How much squat?

Question for the experts... how much rear end “squat” is too much? 2019 SR5 TSS 2wd pulling a 25’ Airstream FC RB. About 6000 # trailer weight with +/- 820# tongue weight. Blue Ox WD hitch. Seems to squat about 4 - 5 inches, but feels OK towing. Do I need a RAS to reduce the squat?

 

I think a lot of that should be addressable by readjusting your WDH.

 

In college, 525 for 1.

These days 405 for a couple and 450 for 1.

 

The WDH was professionally installed for the specific trailer, so I assume it was done correctly.

 

Define "professionally installed" because the place that sold it/the trailer may not know how to do it properly. I've spent the last hour trying to find the pics one of the mods put up of his tundra towing a couple trailers, and I don't think it had 4 inches of squat. I could be wrong, but I can't find the pics anyway.

@ColoradoTJ didn't you have a couple pics of your tundra with your various trailers? I give up.

 

Ah! Thank you! (Sorry I tag you in all the towing questions.)




@Tn_ags here is the pic I was after. There is still some squat, but it's less important than the rise up front. You should measure your hub to your front wheel well without the trailer, and then with it. If you are seeing a big rise, then your WDH is likely in need of tuning.

 

Your hitch could use adjusting and I would also suggest a RAS HD kit, nothing but good stuff. Never hear one complaint about them. Kinda nice to keep your headlights in focus.

 

As @AzureNightmare said, I would look at your WDH adjustments. Do you have the paperwork for the WDH? The instructions for mine state that if adjusted properly, I should have no more than a 1 inch drop. Pics for us to look at may help as well. Are the torsion bars parallel to the ground?

 

Believe or not, 25ft airstream have a heavy tongue weight. You need to load the trailer, and measure your tongue weight with a scale. My neighbor has a 25ft airstream and he complains about his weight. He has a newer f150 ford. He put helper springs on. I have a 24ft Jayco and tongue dry weight is 550 lbs. Load tongue weight is 750lb. I put on firestone air bag.

 

It would be interesting to hear what the CAT scales tell you. The readings of the steer and drive axles can help you fine tune the WDH and load. What is the payload of your truck?

 

Payload is myself and my wife, some aluminum folding chairs (>10#), a 50A power cable and a 40 qt. Yeti. All in all, less than 500#. Trailer is not full of stuff and I keep the tanks at about 15% full, so not a lot of extra weight. AS dealer installed the WDH & the guy said he has 20+ years doing these setups. Marked the links so we could consistently latch at the same place. I don’t have a straight-on side shot, but this pic seems to show it sitting pretty level.

 

Did you verify how much weight.your truck can carry by going to your Owner's Manual with the model code that's posted on the sticker inside the driver's door? From that number you must subtract the weight on the yellow sticker from the port installed options. My 2021 SR5 4x4 Crewmax with the 38 gallon tank filled only leaves me with 1217 pounds for pax, tongue weight, WDH and gear. You're 2 WD so that's in your favor.

 

That's nice...what model/length is your Airstream?

SPP

 

Nice trailer!

The tongue weight on my trailer is about 750 lbs and I get (rough guess here) around 3-4" of squat. My front doesn't move though. My RV dealer did nothing more than throw the hitch on and claim it was set up properly. I haven't made it to the scales yet, so I set up mine using a tape measure and a level parking pad. I had to adjust it quite a bit from where the dealer had it.

 

Thanks. Your WDH definitely wasn’t set up properly if the front end did not move with the rear. Mine does move down as well, keeping the truck fairly level, it just seems to move more than I think it should. I will be doing some detailed measuring next time I hook it up.