Trailer Towing Help!

[itsgood1308]

We just bought a new 2021 Ram Power Wagon with the 6.4 hemi. It's sitting on 35s at about 80lbs of air pressure. I knew that it wasn't going to have the full towing capacity of the usual 2500s due to the off road design of it all, but yesterday pulling the camper was a mess. We've got a 9000lb camper, 35' total length. Yesterday it was certainly stupid windy, but our new truck was getting man handled by the trailer. We were barely able to go over 60mph yesterday without it getting too squirrelly back there.

Here's what I've noticed so far:

My spacer in the receiver hitch wobbles a hair, it's a universal sleeve.
On my last setup I really had to lift up the back of the truck to hook up my sway bars. Here, I don't at all. In fact, whenever we got to the camp site I was able to get them off almost by hand. My truck also has air bags, should I mess with those?

Any ideas or thoughts?

I'm positive news, the lulling power in itself is nice.

[bsills]

Sounds like more trailer than that truck can handle.

[twosixteens]

Is your hitch set up properly?

[RWB]

Sounds like you need to look at the entire hitch set up. I think what your calling sway bars is the spring bars. You should not be able to get them off by hand.

Does it have a sway controller on it? This is the thing that slides back and forth when you turn and has a set bolt that you crank down.

Just sounds like your hitch set up needs to be tweaked for the new truck.

[deerplanter]

The power wagon has less towing capability than my chevy 1/2 ton. I was looking at one but passed for that reason but with a good equalizer hitch you should be good.

[Planner]

Windy days can be no fun to tow something since the trailer is basically just a big wind sail. Check the trailer tire pressure. If they aren’t the same it can impact the tow. If you really want to eliminate trailer sway check out propridehitch.com


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[WyoBull]

Sounds to me like you need a weight distribution hitch.

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[Sofee]

Get a Hensley or pro pride expensive but sway is gone.

[perow]

Post up some pics of your hitch setup on both truck & trailer

[Mike D]

Trailer Towing Help!

That’s a big tongue pull trailer, even for a regular 3/4 ton much less a softly sprung one.

Would need more info on your hitch setup to offer much advice.


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[Kong]

The wind was your biggest problem yesterday, a better hitch and if the truck has air bags why would you even ask a silly question like that? LOL hell yes you should be airing them up. That squishy rear end needs to be stable..

I have a 4500 and the wind was giving me fits yesterday pulling a tractor down the road, I can’t imagine what a big camper would have felt like in 30 plus MPH winds.

[bboswell]

Sounds like hitch is not properly adjusted, truck tires likely over inflated and it was wind AF

[WItoTX]

Your hitch is set up wrong. You should have to lift your truck to get the bars off. The way you are towing now, all that weight is falling on your trucks hitch, as opposed to being distributed across the truck and trailer frame. I bet it rode like absolute crap over bumps.

Also, you are correct. That truck is not meant to pull. In addition to the softer springs, it's significantly lighter than a 3/4 ton non-power wagon. The regular 3/4 ton, with a diesel, is about 400 lbs heavier. Which doesn't sound like much, but considering your whole truck is 7000 lbs (ish), that's relatively significant. Not to mention most of that additional 400 lbs is located over the front axle which would help pull the trailer in the wind.

[Reel cajun]

Too much weight at back end of trailer can make them squirrelly. Lower tongue height could help

[justletmein]

In addition to everything the others said, I'm not a fan of that spacer sleeve to get down to 2" hitch. Buy a 2.5" hitch and get rid of it. That sleeve in mine had tons of wobble and is too loose for my liking. Be sure that trailer and drop hitch height is correct, if it's not level a dual axle or even single to a lesser extent can pull weird and flop all over.