Towing

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intheburbs

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Back off on the bars. If you have them cranked too much, it will cause more sway.
More tongue weight = less sway

Just make sure you're not overloading your rear axle. Check yourself at CAT scales.

Here's a video that illustrates it. Tightening your bars too much is the same as moving the load to the rear of the trailer.


Here's my rig - no WD, no sway control, rock solid. Trailer puts 1600 lbs on my rear axle. That's why I bought a 2500 10 years ago.
 

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Foggy

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swathdiver

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I have a 2014 Yukon with air shocks, and am towing about 6000lbs. I started with a 15,000lb weight distribution hitch. This hitch came with brackets bars for anti sway. Still lots of sway!
I was high on the ball but both SUV and camper are now level. New lower shank. I added a curt anti sway bar and have locked the shank to the car receiver. I still get lots of sway. Is anyone else towing this much weight and what is your experiences?
There is still too much weight behind the trailer's axles compared with up front, even with the WDH. It can only cover up for so much.

Take the rig to your local CAT scale and weigh the trailer on two scales and then hooked up as if on a trip. Download the CAT Scale APP, so you don't have to go inside or get harangued by the truck stop employees.
 
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Shorrsteve

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What you are referring to as "sway bars" are not.. They are weight distribution
bars. If you are using 15K WDH (weight dist hitch) for a 6K trailer, you
prob will never get it in the sweet spot. You could sell that set and go to
a 7500 or 10,000 lb system and be way better off... Then you can decide
if you want to get a system that has the "sway" component built into it or
add it separately. Up to you on that.
I really like my set up as it has the sway and WD hitch all in one. But it was
pretty pricey.. I did the 10K system and it was like $700 a few years ago.
Equal-I-Zer is the name brand. American built.. Good stuff.
You order it by the tongue weight of your trailer. I expect the tonque weight
of your rig to around 600-800 lbs.
https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Distribution-Hitch/Equal-i-zer/EQ90-00-1000.html
this is a link to the 1000/10,000 System. You can prob find one from a diff mfr
in the 800/8,000 for a bit cheaper. But I know this works.
My camper is 9500 lbs w 900 tongue weight going down the road.
I have made mods to accomodate this at it's way over the rating on my Yuk
Hey Foggy.
I do have anti sway, WD hitch. And it's an Equal-l!izer. I can adjust the pressure applied to the bars by either changing the height of the brackets that hold the bars, or change the angle of the head to tighten or loosen. I don't think changing out my hitch will do anything, as I can change the pitch of my bars from overkill to zero pressure.
But. I will check this out. Thanks!
 

Geotrash

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I'll add my name to the list of folks suggesting that you probably have too much hitch for that trailer. If it's helpful, this is the hitch I have (with the same 1000 lb. bars). The sway control is under the ball and you tighten the Allen bolt in the picture, which clamps down on the swivel with brake friction material, to get however much sway control you want. The advantage to this design is that it's fairly light weight, doesn't require drilling the trailer's A-Frame, and you don't have to disconnect or release the sway control to back up, as with some designs. I like the designs Foggy mentioned as well, so just wanted to share what's working well for me. This one has been a set it and forget it solution. I've seen a lot of them around and so far everyone else has been happy with their R3, too.

I'll also second James' suggestion of going to a CAT scale to get the weights. I measured mine 3 ways: 1/ Just the Yukon 2/ Yukon with the hitch and trailer connected for towing, including the WDH bars. 3/ With the hitch and trailer connected for towing, but without the WDH bars installed. That gives you everything you need to know exactly how much weight you're redistributing with the hitch.

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Shorrsteve

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That's an interesting set up. Not seen that before. I'm trying to figure out how the bars move on the bracket.
 

Geotrash

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That's an interesting set up. Not seen that before. I'm trying to figure out how the bars move on the bracket.
That's the thing - they don't need to because where the front of the bars mount beside the hitch ball pivots, allowing the bars to stay in fixed positions on the A-frame. The sway control acts on that pivot point. It's pretty slick.
 
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Shorrsteve

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That's the thing - they don't need to because where the front of the bars mount beside the hitch ball pivots, allowing the bars to stay in fixed positions on the A-frame. The sway control acts on that pivot point. It's pretty slick.
I like this. I wish I knew about this before I spent the $500 to make my old hitch work better.
 

Foggy

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Hey Foggy.
I do have anti sway, WD hitch. And it's an Equal-l!izer. I can adjust the pressure applied to the bars by either changing the height of the brackets that hold the bars, or change the angle of the head to tighten or loosen. I don't think changing out my hitch will do anything, as I can change the pitch of my bars from overkill to zero pressure.
But. I will check this out. Thanks!
OK.. I guess i missed that...
So you really just need to get it adjusted correctly. It takes some time and
experimentation.. But if it's "overrated" for your app it may be difficult to
dial it in correctly.
 

petethepug

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6D599C6C-7033-44E3-80B3-5B177CD3FD45.jpegC50ECB8E-4D54-459C-9865-B9A428BD9B16.jpeg

Wasn’t paying attention. I thought I saw a standard
length truck and then it’s an XL with a trailer that didn’t look that big in the first pic. :D
 

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