First time towing w/ truck - pushing feeling

The spousal unit and I went camping this week for Thanksgiving. I have a 20 ft enclosed cargo trailer that I am converting to a camper. The trailer is fairly light and I have added one kitchen lower and upper cabinets up front along with a mini-split HVAC unit on the tongue. I do not know the tongue weight but the rear fender dropped 1.75 inches after connecting the trailer. The front fender measurement stayed the same.

I have pulled the trailer with my previous 2020 F150, but this was the first time pulling with my Tundra. The Tundra seems to have a lot more or a pushing feeling and bouncing feeling over bumps and it isn't unmanageable or terrible but different.

The other things that are different are this. The previous F150 had Billstein shocks on the rear. The trailer also has new Goodyear Endurance tires with 65 lbs pressure. The previous trailer tires were only D rated for 50 lbs. I am not using a WDH either.

Any ideas on my setup or how to improve my towing experience? Too much tongue weight, need WDH, need better shocks or spring helpers?

 

You sure the brakes are working? Some brake controllers have had issues.

 

Tire pressures?

 

A weight distributing hitch is almost never a bad idea. You should also figure out your tongue weight.

 

What ply/load range are your truck tires? WDH is recommended for any substantial trailer as well. If your truck has the standard black shocks and not the Bilsteins, they aren’t very good with dampening.

 

I had the brake controller update done and it seems to be working just fine. I am thinking it is the shocks. The trailer tires are at 65 lbs and the tuck tires are at 35 lbs.

This is my rig with the old F150

 

That 20’ length measurement must include the tongue?? I have / tow a 16’ (inside length) x 8’ camperized cargo trailer as well, and yours doesn’t look any longer. (Not trying to make it a contest, honestly. )

If you’re towing a nearly empty trailer (guessing 2500 - 3000 lbs), I’d try closer to 35-40 psi in your trailer tires. Even with 2 quads and, food, water, gear in mine (5500 lbs gross or so) I run 45 - 50 psi. 65 psi would only be needed for the max carrying capacity of the tire, which will be printed on the sidewall, and that number x4 will way more than your trailer gross weight as stated.

I have Bilstien 5100’s in the rear, and it’s always towed pretty well, but the ride-rite air bags with about 20 psi really helped this feeling the most. It just feels much more stable fore / aft now.

 

Truck is stock. I guess I always heard that you are supposed to run the trailer tires at their max? I need to find a CAT scale sometime to know exactly where I am at but this is a fairly light trailer. With the cabinet, mini-split and all our gear I am guessing it is probably 3400 lbs.

 

If you have the black shocks, they are marginal at best in daily driving and will not inspire confidence in towing and hauling. RAS will help support the weak rear leafs, but it will lift the rear about an inch. You are using Tow/Haul when you tow? Tow haul does what it supposed to do, does make a big difference.

 

I’d measure the tongue weight as I’m guessing by your description it’s way over 10%

 

More info. When we drove home this AM the outside temp was 21 degrees with no wind and the trailer pulled much better.

When I first towed it last Wed. afternoon the temp was @ 60 and the winds were 15 mph. With the temp difference this AM and according to my tuck tire pressures I am guessing the trailer tires were 10 lbs less but I didnt stop to measure them. I had it in tow mode both days but the RPM's seemed lower on the way home this AM. I am guessing the wind and terrain. had a lot to do with that too.