Trouble Hauling 2 Campers with 1 of Them on Flatbed of Ram 5500 Pickup

Updated 01/11/2022 | Published 01/10/2022

Question:

Both of my RVs are rocking side to side with the one I’m pulling swaying and fish tailing I heard a scrap sound and like a knock or crank sound when turning CANT do more than 50mph on highway bc my truck is bouncy like hydraulic but I experienced NONE of this when trainer hook up Should I load the lower sitting RV on my flatbed and pull the higher sitting one I have a Ram5500 that has been converted to flatbed Also seems like my flatbed is hitting bumps extra hard ALSO wish I had never touched this -+ button inside the cab that controls this heavy electric mess seems nothing has been right since it drove so smooth prior to me touching this SOS PLEASE HELP ME SO FRUSTRATED

asked by: Rodney A

Expert Reply:

Wow, there is quite a bit to unpack here. Sorry to hear that you are having a bad experience towing and hauling with your Ram 5500 truck.

The first thing to check is your weight. Make sure that your truck isn't being overloaded and that the trailer you are towing is loaded in such a way that the tongue weight is 10-15% of the weight of the trailer as this will affect the towing performance. If all of this checks out then we can move on to the next thing.

Putting the lower trailer on your flatbed will probably help with that wind some since there won't be as big of a gap between your flatbed and the trailer frame, but it looks like that trailer might be a bit bigger so you'd want to make sure that everything will physically fit that way.

We can add some suspension enhancement to help with the ride performance of your truck, and then potentially a weight distribution to help with the towed performance of your trailer but I get the feeling that you likely won't have this same setup every time you tow so it may be hard to pinpoint the correct system unless you use something like the Blue Ox SwayPro # BXW1500 which gives you the option to swap out the bars for different towing applications.

When it comes to that plus and minus button that you mentioned it sounds like you adjusted your trailer braking power. The only way to fix this is to take your setup to an empty parking lot and practice starting/stopping until you get the feel that you want.

If you can let me know the weight of your trailer and how much weight sits behind the rear axle of your Ram then I can let you know what weight distribution to get. If you can also let me know what year your Ram 5500 is then I can see what suspension enhancement we have if that's something you're interested in as well.

expert reply by: Jon G