Trailer questions

   / Trailer questions #21  
You have trailer sway pulling with a Ranger. Shocker. Please do everyone a favor and sell the trailer or buy a bigger truck.
 
   / Trailer questions #22  
   / Trailer questions
  • Thread Starter
#23  
Thanks, I believe it goes deeper than that though, I also have a couple of truck trucks, (4wd) early Dodge trucks and the same experience
 
   / Trailer questions #25  
As others have said, if you can lift the tongue by hand when the trailer is unloaded you have a tongue weight issue. A simple test to prove this out will be to go to Home Depot buy seven bags of sand (60 lbs/bag) 420 lbs total and strap them down as far forward as possible. Take a test drive. U can return the sand bags when the test is done. You may also want to consider a load distribution hitch.
 
   / Trailer questions #26  
I tow my 18ft car hauler with B2650, la534 loader, BH77 backhoe, with my 2006 4.0 L V6 Toyota Tacoma, tow package springs and shocks, I believe 6500lbs rated. Calculated about 5500lbs trailer and machine total. Rides beautifully! It's a way lighter trailer than yours, about 1800lbs, but my "compact pickup" does just fine. No rushing, properly weighted tongue, properly adjusted dual electric brakes, properly inflated tires... Etc... I don't have a scale to check the tongue weight, but I compress my truck rear springs to put the truck axle to about one inch of the rubber bumpers.
 
   / Trailer questions #27  
Your trailer definitely needs some attention. I don't know what's wrong but I know your little truck should be able to pull that trailer empty. Your trailer looks a lot heavier than mine though, so I can't say you should be able to tow your tractor on it.

I used to tow an L2650 (2500 lb tractor + another 2000 lbs for loader and backhoe) behind a 1995 S10 ZR2 without trailer brakes (extended cab, 4WD, V6). The trailer registration says 2100 lb empty. I tow it with my 2016 Colorado with trailer brakes now.

I will say I go slow and just let the engines rev up on the hills, but both trucks have handled it fine. And other than the trailer bouncing straight up and down while empty, it's never swayed side to side on me. Here's a picture of it behind my Colorado: IMG_20160515_171133794.jpg
 
   / Trailer questions #28  
As other have said, look under the trailer and see if your axles are curved up or down in the middle of the axle. If they are cambered up, the axles haven’t been overloaded. If they are cambered down it could have been overloaded before and that would make the tires wear on the inside bad. I had a boat trailer that did that with wider tires than what came on it. I would also check the leaf spring and metal brackets to make sure they aren’t wore bad to give the axles slack to try to walk back and forth. I would remove the ramps because they will definitely act like a spoiler at speeds over 35 or 40 mph. Living in florida with fairly flat ground, you might be getting close to the max weight your truck can tow, but you don’t have to worry about going up or down a steep grade. If everything checks out fine, I would put some more weight on the tongue.
 
   / Trailer questions
  • Thread Starter
#29  
I'll check out the trailer this weekend and report back
 
   / Trailer questions #30  
Another TBN member had posted this video on another trailer post, but it is very informational if you have not seen it.
Dangerous Trailers.Org Presents Trailer Sway 11 - YouTube
I love that video. Such a great demonstration to people who dont (yet) understand the importance of balancing a trailer.

I towed about 6k behind my 2009 Tacoma TRD sport. It handled it & was probably a hair overloaded, depending on how accurate my load estimates were. It was all tapped out on brakes, suspension & engine (in order of importance). I promptly got a beater F250 as I planned on hauling reasonably often.
 

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