Advice on bad truck and trailer turning radius

[gengine]

Extending the tongue on all of your trailers sounds like a bunch of work, and that doesn't solve your problem if you have to pull a buddies trailer. With your trailers, can you put so much weight on the back of the truck to affect the steering that much? I think adjusting your loads in a way to make the trailer axels carry the weight is a better option, with as short of extension on your receiver as you can get. Moving the ball 8" further from the bed will give you more turning ability. Make sure the weight of your load is slightly foreward of the trailer axle(s) so there isn't much weight taken from the steering axle. I don't see any other easy fix.

 

[gengine]

I realized my post may have come off a little grumpy and it wasn't meant to be. I have a '00 f-350 srw that I pull with regularly. In the winters I pull a 14k rated bumper pull trailer with a 9000 lb skid steer with a blower. If loaded right, the trailer pulls just fine without affecting steering, even on the icy roads. I load so the weight is mostly on the trailer axles, but just a little on the truck. The trailer behaves poorly if the weight is too far foreword or too far back. I only have a weight distribution hitch on my camper since the weight is pretty much centered and cannot be adjusted making it rock back and forth down the highway. Another trick I've heard of people doing is taking off the steering dampener, thus allowing tighter turns. I don't really know how safe that is so that is at your own risk. I hope you find a solution to your dilemma. Good luck!

 

[corey9212]

I realized my post may have come off a little grumpy and it wasn't meant to be. I have a '00 f-350 srw that I pull with regularly. In the winters I pull a 14k rated bumper pull trailer with a 9000 lb skid steer with a blower. If loaded right, the trailer pulls just fine without affecting steering, even on the icy roads. I load so the weight is mostly on the trailer axles, but just a little on the truck. The trailer behaves poorly if the weight is too far foreword or too far back. I only have a weight distribution hitch on my camper since the weight is pretty much centered and cannot be adjusted making it rock back and forth down the highway. Another trick I've heard of people doing is taking off the steering dampener, thus allowing tighter turns. I don't really know how safe that is so that is at your own risk. I hope you find a solution to your dilemma. Good luck!

Hello, its ok, it can be fustrating trying to help people with problems when possible solutions don't always work like they want them to.

I always load my trailers with weight distributed evenly side to side and with around 10-15% weight on tongue. The problem with light steering came in with the use of receiver extensions causing the whole trailer to sit further back from the truck. Without the extensions the trailers weight was good but turning radius was horrible. I read on the net as well that using an extender will reduce the vehicles receiver rating by 50% and that means that now my receiver can't pull my 29' travel trailer at 7000 lbs cause my trucks receiver is rated at 10,000 without extender and 5000 with. My other trailers it would work for but not the big one. I will have to call around and see what the hitch places say, so far one requested me order a custom shank to be longer but at $400 for a custom shank and a different shank for each trailer equals ouch in the pocket book, lol.

 

[gengine]

Is your hitch welded to the flatbed or is it bolted to the frame? I was wondering if there was a welding shop, or if your handy with a welder, build a custom hitch. The downside to that may be the hitch sticking out too far giving you a nice place to bang up your legs. I'm at a loss on this one...

 

[jeffsw6]

I have tried a 24" receiver extension and although it solves the problem it puts way too much weight on the back of the truck and affects handling drastically.

What about something like this adjustable length receiver extension? Obviously this one is for bicycle racks but a heavier-duty version of the same concept might be just what you need?

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[George2615]

A regular pickup's width is only as wide as single wheels, normally duallies are the same and at the wheels it bumps out to cover the duallies then goes back in. The extra width at the tires is the reason they need the extra lights there so others know that the truck is wider than normal. My dodge's box is 64" (5' 4")wide, the deck on the ford is 93" (7' 9") that's 2.5' difference that could be used for turning tighter.

A longer receiver would make a difference I put a 2' extender onto my receiver and I could put the truck and trailer so they looked jack knifed but still had clearance to keep going, but with it being further out the rear end would drop a lot more causing loss of traction on the front wheels.

You seem to have analyzed the problem pretty well here. The flatbed is much wider than a regular pickup. The only solutions I see are to narrow the back corners of the flatbed by cutting them on a 45 (this will take some fabrication work). Your taillights look like standard lights which could be easily remounted to a new bracket under the bed or move the hitch further back. Any good welder could cut out your hitch and weld in a new one say a foot or so longer. I don't see how that would put more that much down pressure on the back end of the truck thereby taking weight off the front. Just readjust the WD bar tension accordingly.
Another solution would be to lose the flatbed and install a narrower dually pickup bed.

 

[Harold_J]

... Any good welder could cut out your hitch and weld in a new one say a foot or so longer. I don't see how that would put more that much down pressure on the back end of the truck thereby taking weight off the front. Just readjust the WD bar tension accordingly...

You really have two interrelated problems here, the interference with the trailer and the weight distribution on the truck. The interference issue can only be solved by narrowing the body or extending the hitch. If extending the hitch causes a weight shift problem it may be that the body is just too long for the truck's wheelbase and cab-to-axle dimensions. If it can't be corrected by adjusting or changing the WD bars, then you really have no choice but to either narrow the body and don't extend the hitch, or shorten the body and use a hitch extension. Even if you could crank up the WD bars you may then end up with less than 10% on the hitch and the trailer may not tow properly.

It's hard to tell from the pics if it's a regular cab or extra/crew cab truck, but any extra cab length will make the situation worse since the hitch weight is getting further away from the front axle. Most of these 1-ton duallys work best with at most a 12 ft body, and then only in the long wheelbase version. I have a feeling this truck has significant overhang beyond the end of the factory frame. My 1-ton flatbeds have about 18" overhang and in my opinion that's about the limit unless you have the option of loading the truck light in the rear.

 

[Soundguy]

that's why I don't use bumper pulls unless I have to.. GN turn much better. I have no problem backing my gn and 99 f350 drw vehicle.. etc. ( as far as maneuvering..e tc.. .. truck turn radius is what it is.. etc.. )

 

[Harold_J]

that's why I don't use bumper pulls unless I have to.. GN turn much better. I have no problem backing my gn and 99 f350 drw vehicle.. etc. ( as far as maneuvering..e tc.. .. truck turn radius is what it is.. etc.. )

Yes, but is your F350 a pickup body? He has a flatbed that is almost 8ft wide and who knows how long. Goosenecks don't work well on long flatbed truck bodies with a lot of span from the axle to the end of the body unless you have them built with a special neck.

 

[Shield Arc]

What about a Super Hitch, and a set of Timbrens?
I've copied the design of the Super Hitch for a friend, because his camper hangs over the bumper too far for his horse trailer.

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