Trailer sway

[tac911t]

Loaded the car on the trailer and setup one of the corner weight scales to check tongue weight and determine the correct position of the car for about 500 lbs on the tongue.

With the car on the trailer as I towed last time, the tongue weight was 780 lbs.
Moving the car back on the trailer, I got the weight down to 530 lbs.
Looking at the tow rig with trailer and car, the rear of the Tahoe does not sag too much. The tools, spares and other equipment that are put in the back of Tahoe for race weekends, must be the source for most of the sag (Tahoe was empty for the tongue weight check).

[Matt93SE]

Definitely add in the cargo weight in the bed and passenger weight. The truck is a 1/2 ton so it's only designed for ~1000lb cargo and a driver. If you have two full-size people in the back seat and 500lb of trailer weight, you're already nearing that 1000lb. toss in a set of wheels & tires at 150lb and add more tools, and you're going to be past your truck's limit. Also keep in mind 500lb on the rear bumper is much harder on the rear suspension than 500lb directly over the rear axle.

I would suggest moving some of that stuff to the trailer. can you strap the tires & tools onto the trailer and move the car around to adjust the tongue weight?

I have a 3/4 ton F250 and a 24' enclosed, but I have all of my tools and spare tires in the nose of the trailer. the car gets strapped down with the rear bumper just clearing the door. drives great, albeit my truck is considerably larger than yours.
And that's just using a regular hitch, no sway control, weight distro hitch, etc. Get it balanced right and you can get rid of some of those bandaids.

[Gary L]

Loaded the car on the trailer and setup one of the corner weight scales to check tongue weight and determine the correct position of the car for about 500 lbs on the tongue.

You're in a very similar situation to mine... I have a 1/2 ton truck, towing about 4800 lbs, plus 500-600 lbs in the back of the truck. After getting the tounge weight right (I run about 12% or 600 lbs), I put a set of air bags on the truck to get it leveled out. With this setup, I've had absolutely no issues in 5 seasons of towing, and I typically do 2500-3000 miles a year with the #50 Volvo in the rearview mirror.

The bags are good for 100 psi, but I've never had to carry more than about 70 in them to keep the truck level. There may be even better pricing somewhere, but at the time, I found the best deal on the bags (Air Lift brand) at the local Camping World store. They were 200 bucks plus tax at the time, but are undoubtedly more by now.

[lateapex911]

You DO have trailer brakes AND they function, riiiiiigggght?
What others have said: balance FIRST, THEN get load dist hitch. THEN add bags if needed. Load heavy things between the truck axles if possible.
And, no matter what, make sure the trailer brakes work, and work well. Prodigy P3 controller or better FTW....

[benspeed]

Sort of a thread jack but here's a towing story. Easter Sunday, taking the 28 ft boat over to the marina for the spring commissioning. 8,000 lb boat on a 10,000 lb trailer, bought new about 6 seasons ago. Pulling onto the highway onramp - crunch noise, look back.....smoke. Pull over and realize the leaf spring on the left rear axle failed. Long story short, jacked it up and took off the wheel, thunk goes the axle. Jack up the axle and had some chain in the truck, wrap that around the axle and the trailer chassis, use a padlock to secure - only thing handy, shim it with some old wood from the side of the road. Jacked it down and had enough clearance to drive 2 miles to the truck/trailer repair shop! A piece of chain is a good thing to have on the truck!

Nobody, I mean nobody was coming out to lend a hand on Easter!

[Flyinglizard]

Some points to improve trailer sway. If the race car is chained down to the frame of the car, not the wheels/ axles, it tows better. Chains on one end, not straps. The downside is that the tires take more load this way.

I foregot and left the air bags low. The lower ride alt towed better, a little low in the raer of the truck/van. Try it back to back, dont go crazy getting the back end up.
Over load springs help,without raising the ride. That's the bestway.

I use low profile tires on my open trailers. Makes a huge difference. Fuzion makes a 5 ply 225/60/15. Really nice .
I cut one coil out of the front springs on my Chev Van, use Bilstein shox.
300k of open trialer towing, about 25k with a double VW trailer of about 6500#.
Low truck, low trailer, firm up the tie downs.
This works for the open single axle trailer and the double axle , econo type trailer. Gross trailer with a SM or VW IT car and spares.
We get about 15mpg with the Tahoe( 5.7 Vortek/banks) pulling the single/SM, and 12mpg withe G20(305/ 4bbl holley) van pulling the double axle /VW.
MM