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Old 01-27-2021, 05:55 PM   #1
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Bouncing

Hey guys I've got a bit of a problem and I'm wondering if you have any suggestions.

90% of the time when towing my TT it's a smooth ride, no real issues, pulls good.
However 10% of the time, when i get on certain stretches of interstate the TT and truck start to 'bounce' so to speak. So much so that I have to slow down to around 50 or I feel like the whole truck is gonna bounce and shake apart!

I'm baffled because the WDH is setup perfectly (I set it up and all measurements are correct) Tire pressures are good, everything checks out within spec, I'm well within my tow capacity, etc etc.

It bounces like this no matter the load in the bed, truck, TT.. It'll always bounce/jerk me around on certain stretches of Hwy...

How can it be smooth as silk 90% of the time, even on some less than ideal roads.. but on these 10% stretches of road its a nightmare over 50mph??

Please let me know if you need any more details, I'm trying to keep this post short, but it's kind of hard to explain what is happening in a few words and i can't exactly take a video since its the off season and we aren't using it right now.
(13 F150 SCREW, 30' 2013 TT, Equalizer WDH hitch)
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Old 01-27-2021, 06:05 PM   #2
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Hard to say based on what your saying , at a guess the shocks in the truck are junk and the trailer doesn't have any shock on it. Get a set of Bilstine 4600 yellow body shock for all 4 corners of the truck regardless of how many miles are on your truck they will be noticeable better then brand new OEM shocks.
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Old 01-27-2021, 06:06 PM   #3
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Total trailer weight and weight on the tongue , those numbers will help, running with low tongue weight on a trailer or pin weight on a 5er , will result in a bounce .
SOMETIMES enough bounce to pick up the rear wheels of the tow vehicle; in the middle of a corner , on a two lane road , with deep ditches .

DON"T ASK , how I know this .
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Old 01-27-2021, 06:15 PM   #4
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My initial thought, since it is happening less frequently than more, is a section of whoops in the road. We get sections like that here, especially near exit/entrance ramps. It seems to be from hard braking of heavy vehicles (read tractor trailers) when someone cuts them off getting onto or leaving the highway. Can you ever verify the bounce in the same section with the truck alone?
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Old 01-27-2021, 06:58 PM   #5
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Well, that is a LONG trailer for a half ton, so I'm not surprised.

That said, certain roads will do that to many truck/trailer combos. I have been victim to this even with a 5th wheel and dually 1 ton. This happened to us in Pennsylvania, and any speed between 60 to 70 MPH was impossible for very long. Somehow the really bad concrete road matched harmonics for our wheelbases and rig setup, felt like we would liftoff of we kept at that speed. Turns out it DID bounce a lot, the grill for the range even flew across the trailer!

No solution for that other than change speed.
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Old 01-27-2021, 07:19 PM   #6
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Old 01-27-2021, 07:27 PM   #7
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Agree with KDAuto that the wheelbase of your rig will match to highway joints in a harmonic fashion and cause an ungulating (bouncing) that I always pushed thru. I would say the roads I traveled 975 miles I would hit maybe two section of road that would do this.

The worse I experienced was the main highway out on Long Island. I could see the highway was not smooth.

Use a spot light at night and put it along the roadway and look at the concrete. You will see a lot more imperfections.
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Old 01-27-2021, 07:32 PM   #8
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Next time it starts to happen see if there are exspantion joints as they will cause chucking/porpoising.
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Old 01-27-2021, 09:42 PM   #9
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Yep, ditto on kdauto's comments

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Old 01-28-2021, 12:08 AM   #10
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I experienced this in my motorhome in 2017. Section of Nebraska highway 2 over near Nebraska City. Nice, fairly new concrete divided 4 lane road. The uphill sections of the outside lane would cause me to start "crowhopping" and I'd move to the inside lane and it would smooth out. It only occurred on the uphill sections. My guess is that the concrete slumped during the pour and made virtually invisible waves.

I have had a similar experience on other roads. This is why concrete is normally ground after pouring, to get it as smooth and level as possible.

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Old 01-28-2021, 05:33 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xc-mark View Post
Hard to say based on what your saying , at a guess the shocks in the truck are junk and the trailer doesn't have any shock on it. Get a set of Bilstine 4600 yellow body shock for all 4 corners of the truck regardless of how many miles are on your truck they will be noticeable better then brand new OEM shocks.
X-2, shocks are relatively cheap and easy to install on your F150, it will love you and you will enjoy driving it. OEM shocks may pass the sniff test on visual inspection, when they get loaded up they will act differently. Since your trailer is a little long for the F150, consider adding a steering damper not a stabilizer a Damper.
As for the road issue, that’s just part of dragging something behind the TV, you did the right thing by slowing down to a speed you where comfortable with.
4 ways on if dropping below 45 mph when on a super slab (Interstate)!
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Old 01-28-2021, 07:22 AM   #12
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All except one of my RV trailers did what you're experiencing. The one that didn't was a 4050lb TT behind an F150.
The rest were trailers somewhat heavier than the truck. Anytime you have a big heavy trailer behind a lighter vehicle you'll get a tug of war on less than smooth surfaces.

I have a new 3500 diesel with only 3700 miles and I'm towing a 2 year old 9600lb TT and still get jerking. Hitch is setup properly. TT has 14% TW. Truck has 4552 lbs or so for CCC. So plenty of truck.

TT came from the factory with a CRE3000 and shocks, so that parts covered.


I'm currently looking into breaking the bank and trying a Gen-Y hitch. We tend to do more long trips now that both are retired. Multiple days of off and on jerking gets old.
A quick 2 hour one way trip is no big deal, but 6-8 hours on the road with some roads being terrible gets old fast.

Like others have said upgrade the shocks to stiffer Bilstiens or KYB for a start. Doubt they'll remove 100% of the issue but they won't make it worse and a 2013 probably needs new shocks anyways.
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Old 01-29-2021, 02:14 PM   #13
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We have some roads near home that are elevated over the swamp and we call them bouncing betty. Doesn't matter if it is our Rav4, my Ram or my Ram towing our trailer, it will pack your lunch down. We just slow down and get used to the rhythm.
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Old 03-31-2021, 06:46 PM   #14
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Thank you everybody for the replies! Sorry it's been a very busy couple of months.
I'm going to upgrade the shocks on the F-150 to start with. I do notice even without towing anything the section of highway is bouncy.
I'm going to try a few things out and do a couple of test runs because thankfully the section of interstate that is bad is what 10 miles from my house. I'll post back with updates!
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