Toy hauler

[BusyWeb]

It looks good for me, even though I don't have any experiences with trailings.
As other members said, the front of the truck looks little bit up ??
May be hitch height adjustement >> ha ha just guess... don't laugh.

When I was in the touring mode, I saw many similar setups on the camp sites.
Which means that it will work fine otherwise people would not use this kind of setups.

[alanmcorcoran]

I have the anti sway bars. I'm not sure about the leveler. I believe from the specs I found tongue weight was 530 pounds. If that makes sense. I'll try to get some photos of the hitch parts when it's light out tomorrow.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by alanmcorcoran

I believe from the specs I found tongue weight was 530 pounds.

If,by that, you mean the weight at the hitch, it sounds heavy to me. I seem to remember that I could lift the hitch very easily.

[mrlmd1]

Originally Posted by bonehead

Also forgot to mention the fact that if you do use an equalizer hitch it usually has an anti sway bar that helps a great deal. Cost for the whole system is around 500.00.
From experience, it is the only way to pull a bumper pull travel trailer, and feel comfortable.

I have to differ with you -
An equalizer hitch is frame mounted, not bumper mounted. That trailer is much too heavy for a bumper mount hitch, it will pull the bumper right off or severely bend the thin mounts holding the bumper on. A bumper mount hitch is only meant to tow something maybe weighing a few hundred pounds and not putting anywhere near 500lbs. weight on the hitch itself.
If the tongue weight on AC's trailer is >500lbs, that's probably overloading his rear end and he would need a frame mounted weight distributing hitch to spread the weight over the 4 wheels of the tow vehicle, or much beefier springs and shocks on the rear end. It's different than loading 500 or even 1000lbs, into the cargo area, that's spread out over the whole truck, not just put on the rear end.

[alanmcorcoran]

Disconnected but you can see anti sway holders. I bought tow package with suburban so I think were frame mounted.

[alanmcorcoran]

Here I think you can see the hitch is bolted to the frame.

[mrlmd1]

The bar you have inserted into that hitch on your Suburban, which has an adjustable height mechanism for the ball, also extends the ball out further, adding another foot or so of leverage arm to it, which adds extra leverage weight on that hitch, which is one of the reasons your rear end sags and the front end is raised up higher. There are anti sway bracket holders on the trailer, but nothing like that on your hitch to connect to it.
You should take the whole rig to the place that put your hitch on and properly fit the right hitch to your vehicle to tow that trailer safely.
In addition to the front end being up in the air and lighter on the road possibly affecting your steering, your headlights will be way out of whack, aimed up towards the sky and not on the road. Your low beams will be in other oncoming driver's faces and your high beams searching for low flying aircraft.

[alanmcorcoran]

The sway bars go into square sockets with bolts and cotters on either side under the ball. Not sure there is much I can do re leverage - it's their ball joint and there's only one position (one hole) for the connecting beam. I think the solution is to beef up the rear suspension (or buy a beefier truck.)

The 1500 pulls just fine on your basic Midwest highway type road (straight, flat) but it's under powered for grades and it's not fun in lane number 1 (which is generally all effed up compared to the others.)

Your observation on the headlights is correct.

[Water Warrior 2]

See if the local auto parts store has shock absorbers with springs on them. I used 4 on my half ton to help carry a full size camper. 2 on the back of the Sub might do wonders although you may want to just renew all 4 if they are a few years old.

[alanmcorcoran]

Suburban is 1999 model bought in 98. Although it has less than 70k on it the parts are over ten years old. I'm gonna do some research and checking around before I tow again. I suspect that mrlmd is correct in that this trailer's a bit much for the 1500.