Tips for Preventing Sway with Double Trailer Setup

Question

Question:

Before I ask this question I understand that this is not legal in every state but it is legal in my state. I have a 24 foot travel trailer Double axle/electric breaksthat weighs 4000#’s. I use a weight distribution hitch as well as an anti sway bar. I have welded a curt receiver hitch to the frame of the rear of the trailer. I purchased it from here and it’s the model that is rated for 500# tongue weight well within the tongue weight of my cargo trailer that I plan on towing with it. The cargo trailer weighs 1400#’s 6x12 single axle and the golf cart that will be in it weighs in at around 1000#’s. I am towing with a Ford F-150 Ecoboost rated around11,000#’s of towing capacity. When I first attempted this set up i had a dangerous amount of sway I practiced before I set out on a long distance trip. I went home and adjusted the distribution hitch and flipped the rear ball to pick up some more on the cargo trailer it made things much better. Then I turned the golf cart around to put more tongue weight on the cargo trailer and loaded some heavier stuff toward the front of the travel trailer so that the tongue weight of the rear trailer wouldn’t negate the tongue weight of the camper. It made it in my mind safe enough to tow on our first trip with this set up. I still get some sway out of the cargo trailer especially when being passed by long strings of traffic which happens a lot bc I keep my speeds around 60 mph. Will adding a sway control to the rear trailer reduce my sway further. Ideally I would like zero but we don’t live in a perfect world. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks. The picture included is everything hooked up except the weight distribution hitch on the tow vehicle is not hooked up. When installed the truck sits perfectly level.

asked by: Devin G

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Expert Reply:

Its really hard to come up with a totally safe way to tow double trailers. Probably the best way would be to add quite a bit of tongue weight to the first trailer so that when the tongue weight of the second trailer is present it's not offset to the point of being too light and dangerous. A second sway control like the part # 83660 would help too but it's really going to be about getting the tongue weight of each trailer in the sweet spot.

expert reply by: Jameson C

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Answer 1

A long double-towing set up like yours is always going to be susceptible to some sway, and while traveling slower will help, so will a form of sway control. Instead of a full-on weight distribution system - which your 5th wheel's hitch receiver…

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Answer 2

You can install friction sway control on both sides of a trailer like the part #17200. The only recommendation I would make is to be aware that when backing the trailer in tight situations you should probably remove the sway controls. This would be…

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Answer 3

The wire that runs from the vehicle's battery to the 7-way trailer connector and then from the 7-way trailer connector to the trailer battery should be at least a 10 gauge. If you don't have any 10 gauge wire you can purchase part #10-1-1 by…

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Answer 4

It's a wire color difference but not a function difference on the pins of the 7-way. The difference comes from the fact that the two different styles are representative of two different areas that uses trailers. Traditional is usually seen on…

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Answer 5

You would be able to charge both the trailer battery as well as the breakaway battery through your 7-way connection to the tow vehicle. This is very standard practice with most people just running a line from each battery to the 12v accessory…

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Answer 6

Circuit breakers are a great way to shut down a circuit if there happened to be an overdraw that would otherwise get the wiring so hot that it would melt or even worse catch fire. They also would save any accessories attached to the circuit from…

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Answer 7

It depends on the year make and model of your vehicle where the brake controller fuse may be located. If you have a factory towing package the fuse is sometimes labeled "trailer tow electric brake". You can check the fuse visually to see if…

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Answer 8

Those are the wires for the brake magnets. You will need to connect the black wire to the brake controller output wire on your trailer connector and you are correct the white wire will need to be grounded to a clean metal surface on the trailer. I…

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Answer 9

If you already have a breakaway switch and trying to find its power source, It is possible that someone could have wired the breakaway switch directly to the main battery on the trailer but it does not come like that from the factory. The breakaway…

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Answer 10

Junction boxes like #3375601101 have independent terminals for each function that don't connect to each other. It would be very possible for a connection to go bad or lose connection, but it is not normal for an entire junction box with all its…

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Answer 11

A 4-Way trailer connector has the basic lighting functions only; running lights, left turn signal and brake lights, right turn signal and brake lights, and ground. A 7-Way has these functions and a 12 volt circuit, a circuit for electric trailer…

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Answer 12

If your vehicle has a factory brake controller plug, you can simply use the Tekonsha Plug-In Wiring Adapter for Electric Brake Controllers – Ford, Item #3034-P, which will connect to the vehicle plug and the brake controller. On the new E-450…

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