Trailer Sway Control (TSC) "fighting" Andersen WDH?

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Polo08816

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You can find a bunch of threads on here about the rather floppy rear suspension, and I would be willing to bet that is the culprit in the "feel" while towing it. One of the bar-type WDH will likely be a benefit, or you can try firming up the rear end.

For me, I have a tongue weight just around 580 lbs for my 7200 lb boat trailer (no WDH on boats) and it was pretty loose and white-knuckle towing with it when I first bought it. I ended up going with Sumo springs and the sway bar upgrade and that cured a lot of the stability issues. However, one of the biggest changes for me was going to a stiffer tire with the XL rating. It was night and day difference, and now I get hardly any movement at highway speeds even around rigs. The back just stays planted.

The sumos are pretty cheap, and the sway bar isn't bad either, but availability sucks right now. If you're at a mileage point where you're thinking of putting new rubber on it, that may be a good place to start.

Good luck.
Good to know. I would imagine it doesn't ride as rough as a load range E tire.

Is there the magical combination of non directional, H speed rating, XL load rating, and 3 peak mountain snow flake rated tires?
 

Squark

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I tow a 7000 lbs loaded 28 foot travel trailer using an Andersen WDH with my 2021 Expy Max FX4 with max tow. I turn off the TSC as requested by Andersen every time time I start it, along with switching to tow/haul mode. If you don’t, you can feel the rig shudder as the 2 methods of TSC fight one another. I’ve just taken their recommendation at face value, and my towing experience is sublime using this setup.
Does a message pop up when the sway control activates? I've read about it in the manual but never had the system intervene (to my knowledge, at least). I learned last time I towed in the wind that the car monitors for fatigue. I kept getting pushed around and the car popped up a message twice to pull over and rest. I guess it thought my erratic steering inputs were because I was tired and not from fighting the wind.

FWIW, I use a ProPride hitch and they also say to disable the trailer sway control. I upgraded my tires to LT load range E, but honestly couldn't tell a significant difference when towing.
 

Zig10

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Good to know. I would imagine it doesn't ride as rough as a load range E tire.

Is there the magical combination of non directional, H speed rating, XL load rating, and 3 peak mountain snow flake rated tires?
There might be, but I didn't go for the 3PSF rating on mine. I ended up with the Continental TerrainContact HTs. I actually put them on both my pickup and my Expy because I was so impressed with them. I've got over 35,000 miles on them between the two vehicles, including snow, and they rank among my favorite tires in the last 25 years. Definitely not the same as dedicated snow tires, of course, but very impressive for all-season.

I think they did a comparison test on Tire Rack if you're interested.
 

JasonH

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towing ~4100 lb (loaded) r-pod single axle travel trailer

I bought my 2019 XLT with HD when I changed up my tow vehicle from a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee and to my considerable surprise, towing with the much larger and (surely!) tow-worthy Ford and the WDH has been horrifying vs the comparatively tiny Jeep. I have major sway problems in anything other than perfect conditions and speeds over 60 mph. I’ve tried all sorts of balance combinations, tightness, lowered the hitch with a 12” shank, etc but just can’t get the setup to “behave.” I'm using an Andersen elastomer and chain setup https://andersenhitches.com/pages/weight-distribution-hitch. These systems are really popular and generally get similar reviews as the higher end friction bar setups.


Other factors-
Trailer is properly tongue-down (1-2")
Weight balance is in front of the axle (I generally run with a full water tank which is right up front)
Trailer has a *lot* of tongue weight- ~ #700 (stupid single axel set up). We are still well within payload though
I suggest visiting a scale and making sure that you have enough weight on your tongue. It sounds as though your tongue is light. Even small changes can make a difference. I once moved our bags and bottled water to the front of my camper to improve stability. The difference was immediately noticeable.

Load "E" tires made a huge difference for me. The tires don't squirm nearly as much with 65 psi in them. My camper is 7K, which is much heavier than yours, so YMMV.

Generally when I see people complain about sway, they haven't been to a scale. Then they ask should they upgrade to a F250 :facepalm:
 

PapaBear

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Does a message pop up when the sway control activates? I've read about it in the manual but never had the system intervene (to my knowledge, at least). I learned last time I towed in the wind that the car monitors for fatigue. I kept getting pushed around and the car popped up a message twice to pull over and rest. I guess it thought my erratic steering inputs were because I was tired and not from fighting the wind.

FWIW, I use a ProPride hitch and they also say to disable the trailer sway control. I upgraded my tires to LT load range E, but honestly couldn't tell a significant difference when towing.
No message that I can recall. Just a mild jittery feeling of instability/bucking.

Edit to add that I also keep tabs on every weight parameter with a scale and have load range E tires.
 

GeoPaw

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This seems like an odd one- are there situations where the Ford TSC will actually exacerbate sway?

towing ~4100 lb (loaded) r-pod single axle travel trailer

I bought my 2019 XLT with HD when I changed up my tow vehicle from a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee and to my considerable surprise, towing with the much larger and (surely!) tow-worthy Ford and the WDH has been horrifying vs the comparatively tiny Jeep. I have major sway problems in anything other than perfect conditions and speeds over 60 mph. I’ve tried all sorts of balance combinations, tightness, lowered the hitch with a 12” shank, etc but just can’t get the setup to “behave.” I'm using an Andersen elastomer and chain setup https://andersenhitches.com/pages/weight-distribution-hitch. These systems are really popular and generally get similar reviews as the higher end friction bar setups.

In my latest foray into the Andersen docs I saw that there is a recommendation that I disable the built-in TSC anti-sway of the truck (which I can do manually every time I start the vehicle- a PITA, but doable). I attempted to re-confirm with Andersen and received this garbled reply this morning:

"disabling the electric sway built into the vehicle is something you want to do to help your overall towing experience. However, you may turn most of these "off" but usually turn back on after surpassing a certain speed. I would doubler check this with your vehicle. This, will need to be permanently shut off when using our hitch. If not, it would counteract against our hitch and cause for even more sway."

*Lots* of people in here tow with their expy's- has anyone run into this? How does the hive mind feel about turning off the TSC?

Other factors-
Trailer is properly tongue-down (1-2")
Weight balance is in front of the axle (I generally run with a full water tank which is right up front)
Trailer has a *lot* of tongue weight- ~ #700 (stupid single axel set up). We are still well within payload though
 

duneslider

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Does a message pop up when the sway control activates? I've read about it in the manual but never had the system intervene (to my knowledge, at least). I learned last time I towed in the wind that the car monitors for fatigue. I kept getting pushed around and the car popped up a message twice to pull over and rest. I guess it thought my erratic steering inputs were because I was tired and not from fighting the wind.

FWIW, I use a ProPride hitch and they also say to disable the trailer sway control. I upgraded my tires to LT load range E, but honestly couldn't tell a significant difference when towing.
The time that I had it activate I believe the traction control sign showed on the dash, it might have said something too, it also in my case did a lot of braking and limited my speed. I was pulling a very messed up trailer at the time. I wasn't going far and after that I had to jump off the highway and take frontage roads to keep the speeds down.
 

Big_O

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I’m towing 4100 lbs tow trailer with 2016 Limited with tow package and Andersen hitch. When hitching I always have to turn off TSC and change the brake setting to electric. It’s a PITA, but tows really well for me at highway speeds. I’ve also towed about 10 miles without the chains and felt about the same, the difference was the “porpoising” (bouncing up/down). With the chains it’s solid.

Maybe play around with the tensions make sure your distributing more than 50% weight to the TV.
 

Dr0idattack

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I had an Andersen WDH and it was horrible. I had to tighten it past the recommended 4 threads, but it couldn’t really distribute the weight. It also didn’t really help with sway.

So I sold it and got an Equalizer 12k, and towing with it is night and day difference over the Andersen. You can save money on a WDH, or you can pay a little more and get stability and towing peace of mind.

I’m guessing the Andersen works OK on pickups or things with stiffer rearends, but I would never recommend it for Expeditions.
 

GeoPaw

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I use my 2017 Exp Ltd for towing. We had a 17’ pop-up. I thought the single axel was my sway problem. Last Nov we bought a 27’ Jayco - dual axels. Still had the problem. Installed an e3. No help over 60mph. Was told by Ford the Exp rear end is factory set for comfort ride, not towing . Mine has HD Towing Pkg too! ABSOLUTELY nothing after-market to beef up the rear suspension. I was just told about the Hensley 3P-1400. $3400 but I might try it. Money Back Guarantee. Cheaper than buying a truck!
 
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