Too much swaying?

[98Hawk]

I have a 2000 AC 4wd tundra with a class III Reese hitch. I know the suspension is soft on this truck. I'm used to a 94 toyoto standard cab...Very stiff. But even when I'm pulling my trailer with two seadoo's, I can feel the truck sway what I think is a little more than it should at highway speeds. I plan on towing about 6000lbs on occasion. I'm kinda worried about this. Is there anything I can do to help with the swaying or am I just gonna have to deal with it. Thinking about helper springs for when I move firewood and such because I amost bottom out now when I hit speedbumps in my development.

[IStan]

Has the suspension always been soft? Might consider the Ivan Stewart (Red Blue?) shocks to stiffen up the ride. As well as Hellwig sway bar.

[tomhole]

I'm not smart enough to answer the question directly, so I will postulate.

A soft rear is not a primary cause of sway. Improperly balanced trailers are. Stiffineng up the rear with helper springs, shocks, air bags, Timbrens, etc... will likely not solve the sway problem. Have you checked your hitch weight and trailer weight to determine what % of hitch weight you have? Can you position the load on the trailer to put more weight on the hitch?

I tow a 5,000 lbs, 23' (25' hitch to bumper) travel trailer with a hitch weight of 640 lbs plus (12.8%). With no sway control, it does fine until something exites the second order yaw moment and then it sways. It is not divergent, but not well damped either. I originally had a single friction sway arm installed and that helped, but in high xwinds, it would still excite sway, but it was well damped. Nothing scary and well under control. I switched to a Reese Dual Cam setup and now nothing excites the second order yaw moment and sway is eliminated. I still get pushed around by big rigs, but that is another force at work.

So, see if you can increase your hitch weight while towing the jet skis. Add springs or other such stuff to help with the heavy loads in the bed. Be careful to stay within weight limits regardless of how much help you add. There is a neato keen picture of a Tundra frame cracked by overloading.

Tom

[2000LtdKen]

98Hawk,

I have a 2000 Limited Tundra. First order of business would be to make sure your tires are filled up to the maximum limit (all 4) this helped my truck right off the bat. Then I would add a Helwig Sway bar to keep it from leaning too much in the corners. So now we have spent about $150 or so and you should see definate improvement. Trailer loading as another pointed out is also important. Our trucks come with Load Range C tires. These are very comfy and cushy to ride on. You can put Load Range D or E on your truck and inflate them and this will change the ride to be much firmer.

Hope this helps.

Ken

[NJMikeC]

98hawk,

I think there is a lot of information missing. Primarily missing is your definition of sway and what sway is. It wouldn't hurt to elaborate on that a little.

If you don't have the particular trailer balanced then that is the first thing to look at. I'll guess that your pulling between 2000 # to 2500# with the Seadoos. A WD hitch would help. I'm not sure I remember the specs of when Toyota recommends that but it is a little mute. Even the smallest trailer will act "Squirrely" if the hitch weight isn't balanced correctly.

So in regards to towing the Seadoo's first check if the tongue is level. That will help. Then check your specs of when a WD hitch would be required.

Finally as for 6000# you definetely need the WD hitch and you also have a lot more homework to do. At 6000# of trailer weight you are typically at the max of the truck's GCWR as well as GVWR. That brings into play many factors since you are now outside of the operating range for which the truck was designed for. It is my opinion that you must change some things in your truck to move that operating point. In my opinion the weak links are brakes and the rear end. The transmission can be cooled, max torque point in the engine lowered but don't know quick fixes for the other 2.