Here's my setup with a 2014 RT AWD, 31 ft trailer and Blue Ox. I've towed it thousands of miles with no problems, so all hope isn't lost.

Here's a pic of my setup. Before someone says something, the weight bars are not tightened up--I was just setting things up when I took this picture.

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Glad to know there is hope. Here is mine before several adjustments.

 

To me that's a full size vehicle load. Having said that, either pull it full of water or completely empty! The water is going make the swaying much worse as you can't stop the water from moving around. Sway comes from not enough tongue weight, now because your pulling a massive billboard down the highway makes matters much worse. You said you towed your equipment around and no issue, there's not much side sqft to the equipment.

 

There not being enough tongue weight is a definite possibility. It is a front bedroom plan so there isn't much weight up there. I could load down the front with some heavy weight to give that a try. I'm not a fan of traveling with the water. Being there are no baffles in the tank it just sloshes around and that can't be good for sway. I don't think it is an overall weight issue considering I've towed heavier trailers but I know there is a big difference with aerodynamics.

Do we know what the tongue weight is?
I think I'd start there as too little is the main cause of sway.
Have we tried towing without the WDH?

I don't know how the dealer doesn't have a scale but no, we don't know the tongue weight yet. Definitely something that needs to be done. Yes we tried towing without any WD hitch and it was the same basically.

Agreed. I'd head to the scales and weigh each axle and figure out the tongue weight.


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I just need to find a scale near the dealer, they are about 45 minutes from where I live and they already burned almost a tank of fuel trying to figure it out, lol.

I greatly appreciate the quick replies. Any opinion on the airbags, after I try the recommendations above?

 

Do we know what the tongue weight is?
I think I'd start there as too little is the main cause of sway.
Have we tried towing without the WDH?

 

Agreed. I'd head to the scales and weigh each axle and figure out the tongue weight.


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Also, sweet trailer!
Love the floor plan. Congrats!

 

not enough tongue weight or ball is to high

 

Well, we have moved the hitch head several times for a total difference of about 5 inches and it didn't make the difference needed. I'm thinking tongue weight is more likely.

 

Yes we tried towing without any WD hitch and it was the same basically.

OK, this tells me we really need to measure the tongue weight to make sure we are in the 10-15% range of the total trailer weight...and closer to 15% with it being a TT.
If we are not in this range the WDH does nothing to help.

Another thought is to tow a sister-ship to your model and see if we have the same problem to eliminate a possible assembly defect of trailer.

 

They actually towed it with another vehicle and had no problems but that would be a way of seeing if it might be my Durango. They could tow a similar weight/length trailer with different layout that likely has a heavier tongue weight.

How to Measure Tongue Weight - wikiHow

You can measure it with a bathroom scale, so not sure how your trailer dealer can't do this and make the proper adjustments.

That's a lot of math, lol. I'd have to get a different scale, our is glass.
I guess they told my wife they could take it to a commercial scale, not sure why they didn't do that because the literally spent the whole day trying different things.

 

How to Measure Tongue Weight - wikiHow

You can measure it with a bathroom scale, so not sure how your trailer dealer can't do this and make the proper adjustments.

 

Here's a better visual on how to perform this and tools required.
I bought a HD scale from Amazon for about $40 that can handle up to 550 lbs.

https://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-to-determine-trailer-tongue-weight.aspx

 

See the link in post #13.

 

I saw it but the trailer is at the dealer right now. I'm going to have them get the tongue weight measured and go from there. Either way I'm picking it up tomorrow and will work on it this week. I have a 55 gallon plastic barrel I can put water in. I can put it in the bedroom area and add water until it either doesn't sway or I give up and buy a truck. I'm thinking the air spring helpers will raise up the rear of the Durango and stiffen the suspension while towing so I don't have to put as much tension on the WDH to help with sway.

 

I looked up the trailer specs and it says the tongue weight it 625lbs dry, the trailer weighs 5728lbs dry. If I add the two batteries that's another 100lbs and the hitch weighs just under 50lbs. That bringing the tongue weight to 775lbs. We don't have much in the front storage area but by the gears specs it's just over 100lbs making tongue weight 875lbs. Adding the additional 150lbs of gear weight to the dry weight of the trailer, plus maybe 100lbs of miscellaneous gear inside brings the gross weight to 5978lbs. 10% is 597lbs and 15% of the that is 896lbs. I know I'm assuming the specs of the trailer reflect the accurate tongue weight and I'm relying on published weight specs for the batteries, etc, but even if it was off 100lbs either way I'd say we are within the range it should be, give or take a few pounds. I still plan to have them get an accurate weight, hopefully I'm off an it is a weight issue.

 

propane tanks on the nose size ? full or empty?

 

Yes, they are on the front and are full but, the trailer specs include the tank weight.

 

You are on the right path!

Bob

 

I sure hope so, thank you!

 

Checking tongue weight is a must as others have pointed out.

Another thing could be that your "trailer sway dampening" may not be functioning properly. Not sure how to verify that. Also, if I was going to tow at the Durango's limits I would be upgrading to better tires (not P rated). Load range E isn't necessary but I'm sure the F150 they used had a better tire for towing.

Which brings me to my next point. 30' on this short of a wheelbase is a little wild in my opinion although I know folks do it. You're pulling a billboard with a high center of gravity and looks like the front design of the trailer may push air under the trailer more? I'd be going to a 1/2 ton if you don't need the 3rd row.

 

Assuming you are talking about the WDH sway dampening, it shouldn't be an issue as the hitch is brand new. Aside from that they have also tried a different hitch and also straight hitch towing and it was the same. Our Durango has Bridgestone Ecopia H/L 422 Plus 265/50R20 107T SL and are supposed to have a max load rating of 2149lbs. I'm assuming it is a passenger rated tire. I'm not sure about the tires on the truck they towed it with but I'd assume they were LT's because he uses it to tow trailer for a living.

I have talked to several people that tow 30' or longer trailers with a Durango that actually weigh a lot more than ours and have not issues. The Durango was purchased specifically for comfortable travel being we are now retired and we frequently travel with two other couples (outside of travel trailer travel) or our two dogs. So the interior capacity is ideal. That is why we are trying to sort out the issues with the Durango rather than just buying a truck. I don't want $100,000 wrapped up in two vehicles so the Durango would have to go and we are trying to avoid that.

 

Well I can say without any doubt whatsoever that the manufacturers specs aren't even close to accurate when it comes to tongue weight. The dealer measured the tongue weight today with a scale (they had all along). With the twin 30lb propane tanks, two batteries, hitch and my gear it weighs 620lbs. Forest River lists it at 625lbs with just the tanks so we now know that is not correct. Obviously not enough tongue weight. So we are going to swap the 30lb propane for 40lb tanks so that will add 32lbs. We are going to more the spare tire to the tongue and I'm guessing that will be another 50lbs. We are also adding a Rack-It bike rack to the front and that is 25lbs plus the two bikes at 85lbs. That adds about 192lbs to make it 812lbs. That should put us in a good place. If not, new truck in July...

I also ordered the air spring helpers today so we don't have to use a WDH to level out the Durango. Plus it helps from wearing out the stock suspension towing a frequent load.

 

remember what u take off the rear will add hitch weight possibly, so moving a 50 lb spare tire may add 100

 

Very true. I think that will help as well.

 

As for being at the towing limits of the Durango, we are well under the 7400lb tow rating. Right now, with current configuration and gear, we are just under 6,000lbs. If we add the additional weight mentioned above we would be at 6,200lbs. That would put us at 84% of the tow rating. Although adding additional suspension support via air spring helpers doesn't increase the rating it does lessen the strain on the suspension and makes it safer to drive by reducing bounce if nothing else. I'm comfortable with the weight being towed, it's the length that may pose the biggest issue.

 

It's actually 7,200 on the AWD and max tongue weight is 720.

 

I found out today that the rear coil springs in the 2016 Durango AWD RT's are a different size than other models of the 2016's (probably so for a few other years). I was going to buy the Firestone Ride Rite air helper springs but they are on back order. So, I decided I'd get the Air Lift 1000's. Some sites said they fit while others said the RT was excluded. So I called etrailer.com as they show them as a direct fit. He called Air Lift who confirmed they did not fit due to the difference in spring size. Apparently they don't have the specs for the RT springs. I tried to find the specs online and all I came up with on the Dodge website was they are 22mm shorter.
I went on to Firestone's site and they show the Ride Rite 4184 fits but they don't specify for the RT sub-model. I sent them a request but haven't heard back yet. I suspect they will say the same thing. I can't even find replacement springs online to see what the specs are. I think I'll get with the local Dodge service department tomorrow to see what they come up with.

 

You're doing all this ☝☝☝so you don't have to go with a WDH setup??? I have to believe a nice WDH with sway control would be easier and cheaper, oh, and readily available. Other than the fact that I'd like a newer style, mine works just fine and my trailer stays put

 

He already said he has a blue ox wdh.


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The fleet sales guy at my local Dodge dealership put me in contact with an engineer from Dodge. Unfortunately he is retired but his son is a suspension engineer and actually worked on the design for the Durango suspension. He was going to try and get a hold of him and get back with me on the spring specs or other options. He said his son may be out of the country so not sure when he will get back to me, if ever. Meanwhile, the fleet guy was going to try another contact and let me know. Fingers crossed...

 

I had a similar observation of your trailer in that it seem to sit really high which is OK if being towed by a 2500 pickup which sits high, but not so much for a low slung D.
If you can lower the trailer, I bet that would really help especially with wind and would lower the drag too which would improve MPG while towing.

 

They used to use a Cadillac Eldorado (front wheel drive vehicle) with a wdh and tow a trailer with no rear wheels on the car hauling a trailer around the track. If you are counting on the Nivomats actually working, I think that is your major problem. They haven't gotten that shock to work since they first put them on 1980's BMW motorcycles.

 

Rear "load leveling" doesn't really level.. it corrects the rear suspension height. With a lot of weight on the tongue and no WDH, the tow vehicle will still sit nose-high a bit.

A thought experiment: if you could somehow put maybe 3000lb on the tongue without breaking things, the front wheels would be up in the air.. no matter what the rear suspension does.

 

[video]https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FXBZu39pQ8Gg&h=ATN0Rl1ZrxNdAqf6EMQAfue4tTdb2msL_CYFmo_PY8DZWRq5 7kRw4wDiCBXiqhXFsIe8dmpo5DbqQVFa8-k7_EwGrqwZjjpZnF6GAzTFiyBVphyHiHtTEt54F5FFc1haw1Wi uU-THO0m[/video]

Pretty interesting video.

 

Nice video.. if TL;DW, fast forward to 11:00 to get the summary.

Should we break this video out and sticky it?