Tail Wagging the Dog Issue

Lynnmor wrote:

RobWNY wrote:
93Cobra2771, I crank down the sway bars as hard as I can with my hands and then for leverage, I use a tube bar to fit over the handles and crank them down another quarter turn. I don't know if they need to be cranked down THAT hard but in my mind, the harder it is for them to move, the less the trailer will move. On the other hand, if the trailer does sway, then the harder it will be for it to come back the other direction too. I have read that some people lube them for the noise while others claim to just barely hand tighten them and that just doesn't seem right to me. Maybe I'm wrong but there doesn't seem to be any definitive answer on how to do it. I have noticed however that by cranking them down as hard as I do, after turning a corner, I have to overturn slightly to make sure I have things straight again. This can't be right either but I don't have any problems when doing this because I'm going maybe 10ph. I'm starting to think that a new hitch might be in my future. The top of the line are a lot of money but it seems that most of my problem will be relieved.

Making the handle extremely tight on a friction sway control does nothing. Just bottom out the handle bolt and make the actual adjustment with the bolt on the other side of the bar. I adjust that bolt by testing for sway when the steering wheel is given a small, quick turn and watching how the trailer responds.

Your testing and adjustment of these friction bar type sway devices is right on the money and most don't realize the HAVE TO BE TESTED ON THE ROAD LIKE YOU DID and then adjusted to get acceptable sway control results. Just a 1/2 turn on that adjusting bolt can make the difference in a properly controlled trailer and a real squirrely one.

I'm also with others in feeling that the tongue wt. might be too low for the OPs particular tow configuration and should be increased to around 1000lbs or 12.5% and then tested. I know there is considerable difference for my tow setup for a tongue wt. from 800 and 950 lbs. I'm fortunate in that I can test this easily on the road since I keep one of the aux refer/freezers (NORCOLD MRFT-40) in the trailer and have to move it from the back bedroom where I like to keep it up to the very front when traveling or my handling suffers. That is approx 100 to 125 lbs wt. moved from the back to the front resulting in a 150lb TW change.

Larry