Jerky ride when towing.

I have a 2011 NT 26LRSS, I tow with a 2101 F150 5.4, 3.73. It has a GVW or 7650 and a max payload of 1853. My TT weighs in at 7000 +or-. It has a tongue weight of 750-900lbs. I say 750 -900 because I normaly tow it with around 750lb but have been trying a heavier tongue weight to maybe eliminate some jerk. Anyway every time the back wheels on the truck hit a bump, small or large the truck jerks. I have towed this TT with my previous TV which was an 08 F150 and had the same problems. I even had the oppurtunity to tow with an F350 and still had some jerkiness. I have used 800, 1000, and 1200lb bars. I have tried different links, different head tilt and the previous truck had air bags, stiffer tires (not E though) and new Bilstiens. the 2010 is all stock with only 1300 miles. I have used EAZ-Lift and also a 1200lb Reese DC. It still jerks to the point that it's uncomfortable. On smooth road its fine but even hitting a man hole cover going thru town causes it to jerk. I'm beginning to wonder if the TT has some design flaws. After all it has jerked with 3 different truck. I even left it at the dealer for a day and they could do no better than I could. In fact it was worse. I always measure everything and with my last hook up with the 1200lb bars I had rear sag of 1-1/4" and the front sagged 1/2", the TT was down in the front 1/2". I really getting frustrated. I have been trying different set ups since we got the TT last Oct and have never been able to get a smooth ride. The trailer we had before while only weighing 4100lbs with a hitch weight of 500lbs pulled like a cloud. Never felt it back there. I know other people pull trailers equall to what I have witth 1/2 tons and seem to have bo trouble. I do get all my weights from the local truck scale. Any feed back would be helpfull.

How tight are your equalizing bars?? Sounds like you are getting bar slap, chains go slack then get tight with a jerk or bang. Your bars could be to heavy for the tongue weight or the head is set up wrong. When chained up, a properly set head and with the right bars, the bars should be level to the road with both the TV and trailer level.

I had the same situation a while back with a similar weight trailer and a Yukon XL. I tried several different settings on the hitch and never was able to eliminate the bounce. I think it may have something to with the soft suspension on a half ton and too heavy of a tongue weight. The same trailer on a Chev 2500 HD, no problem. Just my opinion.

I just traded off my F150 for an F250 6.7 L because I thought the F150 was underpowered with its 4.6 L, but I never had much bounce with my NT26 LRSS. I use the EAZ-Lift Elite 14000 Pound (Gross weight) WD Hitch. When I traded my Edge for the NT the dealer adjusted my hitch height and it was about 3/4 of the height of the ball higher than the tongue's ball cup. I thought that was a little high, but it worked like a champ because the TT and TV were level and the torsion bars were perfectly parallel to the ground and tongue using the first link on the chain. I try to keep my tongue weight around 750. I just readjusted it for my F250 and basically followed the specs to set it up, but haven't been able to try it out. The install instructions specify between 1/16 and 1/8 of an inch of ball height above the ball cup for each 100 pounds of tongue weight. If I get a bounce, I'm going to try what the dealer set for the F150 (greater ball height).

Very encouraging, thanks

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my F150 was a super crew with the short bed and I had a camper shell on the truck. I don't know if that would have bad a difference.

I know this is going to stir up a lot of negative feedback. I've driven F150's since the first truck I ever owned until I bought the F250 when we got or first 5th wheel this year. The red F150 in the picture had exactly the setup you are describing except it is a club cab. In my humble opinion, the trailer is a little too heavy for the suspension. The trailer in the picture is only a 24' Coachman trailer with a 5000# GVW. I looked at several trailers even pulled a trailer that weighed 7100# and just did not like the way the truck responded to the bumps and such. Had plenty of straight power, but the ride was not great. If anything, get a good 10,000# Equalizer hitch and set it up tight. As in an earlier post, sounds like the hitch is just not set as tight as it should be. I'm not sure I would not consider some air bags just to help the suspension a little in absorbing the shock, not for any increased load capability.

I have the Screw 5'5" bed, and I had the same problem with an 08 F150, it had air bags and it didn't make any diff. I towed a smaller trailer (4000lb) with the 08 and it was great. Like they say didn't even kow it was back there. I'm thinking of getting either an Airsafe hitch or maybe getting the HD spring pack from the 8200gvw F150, if they will fit. Plus some Bilsteins. I found the spring pack for 270.00 each. I do have 1200# bars cranked pretty tight and it's better than the 1000# bars. No bars is the worst, so getting the heavy rated ones is heading in the right direction.

Wow, i just wrote an essay and it all just disappeared.I guess you all were spared.

In short goducks10/11 my very similar C.Edition 26RLSS pulls fine behind my 1500 QC L.box Ram. I have only 8000lbs bars.I pulled it for an hour with no WD at all with no problems,four hours at the second chain link which felt fine, half an hour at the third link and felt to much road vibration and reaction. I settled on only one chain link being the best set up.I don't know how to recreate your forward back sensation/jerk.I think i remember you commenting you add weight to the trailers nose via packing to help things,is this not being countered by increasing W. distribution?

Just read through this thread again. By increasing Ball height is that not reducing hitch weight? By having less hitch weight does that not unsettle the trailer and cause it to wag the dog or create greater sensations. If the truck and trailer sit level meaning somewhat equal weight distribution on the trucks axles than how does making bars and the trucks rear end stiffer help?

OBX-GL said:

Just read through this thread again. By increasing Ball height is that not reducing hitch weight? By having less hitch weight does that not unsettle the trailer and cause it to wag the dog or create greater sensations. If the truck and trailer sit level meaning somewhat equal weight distribution on the trucks axles than how does making bars and the trucks rear end stiffer help?

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I don't know about the physics of it, but I do know that using the specs provided by the manufacturer (in my case EAZ-Lift) has worked very well for me with the F150 and F250. I faithfully try to keep the torsion bars parallel to the tongue and the ground per specs and have not had a bounce problem with either truck. My WDH is 14,000 (Gross) with 1000 pound torsion bars.

Correction. My Reese bars are the V5's which i believe are 10,000 gross and 550 hitch which is small yet work great.