smitty2919

May be the wrong place for this, but it's somewhat related.

Truck is a 03 Silverado 2500HD 6.0 2wd extended cab.
Stock height suspension
Stock wheels and tire size

Wife and I towed a 2 horse bumper pull trailer from Cincy OH to CT and back with one horse in it plus a bed full of clothing/crap. Truck was not squatting THAT much and I don't see that payload as anything the truck can't handle. I could not do anything for weight distribution as it was a simple bumper pull and the horse only goes in one spot lol.

We got back home and realized that the front tires were getting worn more on the inside (equally on DS and PS) noticeable cupping on the treads...I looked into the shocks as a possible issue and they were original with 180K mi...they were SHOT-DONE lol.

So I replaced them with KYB MonoMax shocks and it's a noticeable difference in ride.

I'm getting a rotate/balance done tonight and was wondering if the shocks would have been the culprit during the trip? Or do you need to have a different kind of alignment done with towing in mind? (raise the front a tad during alignment to simulate a bumper load).

I also have upper control arms with new ball joints ready to do in as a preventive higher mileage maintenance. At which point I will have it aligned again. I also use a steel open car trailer for my 95 Z28 when racing that I can position the car slightly for rear bumper loads. I have it currently "eyeballed" where the trailer bed is level to the ground when towing the car.

Thanks for any tips.

Junior-1

iTrader: (1)

I'm sure the higher mileage on the OEM parts played a role in it. But I would say if the trailer and weight is distributed properly there should not be any issues with alignment.
That being said, if the alignment was off to begin with, I could see the added weight bringing it out faster and making it more pronounced.

For a bumper pull trailer, I would suggest the Equalizer weight distribution hitch. It may cost more but it is money well spent and the difference with and without is night and day. Your other option is the Firestone Ride Rite airbags. You can raise and lower them depending on the load to help balance out the truck.

I have both on my truck. I had the bags from when I used an open trailer but now with a 24' enclosed I use the equalizer and add to the bags just to smooth the bumps.

smitty2919

Thanks for the reply. The truck had an alignment done about 2 years ago when we bought tires for it. So I ASSUME the alignme t was still OK. I then replaced the shocks within this year.

This is the first time owning a truck/trailer and ability to tow a horse trailer and having to pay attention to any of this. I could see trying to get the weight distribution correct on a open car trailer since I can move the car (the load). But the bumper pull horse trailer is what it is.

I wouldn't think I need to add bags or weight distributing hitch for a 2500HD truck towing something well under it's advertised capacity. Horse was maybe 1000lbs plus a 2 horse aluminum trailer weight which only a portion of that would have been tounge weight. Adding those things can only help, but it's not like I'm towing that weight with a F150 or a ranger which would squat the rear end a lot more.

Seems like maybe I'll need to check into the alignment.