Reese WDH making truck shake when pulling a trailer?

[Jersey_Fresh]

I haven’t had a chance to talk to my trailer repair person, so I thought I would ask COTH to see if anyone else has had this issue.

I currently haul my 2H Featherlite BP with a 2004 Chevy Suburban. I have for years. When I boarded my horses, I drove mostly on back roads and had no issue but since moving them home, I find myself on the interstate 95% of the time I am hauling. The increased speed and heavy tractor trailer (with a**hole drivers lhat like to try to scare me) traffic was causing my trailer to sway and made me really nervous.

We purchased an older F250 7.3L diesel with the intent of trading my BP for a GN this summer, but alas some upcoming life changes has put that plan on hold until next summer. So as a temporary fix, my dad told us to buy a WDH with sway bars like this one: https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Distribution/Reese/RP66074.html

He has to come back and put the sway bars on, but I drove it last night with just the WDH and found it made the suburban shake on the interstate. I’ve never had this issue before and honestly felt less safe with this set up than I did before.

Is this normal or is this a car issue or a set up issue? Will this go away with the addition of the sway bars? We can, if needed, set up the 250 to pull my trailer but we thought that might be overkill with a somewhat light trailer.

[Corky]

It could be your tires. Was the shake slight and more like a big vibration, up over 70? I would get that feeling with my half ton truck and bumper pull two horse before I upgraded to LT tires from the factory P tires.

[Jersey_Fresh]

@Corky

It could be your tires. Was the shake slight and more like a big vibration, up over 70? I would get that feeling with my half ton truck and bumper pull two horse before I upgraded to LT tires from the factory P tires.

At 14 years old and 180k miles it defiantly does not have factory tires still on. They are LT.

[csaper58]

Sometimes, when you are doing something ill advised, Fate gives you a ‘heads up’ before it kicks you in the nethers.

This sounds like your ‘heads up’

[TwoTrickPony]

I’m sure the experts will weigh in, but that’s the shake I get from tires. Your tires could be fine, but if you haven’t driven the truck in awhile, they could be a bit uneven. When I had shaking checked out before, it was also an issue I cannot remember the name of, but something to do wth the struts or something in the front end?

[soloudinhere]

If your load distributing bars are too strong for your tongue weight (eg you have 1200lb bars and your tongue weight is 450) you can get “bounce” through the hitch from the bars being too stiff. This can feel like shake in the truck.

Also, the leveled load may be highlighting a driveshaft out of balance. That is an issue on the older suburbans/Yukon XL as well as the pickup from the same generation. My Yukon had it and did not start showing until I pulled with a wdh and then I got a pulse through the driveshaft at around 60mph. That could also cause what you’re feeling. My truck is a 2002. My friend’s 01 sierra 3500 has the same issue. Only noticeable under load.

[Jersey_Fresh]

@csaper58

Sometimes, when you are doing something ill advised, Fate gives you a ‘heads up’ before it kicks you in the nethers.

This sounds like your ‘heads up’

I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?

[Jersey_Fresh]

@soloudinhere

If your load distributing bars are too strong for your tongue weight (eg you have 1200lb bars and your tongue weight is 450) you can get “bounce” through the hitch from the bars being too stiff. This can feel like shake in the truck.

Also, the leveled load may be highlighting a driveshaft out of balance. That is an issue on the older suburbans/Yukon XL as well as the pickup from the same generation. My Yukon had it and did not start showing until I pulled with a wdh and then I got a pulse through the driveshaft at around 60mph. That could also cause what you’re feeling. My truck is a 2002. My friend’s 01 sierra 3500 has the same issue. Only noticeable under load.

This makes sense and is similar to what I experienced. I can have our mechanic check it out.

[cutter99]

Check your tires too. I have had the cords separate on tires and it always caused a horrible vibration.

Are you sure you need the weight distributing hitch with the F-250? I used one when pulling a 2 horse Trail-Et with a 4’ dressing room with a short bed extended cab F-150 way back in the early 90s. Once I went to a long bed 3/4 ton truck, it was heavy enough to not need the weight distributing hitch anymore.

[csaper58]

@Jersey Fresh

I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?

Perhaps pulling that trailer…

loaded with however much weight you put in it…

and pulling it at highway speed with that vehicle…

is imprudent.

Perhaps the work around that was suggested to you…

is insufficient to the task…

and a bigger, stronger, vehicle is what is needed to safely do what you want to do.

[pluvinel]

An F-250 is plenty truck for towing a 2H Featherlite BP

[goodhors]

She also said she did not have the sway bars on when she made this test trip. So without the bars in place, she has to look elsewhere for what is going on with the trailer in place on the truck. Being older, the truck may need suspension parts adjusted or replaced from being worn. Tires are a good place to check for problems, they can cause the vibration issues with age, being unbalanced, as can the suspension system, ball joints, truck needing an alignment.

An F250 should easily be able to manage a 2H trailer. Check the trailer tires, grease the hubs, brakes. they may need attention too. Tires wear out, sidewalls crack and check, even if there is lots of tread left on them. Trailer tires usually die of old age, not from wearing out.

I never hauled the BP trailer without the sway bars in place. It gave the truck and trailer a lot better “feel” in highway traffic, truck didn’t get the wind swats of passing semis, buses pushing us sideways. Sorry, I never haul horses at 70mph or above. Just too fast for giving my horses a good ride in the trailer.

[Jersey_Fresh]

@csaper58

Perhaps pulling that trailer…

loaded with however much weight you put in it…

and pulling it at highway speed with that vehicle…

is imprudent.

Perhaps the work around that was suggested to you…

is insufficient to the task…

and a bigger, stronger, vehicle is what is needed to safely do what you want to do.

Is there an eye roll emoji?

I have hauled my FEATHERLITE (ie 3000 lbs unloaded) with my Suburban for years. Even loaded with my 1100 lb horse and tack, it is well below the tow capacity of the vehicle.

Good lord. I will never understand why people on here act like a hauling with a suburban is like pulling a trailer with a Ford Focus. I don’t understand why some on here that think every. single. trailer. needs to be pulled with an F350 dually.

[Jersey_Fresh]

@goodhors

She also said she did not have the sway bars on when she made this test trip. So without the bars in place, she has to look elsewhere for what is going on with the trailer in place on the truck. Being older, the truck may need suspension parts adjusted or replaced from being worn. Tires are a good place to check for problems, they can cause the vibration issues with age, being unbalanced, as can the suspension system, ball joints, truck needing an alignment.

An F250 should easily be able to manage a 2H trailer. Check the trailer tires, grease the hubs, brakes. they may need attention too. Tires wear out, sidewalls crack and check, even if there is lots of tread left on them. Trailer tires usually die of old age, not from wearing out.

I never hauled the BP trailer without the sway bars in place. It gave the truck and trailer a lot better “feel” in highway traffic, truck didn’t get the wind swats of passing semis, buses pushing us sideways. Sorry, I never haul horses at 70mph or above. Just too fast for giving my horses a good ride in the trailer.

I haven’t hauled it with the 250 yet. And I do not go above 60-65 on the interstate. The trailer tires are about 1.5 years old and I had its annual maintenance done in June, checking all of those boxes.

I’ll see how it feels with the sway bars in place and if its still in issue, to the mechanic we go. Its not that big of a deal for me to swap to the 250 as my hauling vehicle, I just stuck with the suburban as it seemed like overkill with a lighter weight 2H BP.

[goodhors]

Sorry to have misunderstood what you posted. Best to get the mechanic involved at this point to get your tow vehicle looked at for problems causing vibration. Not any good reason vibrations should happen. Good luck getting things corrected for smooth towing again.

A suburban should be able to manage a 2h bumper pull without problems. Vehicle has a big enough motor, enough length, that it will stay in control of the load in highway situations. Sway bars adjusted correctly, will help with the wind impact on your solid body vehicle when being passed by larger vehicles. Always nice to have a second tow vehicle with the truck!

[Jersey_Fresh]

@goodhors

Sorry to have misunderstood what you posted. Best to get the mechanic involved at this point to get your tow vehicle looked at for problems causing vibration. Not any good reason vibrations should happen. Good luck getting things corrected for smooth towing again.

A suburban should be able to manage a 2h bumper pull without problems. Vehicle has a big enough motor, enough length, that it will stay in control of the load in highway situations. Sway bars adjusted correctly, will help with the wind impact on your solid body vehicle when being passed by larger vehicles. Always nice to have a second tow vehicle with the truck!

No worries at all. I wasn’t ever worried about the Suburban not being enough truck-I’ve hauled with it for years and have never once felt unsafe nor has it ever struggled. The only issue I had, and I think it would be with any truck, was the swaying on the highway. I never really felt that before because I rarely hauled on the highway, and if I did it was at odd times without a lot of truck traffic.

I’ll call my mechanic and have it looked at. Worst comes to worse, we’ll haul with the 250. I just need to make sure my husband doesn’t do “farm” things (ie put crap like straw, hay, lumber, trash etc) in the back of the suburban when I am gone.

[Kmacht]

I’m willing to bet that the tires on the trailer just need to be balanced. The fact that it happens mostly at highway speeds is the real clue here as an out of balance tire feels worse the faster you drive. Lead weights are attached to the tire rims to correct unbalance when the tires are initially mounted. If you hit a good pothole the weights can loosen up and come off. When you added the weight distribution hitch / sway bars you are transferring more of the load from the trailer to the truck frame. Any bounce in the trailer will now travel more easily through the truck/trailer joint and cause you to feel it in the tow vehicle. An easy way to tell is to have someone ride in the trailer with the sway bars removed while you drive to see if they feel it vibrating/bouncing. The good news is that if that is the problem it is a cheap fix. Most tire places will re-balance the tires for $10 to $15 a tire.

Keith

[Draftmare]

@csaper58

Perhaps pulling that trailer…

loaded with however much weight you put in it…

and pulling it at highway speed with that vehicle…

is imprudent.

Perhaps the work around that was suggested to you…

is insufficient to the task…

and a bigger, stronger, vehicle is what is needed to safely do what you want to do.

A suburban is more than enough vehicle to pull a 2H Featherlight. They have a max pull capacity of 12,000, and are on a truck frame.

[LesleyW]

You might also want to check your rotors. They can cause the type of shaking you’re describing.

[csaper58]

@Draftmare

A suburban is more than enough vehicle to pull a 2H Featherlight. They have a max pull capacity of 12,000, and are on a truck frame.

Apparently the OPs 2004 (13yr old) suburban is feeling the strain at interstate speeds with that trailer behind it.

But glad you looked up current specs.