29prks poor handling/ fishtailing?

[wwalters]

We've had our Prowler for a couple years now and have noticed that whenever we fill the fresh water tank and hit the road the trailer wants to fishtail severely above 60 MPH. This creates some anxious moments as my wife claws at my face and screams obscenities, etc. Because of this we usually drain the fresh water tank and fill it when we get near our campsite. Much of our camping is cold camping with no water or elect. available. I understand there is a lengthy procedure available for balancing the hitch etc. It acts like the trailer is poorly balanced when the tank is full and would work better with the tank farther forward. Any thoughts or advice on this would be greatly appreciated. By the way, we truly love our Prowler and really enjoy all the amenities. This is a beautiful RV. wwalters

 

[danemayer]

Hi wwalters,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

Looking at your floor plan, it does seem like there's a lot of weight toward the rear, before you add water to the fresh tank. I don't have experience towing travel trailers, but I wonder if putting some water in the front gray tank would balance things out for you - assuming your tow vehicle could handle the weight.

I'm sure others will chime in with their thoughts.

 

[branson4020]

Above 60 mph???

 

[TravelTiger]

Is your trailer level when it is hitched up? If you are nose high, and then add weight to the back, this could cause a tail-wagging.

What kind of tow vehicle are you towing with -- are you within the towing specs of the vehicle? If you have too light a tow vehicle or too short a wheelbase for the trailer length, these could cause the symptom you describe.

 

[Silverado23]

Are you using a weight distributing hitch with any sway control either built-in such as an equalizer hitch or added in addition to the hitch?

 

[Manzan]

x2 about the weight distributing hitch and sway control. A trip to a scale is in order also. Should be 12% or more of the trailer weight should be on the hitch. A properly adjusted WD hitch puts close to the same weight on the front axle as on the rear. There was one case in the forum where the weight on the front axle actually went down and he could not figure out why the rig was so unstable.

 

[CKFX]

We just purchased a 2015, 29P RKS, in April. I now tow with an F-250, and since we use this trailer as base camp at horse shows we are typically dry camping and I go in with a full FW tank. We previously had 2 different 5th wheel trailers, but have a new truck lease coming and they don't allow drilling the bed for mounts, so change to TT. Everything I read before purchase was to obtain the best weight distribution hitch that included sway control capability that your budget allowed. I went with the Blue Ox series with the options of various weight capability bars. On delivery we set the camper up level, used the minimum tension on weight bars to re-level the truck and I towed. Found this to actually handle better than my last 5th, which I attribute to the longer distance between truck hitch and trailer axles. We then reloaded the trailer with all of our accumulated goodies and I found that without water we were slightly nose down and I needed more tension of the weight distribution bars to bring truck back to level, (front was high, rear was low). After working on correcting this I filled the FW tank and found that the trailer was about 1/4 bubble nose high, and truck measured height was about 3/8ths " high rear, and unchanged in front. Took a test ride on 2 lane and X-way, found no problem with trailer handling on moving corners, lane changes, or being passed by semis. When X-way towing I normally hold around 65 mph as the truck has a fuel economy, (oxymoron,) sweet spot between 1800 and 2000 rpms, and with my gearing this is about 65-68 mph. With full water and the hitch set up I have no fishtailing has happened. Last time out we experienced the monsoons and driving thru heavy rain had no handling problems. I will be testing various chain link counts on hooking up the weight distribution bars to see if I can improve the level. But as stated no problems with full FW tank and fishtailing.

 

[ILH]

Take a look at a Hensley hitch. Can't say enough about how well they work. The resale value on a used Hensley says it all.

 

[JohnD]

Our previous 2013 Heartland Trail Runner had the rear kitchen, which already made it rear-heavy . . . then add a full tank of fresh water (around 500 pounds) . . . look out!

What also made the sway worse was the fact that the trailer axles were so close together (my opinion).

You'll need a weight distributing hitch set up . . . plus you'll need to learn how to set it up right!

I just sold my old DrawTite WD setup, which worked very well . . . don't need it anymore with our new 5th-wheeler!

 

[TriciaR1970]

I use the Equalizer Weight Distribution Hitch 15K and I have had almost NO sway since installing this hitch.

I tow a 2014 Prowler 28RLS with a 2013 Ford F150 V6 with EcoBoost

 

[Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn]

You'll need to get the trailer level as possible and move all of the cargo you can forward in front of the axles or into the rear of the tow vehicle. Hauling some water in the gray tanks would help if you can dump them when you get to where your going. Bottom line is to much weight behind the trailer axles.