Advise from experienced Tundra Trailer drivers

I just purchased a new to me Travel Trailer. I haven't pulled a trailer with any of the 2nd Gen Tundras I have owned. I am pulling a 2019 Sport Trek that weighs (actual weight at the scale 6060 lbs (see attached a copy of the weight slip). I have an E2 weight distributing hitch with 10000 bars. I have gone through and set the hitch up correctly. Dealer I bought it from said it was good to go no adjustment necessary - had a rather uncomfortable drive home. Turns out the hitch was 2 1/2 inches too high and not angled back enough to have the measurements work out correctly. Much better now. I have 275 65 20 Michelin AT2's Load Range E tires. I have them at 50 psi all around including the trailer tires. The suspension on my truck is stock. 2011 Platinum replaced the factory black shocks last year. No lift or level. I am getting some "porpoising" when going over dips in the highway. Nothing like it was when the hitch was wrong and before I increased my air pressures in the truck. But still more movement than I would like. Any suggestions? I have read a lot about changing shocks and Sumo or Timbren helper springs. Wondering what you experienced Tundra towers have done.

 

The weight slip shows you are well over GVWR. You need to get some weight off the rear axle.

 

I will adjust the weight distributing hitch to put more weight on the front axle. It was also suggested to get a weight without the trailer attached to determine the actual tongue weight. Thank you all for the help.

 

is the tongue jack down in your picture?

 

I wondered if anyone would call me on that. It is raised off of the block a little to get a measurement of the front fender after the hitch adjustment. Good eye

 

Ha. The appearance of the truck in the photo and the weight slip were telling two different stories!

Nice trailer!

 

Yeah, he is at 7640. That is over the GVWR... and I assume that is an empty weight.

 

Trailer -empty with the exception of a full fresh water tank (40 gallons). Not sure why the dealer thought that was a good idea. I didn't realize it was full when we picked it up.
Truck - Myself 175lbs and my wife 125lbs and 2 small dogs 10 & 12lbs in the truck. Full tank of fuel.

 

So my 19 Tundra Platinum was bone stock and with me only in it, weighed 6,440 stock. That left me with 760 pounds of payload. Once I would load the truck with wife, 2 kids, and some luggage, that only left about 460 pounds of payload or tongue weight left. If a travel trailer had 2 axles I could not tow it "legally" with the family. I wish I was exaggerating or wrong, but I am not.

If I would hook a travel trailer to my truck and let's say it had 900 pounds of tongue weight, my truck would weigh about 7,600 pounds like yours.

As crazy as it sounds, I do not think that weight is far off. I have weighed 5 travel trailers now with a 100% properly setup WDH and I see tongue weights on average of about 15% when setup correctly. Floor plans have a big effect on this. That is with batteries, full propane tanks, and WDH on obviously. Throw in 40 gallons of water and I do not think you are that far off at all.

I have no idea how manufactures come up with their advertised tongue weights on trailers. You can tweek the WDH as you are lite in the front axle. Maybe I am wrong, but you might be able to move a couple hundred pounds off the rear to the front axle. Just by looking at it, I think you are going to be over payload no matter what. I do not think you can play with the WDH and magically remove 500 pounds from the rear axle to make weight.

Trailers always weigh more than advertised, truck payload is always less then what is advertised....

 

I installed the Roadmaster Active Suspension and it helped with the porpoising. Also, if you have load rated E tires on the Tundra with max pressure of 80 psi, I would run them at 60-70 psi.

 

Thank you for the responses, looks like I have some work to do. I will update as I know more.

 

can't really see your hitch in the picture, I would start by adding another washer to tilt the ball down a little more. That will transfer a little more weight to the front wheels.

 

I'm unfamiliar with that style WDH, but I was under the impression that adding/removing washers was used for fine tuning the ball height? Ball height can affect tongue weight slightly, but if mismatched to the height of the trailer, usually not in a good way.

Ideally, it's better to start with a level trailer, and then adjust everything going forward (ball height, WDH bars) until trailer is level (off the tongue jack), and the truck's front wheel wells are as close to the unhitched height as possible. If you are over the axle ratings and truck GVWR, then you start removing load. If you can't keep essential passengers and gear with that set-up, then you get a smaller trailer or a bigger truck.

 

Thank you both for the info. I have followed the E2 hitch installation instructions, so I think I am good with the height of the unhitched ball and unhitched trailer. I am already at 6 washers, so my next step is to raise the L brackets on the trailer itself. The brackets have to be where they are so I am only able to raise them 1 slot (about 1-1 1/2 inches) I’ll see how that feels and get to some scales and see where that puts the rear axle weight. If I need to go up more, I’ll have to cut the top of the brackets. We’ll see. This trailers tongue weight is suppose to be 680 lbs, so I should be able to shift the weight around to make it safe and comfortable to tow. I will keep working at it.

 

I thought your hitch setup looked fine in your picture. It looks like everything is alligned fine.

Again, not saying you, but let's do some math real quick. The dry weight from the manufacturer is listed as 680 pounds at best.... Add in 2 30 lb. propane tank and a battery (45 lbs.) that is 105 pounds so now you are at 785 pounds. Add in weight of the WDH also. Let's say 100 pounds you are at 885 pounds right there. Think about the water on board you had, the wife, and goods that are in the camper as in pots, pans, food, tools, etc.... You are pushing tongue weight of a 1,000 pounds right there. Trailer is probably pushing 7k pounds once it is setup for the normal weekend get away. Take the extra weight the aerodynamics of pulling a 24 ft. Trailer and punch a big hole in the air,

Your vehicle alone with you, wife, and e rated tires is probably 6,300 - 6,400 pounds alone. Add in the stuff I listed above and I can see tongue weight of about 1,000 pounds.

Again, this just quick math but you being about 300 pounds over payload weight sounds about right for what you are pulling being 100% honest.

I weighed 3 trailers of my buddies at work and all 3 were about same size as yours. All 3 trailers hooked up I was at payload, or over payload with dry tanks, no generators in trailer, only me in the truck. If I put my wife, kids, and bikes in the Tundra I would have been 400 pounds over payload also and these would have been 22 to 26 ft bunk house models.....

I did not want to wait to see what the 2022 Tundra would offer as payload 6 months ago, or even if the new model would come out. We wanted a trailer sooner than later. I quickly saw and seeing my buddies have 2500 HD and F-250 to pull those trailers, I had to make a switch if I wanted a trailer to pull and have the family in the truck with me safely. All time high prices for Tundra and I sold mine and got in the 3/4 ton platform. Huge Toyota fan and all our other cars are Toyota. Not at all saying that is what you should do.

However with a 1/2 ton pickup pulling a 6k plus trailer that is 24 feet long and aerodynamics of a house, you are going to feel that behind any 1/2 ton, not just Toyota.

 

I am by no means an expert at trailers, but I will provide my weight for comparison. 2017 crewmax, limited, 4x4, full tank of gas (38gal), with no occupants, stock other than Toyo Open Country tires. 6040 lb. In comparison, you are weighing in at 7640 lb. Minus you, the wife, and dogs, puts you at 7318 lbs. Not sure of weight differences between 2011 platinum and 2017 limited, but you are 1278 lbs heavier than me. I would assume most of that is tongue/trailer weight from wd hitch. Average tongue weight should be 10-15% of trailer weight. Seems as though there is too much trailer weight being put on the truck. Correct me if I'm wrong, but just my 2 cents.

 

Never mind my comments above. I didn't understand the Fastway hitch.

After watching their installation video, I understand the purpose of the washers better now. Adding washers primarily increases the downward angle of the WDH bars, and the amount of torque applied to the hitch receiver when the bars are raised. That translates as load distributed to the truck's front axle just as @astro-jason said. It's the same as having "fewer links in the chains".

If you follow Fastway's installation video, your hitch should be fine. I would probably spend a few bucks on a tongue scale, load the trailer how it's going to be towed, and verify the actual tongue weight you'll be towing. Then you can start the process of deciding what you can take/leave to meet your Tundra's GVWR.