Effects of trailer brakes and sway
Picture this hypothetical situation: Tandem axle trailer, weight distribution/anti sway hitch, tongue weight 12.5% of trailer weight, trailer at or near (not over) max gross weight, trailer to tow ve...
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How can spring axles get installed backwards? Only the brakes are handed, and swapping brakes side-to-side is easier than reversing an axle.
Downhill makes sway more likely, there's less pull to drag the trailer into line, and braking can amplify the sway, especially if the vehicle/trailer braking isn't in balance. With new axles/brakes, that may have been the case - the trailer brakes wouldn't have been broken in.
The relationship between sway and tongue weight is only a rough rule-of-thumb.
The actual loading is more important - weight near the axle is good, weight at the front and back extremes is bad, since the former doesn't increase stability and the latter creates a greater moment of inertia.
To picture why, think of a large weight on the very front of the tongue, maybe directly over the ball - it adds lots of tongue weight, but does next to nothing for stability. Same for propane cylinders and batteries on the tongue - even if you're at 15% tongue weight in static balance, they don't offset (for sway) weight in rear storage, which has lot of inertia once sway begins.
I once found, but lost, a good physics exposition of weight distribution vs. sway. Basically, the "forward" weight is best when it's concentrated about half way between the axles and hitch. Rear weight should be as close to the axle as possible.
Downhill makes sway more likely, there's less pull to drag the trailer into line, and braking can amplify the sway, especially if the vehicle/trailer braking isn't in balance. With new axles/brakes, that may have been the case - the trailer brakes wouldn't have been broken in.
The relationship between sway and tongue weight is only a rough rule-of-thumb.
The actual loading is more important - weight near the axle is good, weight at the front and back extremes is bad, since the former doesn't increase stability and the latter creates a greater moment of inertia.
To picture why, think of a large weight on the very front of the tongue, maybe directly over the ball - it adds lots of tongue weight, but does next to nothing for stability. Same for propane cylinders and batteries on the tongue - even if you're at 15% tongue weight in static balance, they don't offset (for sway) weight in rear storage, which has lot of inertia once sway begins.
I once found, but lost, a good physics exposition of weight distribution vs. sway. Basically, the "forward" weight is best when it's concentrated about half way between the axles and hitch. Rear weight should be as close to the axle as possible.
