I was considering the purchase of the a load leveling kit or even an anti sway setup. My friend tows a Honda race car with a Caprice and the weight distribution helped his car immensely. (So much he may not even install the anti sway) I own a '97 Toyota T100 and I am towing a full deck trailer 1600 lbs. and a 2700 lb car. The tow capacity is 5200 lbs. When passing trucks or hitting some elevation changes in the road, things get a bit scary and the trailer starts to sway. My friend's car just cruises by nice and steady. Will a weight distribution hitch system solve my problem or do I need this in addition to the anti-sway setup? What's the best set-up? Any one have any experience with this? Thanks.

 

This should not be happening with your T100. Swaying is normally due to not having enough tongue weight. IOW, your towed car is too far back on the trailer.

Pull the car forward to load the tongue. Also need to ensure the tongue is level or higher than the rest of the trailer. If the tongue is low, then the trailer steers like a shopping cart. Keep in mind too much tongue weight will aim your headlights skyward, and since you've unloaded the front tires, you'll have no braking either.

I routinely tow 4600 lbs, sometimes more, with a 99 4Runner (Bilstein shocks and rear airbag kit to keep the tail from sagging horribly) with no problems.

 

Good to know, I have not really figured out the prime spot on the trailer in which to park the car. The car I was towing is an MR2, so I've even backed the car up on the trailer, that improved things, but I still have some scary sway issues when passing trucks, etc.

 

Then you and I have the same situation. I tow an NSX on a 16ft twin axle flatbed. After towing a bit, I've narrowed it down to about 4inches of sweet spot. Never had to back it on, and the front of the flatbed is about 1/2 inch higher than the rear, so no shopping cart syndrome.

The Bilsteins and the air bags inside the coil springs work. With 500lbs of tongue weight, the hitch on the 4Runner would be only about 9 inches off the ground, and the hood would aim to the moon.

When towing, I pump the airbags to 30psi and all the tires on the truck and trailer are at maximum psi shown on the sidewalls. Gotta stiffen everything to tow with stability. The other neat thing I did was get a soft hitch. The ball mount has a polyurethane pad inside thereby absorbing lots of the little bumps and shocks from the trailer. $45 from Northern Tool.

How much rear sag does your T100 have when loaded? You may need to beef up your springs and shocks.

 

My buddy hauls ~8000lbs with his '02 Tahoe and I know he had to get a $200 sway reducing hitch attachment for his rig. He too have the polyurethane pad to reduce the bumps, with that huge trailer on the back if he hit a pot hole or something he would go flying off the road. He also had his entire brake system upgraded...he hauls this thing practically EVERY weekend and sometimes several times a week. Its a big BBQ Smoker trailer we use for our Arkansas Razorback Tailgate parties here at the University.

Anyway, I routinely haul ~3000-3500 lbs with my '95 and have never had the swaying problem. The only problems I have had is the trailer hitch almost hitting the ground and my tranny heating up like a frying pan. From now on I am going to use my Dad's big Chevy V10 to haul everything Until I get a Hayden Tranny Cooler.

Later man,

Fink

 

I bought the weight distribution trundle bars and it is a night and day difference. No sag. Very little sway. I would reccomend it to anyone, it made that much of a difference.