Too Much Weight?

[shick2356]

I have a 2008 F250 PSD 4x4 towing a 2007 Jayco 31BHDS 840lb hitch weight, 7475 dry weight, my rear end seems to be sagging, I had a F150 FX4 last year and it sags the same I thought going to the 250 would stop the sagging.
Any ideas to help, I do use a Reese WD setup
Picture 010r.jpg

Picture 011r.jpg

[Juzplanekrazy]

I would think the WD setup would do the trick. I have a F-350 and I'm well within specs for pin weight and I'm sagging too.
It looks like a set of Air Bags for me. I had them on my Dodge to help re-level the truck and they worked great.

[Bassman349]

Air bags would be a good solution, but before you spend the $$$$, check to make sure you are lifting sufficiently with the spring bars.

I use 1200 lbs rated spring bars with my setup. First, with the truck on level ground, I took a measurement from the ground to the bottom of the hitch receiver. Then I set the trailer on the hitch , full weight, and measured again. After fooling with the spring bars for a while, I ended up with the rear 1" lower than the original measurement (empty), and all is well. It has sufficient weight on the rear for traction. Its all in the spring bars adjustment and having heavy enough spring bars to lift the truck without having excessive bow in the bars. After all the tweaking and measuring, I found no need for air bags. Hope this helps.

[ddduallyfan]

Timbren's are cheap, easy to install, and help out a great deal.

[Engine31]

Your trailer looks level if not a little high in front. Your truck is doing all the work. I would first try to level the trailer with the truck so the trailer suspension is helping with the load. On my boat, if I run high on the nose of the trailer the truck caries more of the tounge weight, If I drop the hitch a bit, the trailer suspension helps with some of that load.

Then setting up the spring bars is a must like previously stated.

[CM71]

Shick2356 - I have a setup similar to yours. I pull a 6000 pound (loaded), 29 foot, travel trailer using a Reese WD hitch. I have 800 pound trunnion bars with the dual cam sway control. Your trailer is heavier, so you probably need the 1200 pound bars - I think I'm at the upper limit of weight for the 800 pound bars.

The first time I pulled the trailer with my truck, I didn't have air bags, just the WD hitch. Everything rode fine, but it was a stiff ride. The WD hitch spread out the weight, but I still had a little more sag in the back than front. I'm not sure if it is ideal for the WD hitch to spread the weight between the front and rear 50/50, or just distribute it to a certain degree so the rear axle isn't taking 100% of the load. To improve the ride I added air bags, which softened things up a bit. I spent a while re-adjusting the hitch so I could put some more tension in the trunnion bars and get everything right (trailer level, truck level, cams at the proper length to sit in the right spot of the trunnion bars, etc...). Now that I have everything adjusted, it really seems to tow well. I feel pretty comfotable towing at 65 mph with no white-knuckle events.

Now that I have it all worked out, I do the following:

• Have 5-10 psi of air in the bags
• Set the trailer on the tongue
• Inflate to 50 psi
• Retract the tongue jack
• Tension the trunnion bars

It took a while to get everything set, but it seems like the WD hitch does the bulk of the work to pull the trailer comfortably, while the air bags just improve the ride. Having everything set correctly, I don't notice any squat in the back. I put in the air bags myself, which took a long time. Having done it once, I could do it again in about 4 hours. There are definitely some improvements to be made on the installation instructions. Hope this helps.

[SurfOnH20]

Go with air bags...It fixed my problem..The great thing about air bags is they are adjustable. Let the air out when your not towing...

[FordNewbie]

Originally Posted by shick2356

I have a 2008 F250 PSD 4x4 towing a 2007 Jayco 31BHDS 840lb hitch weight, 7475 dry weight, my rear end seems to be sagging, I had a F150 FX4 last year and it sags the same I thought going to the 250 would stop the sagging.
Any ideas to help, I do use a Reese WD setup
Attachment 1332

Attachment 1333

I am pulling trailer nearly as large as yours and also just upgraded from a 1/2 ton to an F250. You should definitely be able to level the truck with the Reese WD setup. As was mentioned, you should have 1200# bars. With my old setup (Yukon XL) I hitched up and used the power tongue jack to lift both truck and trailer high enough to hook the spring bars. After lifting the tongue jack, I was able to drop the front nearly as much as the back.

I have not yet towed with the new truck but have done the hitch set-up. I was shocked to see that the tongue jack has to work much harder to lift the back of an empty pickup (CC SWB) than it did to lift my Yukon XL (with stuff in the back). My assumption is that with the stiffer front suspension it takes even more effort to push down the front from the hitch. In other words, I have learned that to get any squat on the front of the F250 I need even more tension on the spring bars. When I was done, my 800# tongue weight only dropped the truck 1 inch at the rear wheel openings and 1/2 inch at the front.

Lee

[Juzplanekrazy]

It's a slight sag, but it is sagging in the rear end just a tad. And I can hear the overload plastic bummper on the springs hit everytime I hit a bump.
I'm going to look into some air bags. I just hope they don't conflict with my 5th wheel hitch brackets on the frame.

[Jcard]

That sag in the rear is the price paid for that nice ride quality unloaded. Air bags will get you the best of both.
I just burned the airbag brackets onto my B&W turnover hitch brackets, as I got tired of bolting them on every time for the last three trucks.