Vibration while towing

[m3bs]

I’m getting a vibration through the chassis at highway speeds when pulling my open car trailer with my ‘19 Limited RWD. It feels like a rear wheel out of balance, but there’s no trace of it without the trailer. I’m at about 550# tongue load, but it doesn’t seem to be sagging enough to cause the driveline to be excessively out of line. Anybody else run across this?

 

[nate6966]

Happened to me.
The trailer had a tire out of balance

 

[duneslider]

That's what I was gonna say too, I bet it is coming from the trailer.

 

[Wayne Decker]

Yup, trailer is certainly the first place to look.

 

[m3bs]

Trailer tires are past due for replacement anyway, so I'll try that. It is just puzzling that I didn't have the issue the last time I towed with my Armada.

 

[Wayne Decker]

I didn't have the issue the last time I towed with my Armada.

You didn't point that out in the OP. How long ago was that? If a long time, maybe a flat spot on the trailer tire (unless it went away). Or maybe the tongue weight accented a tire issue on the Expy. Your new trailer tires will tell.

 

[Deadman]

I have my trailer tires balanced for the few dollars it costs when I change them..... Helps.

 

[Fozzy]

Did you ever find out what it was? I just pulled my boat to get winterized and serviced and the vibrations was so bad it was making my head hurt. Never got it past 50 and it was a short trip. It’s never done this before. Everything looked good. My hitch is real sloppy in the ExP. same hitch is tight in the F-150.


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[m3bs]

I mounted up new tires yesterday, but haven’t tried towing it yet. Externally, the old rubber looked fine, but they had a 2013 date code.

 

[otrain]

My 2018 4WD Expedition has a severe vibration pulling my empty horse trailer. Did you solve your problem yet? My dealer has no clue. (My 1/2 ton got totaled recently so this was the first time I hitched the trailer, 2500 lbs. Trailer always ran smooth, Expedition runs fine without the trailer, but it shakes way too much to feel safe trailering horses. Please let me know if you found a solution.

 

[m3bs]

It was much better the last time I towed, but not completely gone. I think the new tires on the trailer helped, as did shifting weight off the tongue. I was close to 600# initially, and moved my car back on the trailer to reduce it to about 500. My trailer is too low to use with a weight distributing hitch, and it shouldn't be necessary with a total weight of about 5000#.

I also think the OEM Toyo tires on the Expedition tend to take a cold set, resulting in some vibration for the first half hour or so.

 

[Fozzy]

One thing I have noticed going from a truck to SUV towing is there is more noise and vibration in general than a pickup. The trucks bed and cab are separated helping in the vibration and noise. All my trailers seem to vibrate when towing with the Expy. My boat is super bad and it is time for wheel bearings and tires. I hope, if not back to a tank of a Superduty.


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[scottdm]

It was much better the last time I towed, but not completely gone. I think the new tires on the trailer helped, as did shifting weight off the tongue. I was close to 600# initially, and moved my car back on the trailer to reduce it to about 500. My trailer is too low to use with a weight distributing hitch, and it shouldn't be necessary with a total weight of about 5000#.

I also think the OEM Toyo tires on the Expedition tend to take a cold set, resulting in some vibration for the first half hour or so.

I also had the OEM Toyo's on 20" wheels, and quickly noticed their tendency to flat spot even from sitting overnight. I quickly swapped to Michelin Defender LTX M/S (tire shop bought the used Toyo's for a fair price) and the ride is much improved over the Toyos, and no more flat spotting!

 

[m3bs]

Bringing this one back again. New car on new trailer, new tires. Vibration at 55-60 was bad enough to wear my neck out after a 2-hour drive. I could look over and see the passenger seat shaking. Didn't seem to matter whether or not it was under load or not, just that speed range. At 65-70 it was smooth. Doesn’t seem to matter what gear it is in, either. Seems like a higher frequency than wheel speed on the Expedition, but it sure feels like a wheel balance issue. Except...it goes away without the trailer attached.

 

[Artie]

Bringing this one back again. New car on new trailer, new tires. Vibration at 55-60 was bad enough to wear my neck out after a 2-hour drive. I could look over and see the passenger seat shaking. Didn't seem to matter whether or not it was under load or not, just that speed range. At 65-70 it was smooth. Doesn’t seem to matter what gear it is in, either. Seems like a higher frequency than wheel speed on the Expedition, but it sure feels like a wheel balance issue. Except...it goes away without the trailer attached.

Sounds like one of the trailer wheels needs to be balanced. It’s a new trailer with new tires but those throws were on it when you bought it or you had them mounted and balanced and put on it?

 

[Bow512]

Bringing this one back again. New car on new trailer, new tires. Vibration at 55-60 was bad enough to wear my neck out after a 2-hour drive. I could look over and see the passenger seat shaking. Didn't seem to matter whether or not it was under load or not, just that speed range. At 65-70 it was smooth. Doesn’t seem to matter what gear it is in, either. Seems like a higher frequency than wheel speed on the Expedition, but it sure feels like a wheel balance issue. Except...it goes away without the trailer attached.

So with my old car hauler, it would shake like crazy towing it empty on the highway, but as soon as I loaded the trailer with a vehicle it would smooth out.

I just hauled a utility trailer this weekend and it would shake the Expy from 60-65 mph. My kids loved it because they liked how their voices sounded though. It did it both unloaded and with my mower on it. Mines a 2018 Max 4x4 with CCD and max tow.

 

[m3bs]

I did balance the tires on my old trailer. I just checked the wheels on the new trailer and didn’t see any weights, so I have another project for this week.

I had vibration at 35-45 with the trailer empty. With a 4000# car on it, the range was 55-65 mph.

 

[m3bs]

Balanced the tires yesterday. Max weight added was only 1.25 oz. so I don’t think that would cause it. We will see.

 

[Red Raider]

Pulled my camping trailer for the first time this weekend. It has all terrain trailer tires and weighs around 2,000 lbs. I was very pleased with the trucks ability to tow it at 75 mph with very little effort. I'm interested to see how it handles the drag from a couple of kayaks on the roof while towing the camper. My Armada was a great tow vehicle but put anything on the roof and it sucked.

 

[Artie]

Pulled my camping trailer for the first time this weekend. It has all terrain trailer tires and weighs around 2,000 lbs. I was very pleased with the trucks ability to tow it at 75 mph with very little effort. I'm interested to see how it handles the drag from a couple of kayaks on the roof while towing the camper. My Armada was a great tow vehicle but put anything on the roof and it sucked.

View attachment 36372

My trailer is around 5k loaded and when I put my canoe on top I didn’t notice any dip in performance or MPG. I expected a drop in mpg and was surprised there wasn’t much if any.