truck based electronic sway control and weight distribution hitch

[JasonH42]

Hello all,

I have a 2025 Keystone Cougar 1/2 ton FKDWE travel trailer with antilock brakes on the coach.

A newbie question, and it is hard to find good information online about this.

I have a 2015 Ford F-150 Lariat with heavy duty towing package. It has a form of electronic sway control built in, where somehow, if the truck's computer detects trailer sway, it applies braking and reduces engine power to individual wheels and alerts the driver. The Ford manual states:

"This feature applies your vehicle brakes at individual wheels and, if necessary, reduces engine power. If the trailer begins to sway, the stability control light flashes and the message TRAILER SWAY REDUCE SPEED appears in the information display. The first thing to do is slow your vehicle down, then pull safely to the side of the road and check for proper tongue load and trailer load distribution."

At the same time, I have a R3 Recurve Weight Distribution Hitch with manual sway control, an allen wrench that physically tightens or loosens an anti-sway sleeve lined with brake type padding. My practice has been to only tighten that sway control when going on highway/freeway routes.

I have seen, for the type of hitch I have, both to turn off the electronic sway control and also to leave it on, because of the manual anti-sway feature. I've seen logical explanations for both turning off the electronic sway control and leaving it on.

Any thoughts from the experienced?

 

[NH_Bulldog]

I had the same truck (identical model, year and features) and the ONLY time the built-in sway control ever kicked in was in a severe crosswind on the highway at 50 mph (we were already going slow because of the wind conditions thank goodness) that was a legitimate Oh Crap moment towing the trailer. It is a very last resort feature when all other human intervention fails. It never happened before that day and it never happened for the rest of the time we owned the that truck.

Think of it like the collision avoidance or automatic emergency braking features in most vehicles these days. It is a backup for when the human behind the wheel isn't reacting quick enough. It is designed to address and control sway once it has already started (which is too late in my opinion). The hitch sway control is designed to stop sway before it ever even starts.

I left my Ford built-in sway control active for the 5+ years I owned the truck, and I always used the hitch sway control regardless of the roads I was on. My hitch was an EAZ-Lift Trekker which is a 4-point weight distribution/sway control and it served us very well.

 

[JRTJH]

Antilock brakes on a trailer have nothing to do with sway control except that the antilock will prevent wheel loss of traction if a wheel locks up. Otherwise, NADA....

You have ONE connection from the truck to the trailer brakes. There is NO WAY to apply brakes on one side of the trailer (similar to the way the truck reduces sway by applying "individual wheel braking"... That capability is non-existent on your Cougar trailer. It's "all brakes applied or no brakes applied"...

Typically, in the past, one means of controlling trailer sway was to apply the trailer manual brakes using the level/button on the trailer brake controller in the truck while maintaining a constant speed on the truck. That will often help pull the trailer "back in line with the truck" simply by applying friction and using the truck as a "weight to follow" and the truck speed helps pull the trailer back in line... Otherwise, there's no "sway control" other than what the hitch provides, which is all "friction between the hitch ball and the trailer tongue A frame"...

On rigs where the tow vehicle is lighter than the trailer, you NEED as much "truck weight to maintain control" as possible. When the truck stops pulling the trailer (antisway applying brakes and slowing the truck) you essentially reduce the forces pulling the trailer back in line when you apply the trailer brakes.

In years past, Ford recommended turning off sway control because one of the features is that it slows the truck as it applies braking to individual wheels... What can happen if you leave it on and the truck starts applying individual wheel braking while reducing truck speed, should you push the brake controller lever, there is reduced "pull to stay in line" because the truck is no longer "reliably pulling the trailer" rather the truck anti-sway is reducing truck speed and there's not as much "truck pulling force" to draw the trailer back to the center...