommended to manually apply the trailer brakes with the brake controller since this can very easily lock up the trailer brakes causing a skid and catastrophic loss of control.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by curtiscapk

Thanks! I ended up flipping the hitch to a rise, it sits much better now (second from last pic). using a WDH on a lightweight single axle actually ends up putting truck weight to the trailer which would make me over my max 4000# camper axle. The F150 also has integrated sway control. Wouldn't have known it was behind the truck except for some of the 25+ mph gusts.

Might think about that a bit. Trailer gvw is 4400. At 13% tongue you would have 572 sitting on it. In theory you could transfer some weight back and still be OK. If you've scaled it you will know better.

The wdh aspect is one thing...and is adjustable, the sway control is what you need. Your current setup needs a good sway control. If you are already trying to "get it under control" in 20mph winds you are going to have some really "unfun" times in the future when that single axle trailer decides to go south and take you, the truck and family with it.

[Ken / Claudia]

I wonder what will happen when a semi with 2 enclosed trailers passes his set up. Might be more than a 20 mile gust hitting the side of the combo.

[notanlines]

Curtis, I also would recommend a serious sway control, attached to a WDH with relatively light bars. But get the sway control.

[curtiscapk]

Originally Posted by Ken / Claudia

I wonder what will happen when a semi with 2 enclosed trailers passes his set up. Might be more than a 20 mile gust hitting the side of the combo.

Which happened and it wasn't bad. It was one of the times I squeezed the controller. I am getting sway control Usually will be driving 5 minutes from storage to Lake. I've just seen too many post on a wdh with smaller trailer eating up tires do to to much weight distributed BACKWARDS. If a wdh works to distribute heavy trailer weight forwards why could it not also go backwards to the much lighter trailer?

[curtiscapk]

Originally Posted by NH_Bulldog

Congratulations and enjoy the new camper!

Have you ever experienced the F150 “sway control”? It is not some subtle background activity that goes on unnoticed behind the scenes! It triggers when the onboard gyros sense a drastic side to side motion. Lights flash, warnings appear on the dash, the truck beeps at you and it kills engine power and applies the truck brakes to selected wheels to counteract the effect of the sway.

I have only experienced it once when coming out of a mountain pass traveling at 55 mph with a 50 mph cross wind. It’s enough to make your butt pucker. The onboard sway control is a last-resort action by the truck to save your bacon after all else fails.

One final note to consider is that it is NEVER recommended to manually apply the trailer brakes with the brake controller since this can very easily lock up the trailer brakes causing a skid and catastrophic loss of control.

Thanks but I set the gain where it didn't lock the wheels..... I know why the integrated is there it never kicked in. Man tough room I know about towing I've had a 4000 # pontoon and trailer for 15 years different animal I know it's not the same as a wall.. I guess I'll find another forum.......

[Gary R.]

Hello Craig, and welcome to you and your family to the forum!

That is a nice new Hideout you have, and the big rear window lets lots of light in.

Enjoy your travels, and stay safe!

[Heavy_Chevy]

Ah Curtis take it with a grain of salt. Some of these old farts on here think you need a 1-ton DRW diesel with a Andersen or equalizer to tow a craftsman lawn mower. Stalk the forum, ask questions if you need to, and sift thru the chaff to get the wheat.

Congrats on the new hideout! We are lovin ours!

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Heavy_Chevy

Ah Curtis take it with a grain of salt. Some of these old farts on here think you need a 1-ton DRW diesel with a Andersen or equalizer to tow a craftsman lawn mower. Stalk the forum, ask questions if you need to, and sift thru the chaff to get the wheat.

Congrats on the new hideout! We are lovin ours!

And some other aged farts think you can tow a 10K trailer witha Toyota Tundra or a 1/2 ton pick up. Yes, it is a double edged sword. I have said this many times, consider the source when reading any forum. Most of the "old Farts" you refrence have many hundres of thousands of miles and several decades of towiing experience. Most have started out small, progressed in the size of trailer and found out the hard way that when reach a certian point in trailer size and weight that it becomes necessary to match the truck to the task. I'd call that KNOWING what it takes, not "thinking that they know due to their limited experience". So while some folks may be "old farts" some folks just talk from where those farts eminate.

As for a "tough room", well that smae bunch of "old farts" are just trying to offer advice from their experiences so that you don't make the same misteaks that they did. If your looking for a touchy feely cumbya type Forum this may not be it but what it is a forum with truthful, experienced, and informed folks trying to help their fellow camper. If it doesn't suite someone's wants or needs well then I guess it isn't their "cup of tea". You can't please evryone and attempting to "limit" the views or posts to oh that's a lovely trailer and you're just the best for picking that color while ignoring the obvious issues does a disservice to the folks who "don't know what they don't know".

JMHO, YMMV

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by flybouy

And some other aged farts think you can tow a 10K trailer witha Toyota Tundra or a 1/2 ton pick up. Yes, it is a double edged sword. I have said this many times, consider the source when reading any forum. Most of the "old Farts" you refrence have many hundres of thousands of miles and several decades of towiing experience. Most have started out small, progressed in the size of trailer and found out the hard way that when reach a certian point in trailer size and weight that it becomes necessary to match the truck to the task. I'd call that KNOWING what it takes, not "thinking that they know due to their limited experience". So while some folks may be "old farts" some folks just talk from where those farts eminate.

As for a "tough room", well that smae bunch of "old farts" are just trying to offer advice from their experiences so that you don't make the same misteaks that they did. If your looking for a touchy feely cumbya type Forum this may not be it but what it is a forum with truthful, experienced, and informed folks trying to help their fellow camper. If it doesn't suite someone's wants or needs well then I guess it isn't their "cup of tea". You can't please evryone and attempting to "limit" the views or posts to oh that's a lovely trailer and you're just the best for picking that color while ignoring the obvious issues does a disservice to the folks who "don't know what they don't know".

JMHO, YMMV

Marshall,
Very well stated, from another one of those "old farts", with about a half a million miles of RV towing experience.

[curtiscapk]

Thanks Gary and heavy chevy! This is a welcome post reply I was hoping for! That specific model is very rare. We love all the windows and light they let in.


To all others thanks for your input. We will be getting sway control just no WDH for my opinion stated above. if there's a scientific, engineering or mathematical way to prove a WDH only distributes forwards and not BACKWARDS Please let me know, I'm willing to listen. And why the ability to manually use the controller exists on ALL controllers oem or aftermarket and is actually stated in the ford manual on how on how to use and why?

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by curtiscapk

Thanks Gary and heavy chevy! This is a welcome post reply I was hoping for! That specific model is very rare. We love all the windows and light they let in.


To all others thanks for your input. We will be getting sway control just no WDH for my opinion stated above. if there's a scientific, engineering or mathematical way to prove a WDH only distributes forwards and not BACKWARDS Please let me know, I'm willing to listen. And why the ability to manually use the controller exists on ALL controllers oem or aftermarket and is actually stated in the ford manual on how on how to use and why?

There is no mathematical way to know what you are doing without going to a scale and taking weight measurements. You will then know exactly what the hitch is doing. You certainly need sway control outside the OEM in the Ford.

[NH_Bulldog]

Some people are afraid of listening to sage advice

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by Heavy_Chevy

Ah Curtis take it with a grain of salt. Some of these old farts on here think you need a 1-ton DRW diesel with a Andersen or equalizer to tow a craftsman lawn mower. Stalk the forum, ask questions if you need to, and sift thru the chaff to get the wheat.

Congrats on the new hideout! We are lovin ours!

Really? Take what you need from the forum and insult everyone over 40 years old? .. that’s the problem with the world today.. glad I taught my kids respect and decency..

Glad those “old farts “ were around when I needed advice

[Ken / Claudia]

Curtiscapk, post #12 is almost a 100% embellished statement. He certainly can speak his mind on here, I have no issues with that, but that statement should not go unchallenged. I have been on this forum about 7 years and have never read what he said in any posts.

As you may have now realized towing that travel trailer likely requires a anti sway device. What you had to do to keep it from swaying is not normal. You Tube has videos showing RVs that swayed and lost control. I have investigated several myself and helped with others involving flipped RVs that the crash started by uncontrolled trailer sway.
Us old farts could likely tell you about how we found out how important a anti sway device is for safe towing. I know I can.
In the end isn't going camping to be fun and also travel safe. Get the right equipment to make that happen.

Hope you have many years ahead enjoying RVing.

[curtiscapk]

Thanks Ken! I knew I should've prefaced my post with ANTI-SWAY BAR IS COMING! It seemed everyone has their own opinion. and that's fine. I am close to 9000 posts on my pontoon forum. Which is #3 most of all members. I can take advice as much as give it. I will actually post what not to do for the TV wall mount for Hideout\Passports....