Towing mustang with 02' 4.0 SOHC Auto??

Tractorman said:

It's going to ride like a lumber wagon. And with the right amount of tongue weight, or a WD hitch, there won't be that much extra weight on the tires. Also, with the heavier tires, his gas mileage will suffer. I already had horrible MPG's when I was hauling my Cobra and stuff back.

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Will said:

First, I've done it and they don't ride bad. They are better because the sidewall is stiffer and the rear doesn't squirrel around.

Next, a WD hitch isn't safe if you don't need it. It unloads the rear tires of the truck. It can screw with the anti-lock brakes and some owner's manuals tell you not to use it. It's great if you are unloading the front axle. A gooseneck trailer is better for that though. For those who don't know what an equalizer does--it tries to close the bottom of the truck and trailer together like a jack-knife, with the hitch being the hinge. It directly unloads the rear tires of the truck because they are close to the hinge. If the rear tires don't need to be unloaded, then it isn't safe or proper to unload them.

That's why I recommended a sway control device as a solution for an unstable feeling trailer. A sway control is a friction device that resists a pivot motion of the hitch. It really helps to keep the trailer in a straight line behind the truck. These are generally included on equalizer setups, but are easily added to a trailer that doesn't have an equalizer. A trailer with 10-15% of tongue-weight, and that doesn't have an unusual amount of mass behind the trailer axle doesn't need it. Travel trailers are built in an unregulated industry--they claim self regulated. The fact is, these devices are for crutching improper tow setups. You don't see stuff like this on commercial trucks.

Set your truck up correctly and have zero issues. That's the bottom line.

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Will said:

You don't want to load the truck evenly over the front axle. The front axle, with the truck empty, is near its load capacity. Go weigh your truck. You will find that the front weighs around 2,500# empty. It's about a 2,750# axle--same as the rear. The rear of the truck is 1,100# empty, about. The payload is designed to be carried almost entirely by the rear axle. This is true for any truck. Look at a straight truck, school bus, motorhome from the side and you will see that the rear axle is centered under the cargo area. A WD hitch is to crutch up a passenger vehicle pulling too much trailer.

The sway control I described has nothing to do with trailer loading. I used one on my 2,500# Casita because the air blast from trucks and uneven roads would knock it around. An $80 friction sway control stops that. The rear of the truck isn't sagging, throwing the unloaded front out of alignment and causing darty steering. You don't need $500 worth of hitch when your not overloading your vehicle. Those things were designed for a squishy old station wagon pulling an Airstream. I pull a 10,000# pintle trailer with my pickup and it's not overloaded and it has no problems with control--and it's got probably 2,000# of tongue weight because the machines I put on it don't have enough room to ride in an ideal spot.

I'm saying load the trailer correctly and you're truck is not going to have trouble with a 4,500# trailer and you shouldn't need anything special. Any sway you get will be because the tongue weight is excessive so you have to watch loading. It costs $8 to wiegh your truck at a truckstop--just bring a broom stick to push the button when you drive onto the scale or they won't know you are out there.

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