General Rules for Sway Control Bar and Weight Distribution System Adjustment When Towing 7,000 lbs.  

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The sway control bar you have is a friction style sway control bar, and it is a general rule of thumb that, if the trailer weighs more than 6000 lbs or is greater than 26 feet in length, you should use two friction sway controls, one for each side. If you are currently towing the trailer and you are not having any issues with trailer sway when passing large trucks or in high wind conditions, then the addition of a second sway control is most likely not needed. Remember that the best defense against trailer sway is proper trailer loading.

If you determine that you do need an additional sway control bar, like the Reese Friction Sway Control, # 83660, you will need to install it on the other side of the trailer and attach another sway control ball, included, to your weight distribution head. Most likely the first setup is on the right side so you would need to remove the slide bar from the sway control and turn it over to make it compatible with the left side setup. I attached a link to another customer's question and answer that includes a video on how to set up the sway control for the left side.

Once one or two sway control bars are installed you will need to adjust them. To set the level of friction you will use the bolt that is below the on/off handle. To get maximum benefits from the sway control assembly, a series of road tests should be taken with the loaded trailer. On these trips increase or decrease tension by turning the adjusting bolt in 1/4 turn increments in the direction shown on the label until the desired control is achieved and the sway controls are adjusted similarly if using two.

Adjusting your weight distribution system will require parking your trailer and tow vehicle in a straight line on a fairly level surface. Disconnect the trailer and use the trailer jack to get the trailer as level as possible. Set the ball height on the tow vehicle so that it is no more than 1 inch above the level height of the trailer coupler. Now, measure the height of the tow vehicles front and rear wheel wells, then attach the trailer to the hitch ball. Once you attach the weight distribution chains to the chain hangers you should remeasure the wheel well height, front and back. If adjusted correctly the wheel wells should settle back to within one inch of the original measurement.

If further adjustment is required you can try using more or less chain links to level the vehicle suspension to the desired amount. If adjusting the chain links does not provide enough adjustment you can readjust the hitch ball angle to provide more or less weight distribution. Adjusting the hitch ball to angle away from the rear of the tow vehicle will help to provide more weight distribution or allow use of more chain links. Adjusting the hitch ball toward the tow vehicle will provide less weight distribution or allow you to use less chain links between the spring bars and the tip up brackets. Some experimentation with your particular setup will be required to determine the optimum setup. As a general rule you should try to have about 5 chain links between the spring bars and tip up brackets and the spring bars should be approximately parallel to the trailer frame.

Finally, for safety we recommend that you weigh your towing setup, fully loaded and ready to travel, at a local scale. Truck stops have scales that can be used for a small fee. Determine the gross trailer weight, the trailer tongue weight, the gross vehicle weight and the gross combined weight of the setup. Then check all of the towing component ratings, vehicle, trailer hitch and weight distribution system and make sure they are all rated to safely tow your trailer on your long haul ahead.

expert reply by: Robert G

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