Towing tire side wall suggestions

I am chasing sway. Two years ago I bought a 2014 Ram 1500 4x4. Later we bought our first travel trailer which is 23 feet long. I upgraded shocks, bought Toyo Open Country ATs (replaced the factory Wanglers) and installed air springs. This weekend we went out and the truck feels stable but I feel too much tire sidewall flex. I like the truck and not likely to upgrade to 3/4 ton so I am looking for suggestions for tires that won't flex. I like the looks of the Toyos on the truck but comfort when towing is more important. A stiffer sidewall road tire is what I am thinking but not sure what.

What you're looking for is a commercial grade "all steel" tire. Michelin XPS RIB is my favorite, many others in this class. You WILL notice a degradation in ride quality, not too bad though.

Do you have a weight distributing hitch with sway control? Works like a charm. Also I have 10 ply rated tires which is a LT tire not a P. BTW, I towed bigger campers with a 1500 and I never had a sway problem with the correct tires and weight dist/sway control hitch. My 2500 has a rear tire pressure rating of 45 lbs empty and 70 lbs when loaded and towing.

Yep, put on E-Rated tires and don't look back. There will be a degradation in ride quality when not towing but if you would have bought a "real" truck to begin with you wouldn't have this issue...

Does your trailer have the proper tongue weight? If it's too light, you'll never solve any of your problems with tires!

I do have a WDH. It does help to level the truck and transfer the weight back on the front "axle". I use the WDH to put the truck back to normal ride height then add 15 psi to the air springs to minimize the bounce.
The tires on it now are E rated and are rated for a maximum of 80 psi. Today I ran 60 psi in the rear ones. Will another 20 psi significantly stiffen the side wall?
I see people towing bigger campers than mine with 1500s.

This how it looked when I thought I had a good set up.

The more I think about this the more I think, could this be what's happening? Just the opposite of the tire side wall rolling around is there just not enough load on them? Everything I read says get the front bumper within 1/2" of normal ride height with the WDH. The tongue weight of the trailer is theoretically around 450 to 500 pounds. The trailer is somewhere around 4000 pounds.

Did you try it without the wdh? Looks to me like you are taking off to much tongue weight, the front of the trailer is higher than the back.
Try it without inflating the airbags......


Don't worry about the front bumper height, doesn't matter as long as it handles well.

Ed

A trailer tongue weight should be 8-12% of the whole weight to tow properly and safely. I was a trailer engineer for 5 years. Our biggest challenge was to get the tongue weight right, and it is up to teh user to have the adequate hitch for it.

Your camper appears to be light-fronted, meaning the axles are too far forward. The manufacture probably did that on purpose so CUV's can tow it with their small hitches.

If you own a set, or have a friend who has some wheel scales for racing, run that loaded camper onto the scales and see what teh numbers are. Have one under the tongue coupler too. Just a guess, but I'd think each of the 4 wheels would be like 1200 pounds, and the coupler should be around 430 to 520 lbs. If not, repack/load the trailer to get that, and I'd bet it'll tow like a dream!

The proportions of the numbers, not those exact numbers...

The other thing we'd tell customers is to make sure you tow your trailer level, meaning the trailer should be level, not teh tow vehicle. If your headlights point too high up when towing, then correct your tow vehicle, but always have teh trailer frame level. That's why "they" make all those hitch drop options.

The hitch should be adjustable to lower it so you can put more weight on the tongue and level out the trailer. It does look a little light on the front from the pic. You could take it to a trailer shop on have them set the tonque weight for you.

Heck yes ! 20 pounds more air pressure will make a big difference for the better in your truck tires. You should run your tires at max air pressure when towing on both the truck and trailer. Actually it's better to be over filled on the trailer tires by 10 PSI.

I think the front of the trailer needs to be lowered by a couple inches and add more tongue weight and I bet you will be good then without buying new tires.

A friction sway control is nice too and should be considered with a short WB truck.

Something I learned about aftermarket trailer manufacturers is that they eyeball the placement of the axles. From the time I bought my 2008 trailer I would have excessive tire wear. It also seemed that the trailer swayed quite a bit. Took it into a shop that specialized in trailer alignments. As expected the axles were way off. Had the axles properly aligned. We also found the spring perches were not fully welded.

Now, with the axles aligned, the spring perches fully welded, new greaseable pins and running good quality 10 ply tires installed I haven't had one issue with the handling of the trailer.

The hitch came with the trailer when I bought everything from the previous owner. I have adjusted the the height of the hitch as low as it is designed to go. I also leaned the centerline of the ball back back a few degrees.
I did not know trailer axles could just be hap hazardly installed. I realize travel trailers aren't assembled with much craftsmanship but the axles seems like a good place to be a little more careful. I'll have to look into letting a trailer place look at it.
What I can do is not load the leveling bars quite as much for sure.
I do have a Curt friction sway bar that I use.
dart4forte what kind of tire wear? Mine are wearing on the edges some. I just figured it was the nature of the beast with the grinding from having dual axles.

Does this make sense? If a 10 ply rated tire has has high pressure does it cause the tire to have less contact with the road? This weekend I I lowered the pressure in the tires from 65 psi to 50 psi and the truck became more stable. I'm thinking perhaps the center of the tread pattern was bowed out without enough force on it to flatten it out.

No it does not make sense to me. IMO you should always run the tire at near max pressure shown on the sidewall off the tires.

I own and maintain a fleet of trucks and trailers since 1983 for work. I also do a lot of personal towing.
Max pressure is best for the best wear from your tires no matter what the load is.

I mount and dismount tires at my work shop on regular basis and have bought more tires over the years than you could believe.

I know for a fact max air pressure is best.

Got agree with Rhino above, a 1500 truck is made for light duty comfort and is not best for towing and you can't fix it with tires or altering the air pressure when it comes to towing.

Agree check the basics first. Tongue weight, trailer gross weight and trailer axle alignment.

That trailer does not look really heavy... visually it should be fine with a modern 1/2 ton truck. I am pretty sure I have towed heavier with a shorter wheelbase Durango and no issues.

It should tow fine, especially with WD hitch. Something is off to make it a problem.

I agree with Challenger- you want the tires at the max air pressure while towing. Running them underinflated can lead to the tire overheating and failing. I would not go over the rated pressure cold though.

From the picture it looks like you need to lower the tongue of the trailer. You should have no problems towing a trailer like that with a 1500 provided it has adequate tongue weight. Get more weight on the tongue by moving stuff around in the trailer and/or go with a bigger drop on the ball mount/WD hitch.

I've towed enclosed trailers similar to that with my 05 1500 without a weight distributing hitch or airbags added to the truck with no issues at all.

Ordered a longer drop hitch and removed a carrying deck off the rear bumper that came with it that I never used.

You shouldn`t have to remove the carrying deck but that`s up to you. Getting the tongue weight correct and leveling out the trailer will most likely be the answer.