Trailer sway issue f150

[Machspeed]

Gentlemen, my truck has no sway bars and towing is not an issue. I'm not real pleased in how it corners and have even considered adding tow bars, but again, the absence of them is not a factor in towing. At least not for my truck.

[Rembrant]

Machspeed wrote

Gentlemen, my truck has no sway bars and towing is not an issue. I'm not real pleased in how it corners and have even considered adding tow bars, but again, the absence of them is not a factor in towing. At least not for my truck.

The 4x4 might be a little sturdier with the heavier 3" wide leaf springs, and extra heft of the truck overall? I don't know how much that would account for over a 2wd, but it would be something. I know my little 2wd '84 was pretty "loose" feeling until I stiffened her all up. My '80 4x4 was quite sturdy by comparison, but it did have front and rear swaybars and quad shocks up front, so far from an apples to apples comparison. However, I didn't tow anything with either of them, so I guess it's a moot point;).

[Gary Lewis]

Rusty, an 81 F150, was converted from 2wd to 4wd and still had the 2 1/2” wide 2wd rear springs - and no sway bars. The PO told me that it towed like a champ, but I’m not sure I ever towed with it.

[Nothing Special]

What kind of suspension does the trailer have?  I'm assuming it's a tandem axle trailer.  It used to be that tandem axles always had leaf springs with an "equalizing" shackle between the front and rear springs.  That type of suspension allows one axle to go up freely if the other goes down, which keeps the weight distribution constant even if the trailer tips forward or back a bit.

Now you are seeing some tandem axle trailers with torflex-type axles, or with "independent" suspension.  Or if it's a home-made trailer it might even have the axles welded solidly to the trailer frame.  Any of these will not equalize the load as the trailer tips, so the higher the tongue goes the more weight is carried by the back axle and the less by the front.  This also means the more the tongue goes up the more tongue weight it has.

As an extreme example, I once tried to tow my Jeep on a home-made trailer with both axles welded to the frame.  The trailer's owner said it towed great.  I hooked it up to a '93 Ford Explorer and thought I was going to roll the whole thing the first time I got it above 45 mph.  Luckily I got the sway under control and drove home SLOWLY.  Turned out that the cg of the trailer/Jeep combo was between the axles on the trailer.  With a solid suspension that meant that if the trailer wasn't connected to a truck the tongue would "hover" in the air, not dropping to the ground, but the trailer wouldn't tip backward either.  If you tried to lift the tongue it would take a lot of force, but if you tried to push it down it took a lot of force too.  So if it was on a very high hitch it would have a lot of tongue weight and would tow well.  But on a lower hitch the tongue weight would be lower, maybe even negative.  That's what happened with my Explorer.  The trailer sat level, so it looked like the hitch height was good, but that trailer needed to be significantly tongue-high to have the tongue weight be right.

Anyway, long-winded explanation, but if this trailer doesn't have equalizing suspension, then maybe the tongue is too low (even if the trailer sits level) when it's hooked to your truck and that's giving low tongue weight.