Poor towing experience

[KJRR]

This mirrors my experience. I moved earlier this year, which involved making a few round-trips (loaded one way, empty the other) with an enclose u-haul trailer behind my stock 4x4. When the trailer was empty, it bounced all over the place and those bounces reverberated through the truck. With the trailer loaded, the bouncing was substantially reduced and the drive was much more pleasant!

Having just hauled an empty vs loaded uhaul trailer this past weekend, it did bounce around and rattle a lot empty. Much more like trailering my boat when the uhaul was loaded. I used an anti rattle clamp on the hitch while when I trailered the boat up to the UP last year, it helped a lot with the clunking and rattling. I did manage a trailer burnout with the loaded uhaul to which my daughter just shook her head. At least she didn't tell mom.

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[Big Blue]

I've never heard this before. The tongue weight rating is normally related to the hitch.

You are correct, the tongue weight is the actual weight applied to the hitch receiver. The tongue weight does add to the load in the bed when calculating GVW and also in calculating GTW. The weight of any receiver components like weight distribution hitches are also tongue weight.

In this case with the apparent axle position and not know how the trailer is loaded or what is in the truck bed besides the cap and rack. The rear suspension could be overloaded. Tongue weight should be roughly between 10% and 15% of GTW. As Phil said need real weights and go from there.

 

[Big Blue]

Huh -- i thought it was this: the maximum payload is ~1500 lb, and tongue weight (aka max 750 pounds, which is 10% of 7500 lb max towing capacity) is part of the payload capacity.
So if using the full 750 lb max tongue weight, the rest of the vehicle can only have 1500-750=750 lb payload.

Correct and remember any aftermarket item installed on the truck, such as the caps, racks, bumpers,, or winches counts as payload.

 

[Frenchy]

Huh -- i thought it was this: the maximum payload is ~1500 lb, and tongue weight (aka max 750 pounds, which is 10% of 7500 lb max towing capacity) is part of the payload capacity.
So if using the full 750 lb max tongue weight, the rest of the vehicle can only have 750 lb payload.

You are correct that the tongue weight is generally 10% the max tow capacity(depending on manufacturer specifications). And yes it also is applied to the payload capacity. With payload you should also include yourself and any other passengers in the vehicle. It doesnt take much to go over payload for this reason.

 

[Frenchy]

Hmmm...200 lbs smartcap weight should be fine though, no? Combined load carry is max ~1500 lb, so that leaves 1300 lb for people/accessories/tongue weight.

Note that he has a roof rack with stuff on it. That can be an easy 75-100 lbs. Not counting the driver and any amd all passengers. Of course his wife doesnt count to it because I myself would like to keep living lol!! Also the weight that is in the bed that we dont see doesnt help either. All in all it doesnt take much to overload.

 

[jblc]

Note that he has a roof rack with stuff on it. That can be an easy 75-100 lbs. Not counting the driver and any amd all passengers. Of course his wife doesnt count to it because I myself would like to keep living lol!! Also the weight that is in the bed that we dont see doesnt help either. All in all it doesnt take much to overload.

Yeah, agreed I was just responding to the earlier comment that said 350 lbs is the max that can be in the bed:
" the max toung weight for a stock Ranger(no GVM upgrades) is 750 lbs. 200 taken from the trailer and 200 from the Smart Cap leaves just 350. And if more than 350 lbs is in the bed that we dont know about then that will be enough to cause overloaded suspension causing the horrible ride quality."

I think it's not 350 pounds; but rather max accessories = 1500 - 200 (cap) - 200 (tongue estimate) - people.
So the allowed Accessories lb = 1100 - people.
( I'm not sure where 350 came from )
Eg 1100 - 400 lb people still leaves 700 lb for accessories before overload.

Anyway, we're in agreement , I'm just clarifying for anyone reading later, that there baseline max is not 750 lbs, but instead ~1500 lbs.

 

[janitorjim]

check that the tail gate damper is installed properly

 

[JeeperCreeper]

check that the tail gate damper is installed properly

Also, add tow mirrors, flip mirrors out.

 

[66F100]

Looks like there is a weight indicator on the hitch, directly below the ball. Zoom in and it looks like a dial.

 

[Frenchy]

Looks like there is a weight indicator on the hitch, directly below the ball. Zoom in and it looks like a dial.

And it only measures direct weight on the hitch. In a way accurate but at the same time not because it does not account for all the weight on the bed.

 

[Deleted member 1634]

That’s too bad Mark - that’s a pretty light load. Maybe @the1mrb can offer some advice - he has a fairly light looking teardrop and has had a lot of experience with it. Just a thought. Matt, you out there?

So here are my thoughts based on the 35,000 miles or so of towing our off-road teardrop (1200lb dry, 2200lb gross) over the last few years.

Does the camper have suspension? Doesn't look like it does from my cursory research on it. Ours does not either and I can definitely feel that when driving down the road. Any substantial bump causes the trailer to bounce and jerk, which then translates through the hitch to the truck.

The lightness of the trailer also kind of works against you here because when you hit a bump, it can easily almost completely unload the truck of the tongue weight (or even pulling up on it), and then push it all back on immediately after. And because the trailer has no suspension to counteract that, it's all on the truck to dampen that out. This size trailer is almost too light and too heavy at the same time in a weird way, if that makes sense.

And because of the wheelbase between the truck and the trailer, we can sometimes get some good porpoising going on really crappy concrete highways/freeways.

The FX4 shocks don't help for towing either, because they are tuned to be soft and compliant, which is not really what you want for towing as I'm sure everyone can deduce. So all of that propoising and bouncing and jerking, doesn't get damped or reduced as quickly as it otherwise would with normal road shocks.

I will say that I don't think you're overloaded, based on my experience. For us with 2 humans, 2 midsized dogs, the topper, all of our gear (most of which we put in the camper though), and the tongue weight I've estimated we've got a couple hundred pounds left still, based on conservative math. The camera angle and "fish eye-ness" of the picture is doing you an injustice here to those that aren't familiar with smaller teardrop style campers. The truck doesn't look too squat (based on the amount of room left in the wheel wells) (ours only squats maybe an inch, if that, under load) and the amount forward of the trailer axles seems pretty standard for this style camper when you flatten the picture back out in your mind.

In the end, my stance is that there are bad roads out there and good roads. The bad roads will always feel rough no matter what you do, even whether you're towing or not. But if you truly are unhappy, I'd play around with some things and experiment. You could try shifting some things around. Put more of the cargo in the camper cabin over the wheels, put more in the tongue box, put more in the back, put more in the bed of the truck. See which you like better. Swap out the shocks like others have suggested. Take it to get weighed to know for sure like others have suggested. Add some suspension to the camper (I've considered doing that for awhile).

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

….and the award for most likely to be helpful to the OP goes to….

@the1mrb !

 

[jsphlynch]

there are no awards allowed.
that causes division and anxiety among us who aren't as helpful.
it makes us want to comment on everything in search of that holy grail...the award.
the awards are tearing our communities apart. we give them out to kids for simply showing up to school, when in reality, just being helpful should be a human thing to do.

be gone award. disappear into the dusty trails of Arizona and don't come back.

Here's yours, RP:

 

[janitorjim]

….and the award for most likely to be helpful to the OP goes to….

@the1mrb !

check that the tail gate damper is installed properly

 

[P. A. Schilke]

stop it. i said no rewards......

But while I am here, I would like to thank my Mom, my Dad, my siblings and the class of '88 for turning me into the stellar human being I am today. without your love, dedication and perseverance, I never would have surmounted my goals, aspirations and general love for all people. I want to also thank my hairdresser, my dog groomer and my car mechanic for all their dedicated support.

Hi Rp,

All I wanted from Ford was a participation trophy. All I got was a Henry Ford Technology Award....Ford's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Only 0.0067% of the total employees at Ford from the begining of Ford Motor Co. way back when will ever receive this award... So alas...no participation trophy for me...

Margie proudly displays this on top of our partnership desk bookcase.

Laser image of me on the Wall of Fame forever as well....Sheesh!

best,
Phl

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