Bouncy ride with trailer in tow

If it's really that aggressive on your bars, it makes me suspect your shocks are done. It shouldn't be porpoising like that.

Bags might be an option for you, or a Roadmaster Active Suspension setup. Word of caution on the Roadmaster, though. It will raise the back of your truck up about 1-1.5" when it's unloaded with the Roadmaster is set at it's softest.

Shocks are Bilstein 5100s all the way around. They are 3 months old.
Interestingly enough, even though this is not the same trailer, I don't remember my truck bouncing so much with the OEM shocks. My older trailer was similar in weight and a bit heavier on the tongue.

I don't doubt that airbags will be the ultimate solution, however, they aren't cheap and more difficult to install.
Do you know if there is much of a difference between a roadmaster Active suspension and the hellwig spring helper? That latter are $150 as set. The RAS is over $300.

Mike

That's usually an indication that the tongue weight is too light. Try letting the equalizer bars off a bit. It's often misunderstood that cranking the equalizer up is better when reality is the equalizer setup is to keep too much tongue weight on the back end while still keeping a controllable weight.

^^^^ Also crossed my mind later when I was pondering the numbers he put up for the tongue weight.

I think you were right on with your answer on the tongue weight. Interestingly enough, I called Equalizer and they told me the opposite (add washers, raise the bars = transfer weight to the front).
I lowered the bar 1 notch and the rocking-like bouncing stopped. I still get a pretty rough ride when I hit bumps in the road but this seems like something I need to fix w/ a spring helper.
The problem now is that the front of the truck is 3/4 inch higher than the rear. No more bouncing but my headlights are hitting the top of the trees.

I purposely moved all the heavy items from the pass through storage and the front of the trailer to the back to lighten the tongue weight as I thought this was the problem initially. It may be worth a try to reset the hitch to what it was when it was bouncing and add weight to the front of the trailer.

If anyone has any other ideas, on how to keep this thing at least leveled and not bouncing, let me know.

Thanks again.

Mike

It's a balancing act that you need to figure out. The way a trailer pulls depends on the weight ratio from front to rear of the trailer combined with the tongue weight loading the suspension of the tow vehicle. If there's too much weight forward or back on the trailer you're going to end up with a tongue weight distribution issue with the tow vehicle. When the trailer is empty it should be designed so that the equalizer bars are not used and it pulls perfectly. It is possible that you have the incorrect rating of hitch for the trailer too.

I'm not suggesting that you don't know how to set the hitch up, but this site may help. There's a troubleshooting section too:

Common Weight Distribution and Sway Control Questions | etrailer.com

Thanks.

I am going to play w/ the trailer load a bit by moving some weight up from.

If I hitch up the empty trailer to the Titan w/o an Equalizer hit setup, the rear of the Titan sinks.
I think this has to do w/ the very soft springs in the back of the Titan.

Mike

A bouncy ride while towing is almost always a rear end that's too light. If the truck is level and the trailer is level BUT you have to be really aggressive on the bars to get it that way, then you'll need to properly adjust the hitch head pitch. Pitch it so you can get the same leveling effect without too much tension on the bars. This can take quite a few tries to get right. I'll stick to my regular Reese set up...too many problems getting those Equilzers set up right from my understanding.

Thank you that makes sense. I have not had time to play w/ the setup since last weekend.
I do have a question. I am not sure that I know what you mean by pitching the hitch head.
The only way to add a tilt to it is by adding washers. The max washers you can add is 8. I am there already.
Was that what you meant by pitching the hitch head?

Mike

speediq99 said:

Thank you that makes sense. I have not had time to play w/ the setup since last weekend.
I do have a question. I am not sure that I know what you mean by pitching the hitch head.
The only way to add a tilt to it is by adding washers. The max washers you can add is 8. I am there already.
Was that what you meant by pitching the hitch head?

Mike

Click to expand...

I'd be lying if I told you I knew about the Equilizer set up but most WD hitches have an adjustable height as well as an adjustable tilt on the head. I believe yours is also tilt adjustable but, and this is another reason I dont care for the Equilizer from what I can see, you have to add or remove silly washers to adjust it. In your case, you'd want to add washer(s) to tilt the head toward the trailer. Done properly, you should be able to level the truck and trailer with a little less force on the bars, putting more weight on the rear wheels of the truck.

http://www.equalizerhitch.com/support/instructions.php Scroll down to the video.