weight dist. hitches/ sway bars

[mxjeepin]

i have a 16ft trailer i tow my jeep on and i ahve loaded it several different ways and it still seems to sway at certain times.i tow with a lifted dodge and i though that mihgt be my problem because of the lift but i have had other tell me different. so i was wondering what you guys suggest for sway bars or weight distribution hitches. i iwll post a pic of my set-up later with the jeep placed on the trailer how i towed it this past weekend tp crozet. thanks for the help and suggestions

[mxjeepin]

this is how i towed it home from crozet. about 3-4 hours

[tobyw]

At a quick glance, I'd say you need to be quite a bit further foward on that trailer and give it significantly more tongue weight... XJ's have really good w/d, so the front/back weights are nearly identicle. You would probably be loaded OK if you had a CJ/YJ/TJ up there, but I think that XJ needs to move forward some to get at least 60% of the weight in front of the trailer axles... I have actually found that I need even more than 60% most of the time, but that's a decent rule of thumb to get you in the ball park.

[mxjeepin]

thanks man. iw ill try it when i get off work tonight to see how it works. thanks again

[tobyw]

No problem, hope it works out. I know I was very surprised the first few times I loaded my old XJ up, and ended up having to keep inching it forward. Once I got it figured out, I made a quick reference line on the fender, and it was smooth sailing everytime after that:driving:

[mxjeepin]

yeah the reason i put it there is because i that is where i saw everyone putting their jeeps so i figured mine would be the same but your right about the cherokee thing. now that i think of it they were a lot of cj's and wranglers. thanks again

[Jeepin Jason]

On a setup like that, there should be no need for a WD hitch, or sway control. I see 2 issues, possibly 3. First, a regular cab isn't the best for towing like that, but the longbed kinda makes up for it. I've seen some regular cab short beds try to tow like that before and it's just scary. I figure the regular cab is going to hurt you more than the lift, as far as towing goes.

I agree with Toby that you probably need to pull the rig forward to get some more tongue weight on there. You may need a bigger drop hitch too, kinda hard to tell though since you're parked across the crest of a hill and the Jeep probably needs to come forward a few inches.

And a trailer is just going to sway a little at times, due to the road, or wind, etc. Towing without enough tongue weight and with a vehicle with a light back end is just going to make it that much worse.

Also check the condition of the tires, and the pressure in them.

[mxjeepin]

the trailer tires are basically brand new and all have 48psi in them. i iwll try to pull the jeep up once it stop raining here. i iwll check my truck tires also.

[Blaine B.]

I saw a guy across the street with a Cherokee towing a boat.....He had the regular hitch with ball but the ball mount was upside down with the ball mounted on the opposite side that it usually is.

Is that safe or just as good?

Hard to describe, if you need a pic I can sneak over there tonight and grab one :brows:

[Jeepin Jason]

should be OK depending on the height. You can buy special drawbars designed to raise the ball though, vs most that lower it. You don't want to raise it very much though.

[Gunny]

My first post here on this site, had to put my .02 cents worth in here. I tow a lot, with severeal different tow rigs and severeal different trailers. I do not believe (personally) that the standared cab on your truck is any kind of a problem no way no how. I have towed over a 100,000 miles with a standared cab 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 sport model and never once have I had any type of sway problem. Sway can be cuased be more than one thing. In your case and looking at your rig loaded I would just bet that you need more tongue weight, but that alone may not be all of the problem-- Probably is though. When you tow like you are the trailer needs to be as close to level as you can get it, take a few measurements and maybe you will need a little more drop on your stinger.

Another thing that can add a lot of sway is the way the load is tied down. Notice the word "CAN". When towing a vehicle on a car hauler behind a pick-up the load needs to have as much movement removed as possible. This can be a simple thing. You need to tie the load "FROM" above the springs so that when you tie the load down or cinch it down you are compressing the springs some amount. Now this doesn't mean that you need to get above the spring with your tie down. You can tie from the frame some way the frame is above the springs and when you cinch it down the springs will compress. This will not allow your towed vehicle in movement to be working against the springs on the trailer, or the tires on the trailer, or against the tow vehicle and its springs. This one very simple thing can and WILL make towing from a trailer much easier on both the towed vehicle and the vehicle doing the towing, much easier.

You also mentioned in your first question a WD hitch. I don't think this will help in your case very much. The purpose of these Weight Distriputing Hitches is to move the weight ( tongue weight) from the rear of the towing vehicle to the front axle of the towing vehicle. Thus distriputing the weight. These hitches first came out in the late 50's and where mostly designed for CARS and Station Wagons that where towing camping trailers and heavy boats and such. There is a very cool picture of two Oldsmobile Tornados which were front wheel drive luxuary cars in the 60's towing using WD hitches. One of these Olds is towing a Jet Boat and the other Olds is towing a Small Travel Trailer. In the picture both of these cars are hooked up and towing down the road with there back tires and wheels removed. Its hard to believe but that WD hitch transferred the weight to the front of those cars which was the powered end.

Good Luck and move that thing a little forward tie it down hard and I just bet your problems are solved.

Gunny

[Blaine B.]

Can you find that picture? That sounds like a must-see.

[Gunny]

Blaine,

I actually have one of these pictures. EZ Lift hitch Co used to show how this hitch worked and demo'd it on either an Oldsmobile Toranado or a Caddy Eldorado at just about every State Fair in the country when I was a kid. I have seen this demo dozens of times. Even folks watching thought it was a trick of some sort. The Co handed out these pictures with the camper and the Jet Boat at the State Fairs.

I try'd to scan this picture in and post it with my original post, but the web site said it was to large at 324 KB. I personally don't have a clue how to shrink the damn thing down to a more accetable size, but once my wife gets home i will let her give it a try.

Gunny