Tear drop travel trailers, do they sway?

rexlion wrote:
Ditto, I had sway on a 4x8 utility trailer with negative tongue weight, when I was young and foolish. But short trailers have very little fulcrum strength, so a teardrop will do fine if you keep 10-15% of the trailer weight on the hitch. I have towed 15'-17' trailers over 200,000 miles without sway control and without sway.

I love to hear from people with direct experience! Thank you for the help!

Hannibal wrote:

svt440 wrote:
I owned a 28' rear kitchen travel trailer that liked to sway (even with sway bars). I then moved to a 32' fifth wheel that has spoiled me and tows like a dream (this is my current rig). I'm considering down sizing to a Winnebago Winnie Drop 170S (2800lbs) and they look like they may have a lower center of gravity. If I downsize to an F150 and pull a Winnie Drop, at freeway speeds will it want to sway like any other travel trailer or not? Thanks!

We went from our third 5th wheel back to a 32.5' travel trailer in our quest to downsize. We've towed it for a year and probably 6k~ miles with a Reese HP WDH with no sway control. We had no sway with that setup. On one trip out I-10 we had a crosswind and non-stop trucks passing. The slight push and minor steering corrections got to be annoying but not scary or dangerous. I recently found a very barely used Equalizer 4 point 10k hitch on Ebay for a song. It stopped every bit of the waggle from passing trucks and crosswinds even with a little marine grease on the L brackets to keep it smooth and quiet. Your rear kitchen and it's propensity for heavy loading behind the axles is what caused your 28 (probably 32') TT to sway. Our 2nd 5th wheel was rear kitchen. It swayed. We couldn't feel it in the truck but I could see it in the mirrors. A properly balanced and loaded trailer with proper axle placement doesn't sway. Our rule is, we can load whatever we can carry into our TT as long as it's in front of the axles. To answer your question, a tear drop will or will not sway depending on how you load it. Should be a great combo for an F150. Our local dealer has let us test tow on occasion. I share your desire to downsize and simplify.

You nailed it on the head with your last word, "simplify". Thats cool that I'm not the only one. I love my Rockwood though. Its going to be hard to adjust from sitting in the living room on the couch or recliner watching a 43" tv, or fully stretching out on my 60x80" queen mattress at night to a 60x74" mattress (I'm 72" tall), and no couch with a 24" tv haha! But its much more practical. I just don't want to go back to the world of sway no matter what I do, so I'm glad its possible for a bumper pull to not way. Thanks for everything!!

I wish I had gotten my wife to video what I saw last year. We were heading camping, and caught up with a truck doing about 45mph on the interstate. It was a F-150 pulling a 4x8 utility trailer with a Harley on it. The bike was at the back of the trailer. He kept speeding up to around 50, and that trailer would start swaying, and pull that truck all over the place to the point he would cross the lines on both sides of the lane, looked just like that little car in the video. I followed him for awhile, I was a nervous to pass him, It was my first trip with a new camper. If he had put that bike on backwards at the front of the trailer he would have been fine. It is all about the loading.

I pull a 32ft TT, and I have no sway. I do get a push when a truck passes me, but with proper loading and sway control, it should not be an issue.

well, based on one we were following on I-84 a few days ago the answer is YES They can, and pretty bad. I was scared to pass and stayed way back for a while. even though there was not much wind, you'd see it be straight as an arrow and then it would way on the shoulder or well into the left lane wobbling all over the place. didn't seem to bother the driver a bit, he kept going. finally waited till there was a straight stretch of sheltered from any wind road and quickly got around him.

It doesn't take much. A lot of people get a great idea that they can move some weight aft of the axle to lighten tongue weight. My dad and I did it years ago with a 17' boat. It worked great until I hit the interstate with it a couple of years later. I quickly pulled off the interstate and moved the winch back forward and pulled the boat back forward where it needed to be. I had to throw those britches away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uvPIjaK01A

The only time I had real trailer sway was with a utility trailer hauling firewood. Although it was distributed evenly, the wood in the rear was a heavier species than what was in the front.

One time I was too close for comfort when a trailer that I was passing began to sway. It was a homemade trailer made from a pickup bed, pulled by a van and piled high with firewood. I floored it to get away and watched in the mirror as it completely lost control. The trailer tossed firewood across all four lanes of I83 and shut it down. The van rolled sideways and then end over end. I hollered on the CB to tell him to get off the brakes and hit the gas, but he didn't get the message. I knew he had a CB because he was talking to the Wagoneer in front of him as they were traveling together. Now to add even more drama, the Wagoneer people jumped out and ran back while their car rolled away and crashed.

I have a followup question or two: If you know you have sway, why do/did you put up with it instead of trying to fix it? Did you think you were safe because you had sway control?

Back in the 70's I had a small pop up behind a Monte Carlo and darn near lost it on I65 in Alabama because I had it loaded rear heavy. I was all over both lanes, so yes a small trailer can sway.

mkirsch wrote:
I have a followup question or two: If you know you have sway, why do/did you put up with it instead of trying to fix it? Did you think you were safe because you had sway control?

Is this question for the OP (me)? If so, I didn't deal with it. I began all kinds of different things to try and help. I put real tires on the truck (the tires that were on it originally had zero sidewall strength. You could actually grab a hold of one side of the bed and push the truck side to side a noticeable amount and watch the tire sidewalls roll). I then adjusted the weight distribution/sway control hitch (it was far from adjusted properly I learned), and lastly I threw some sandbags in the nose of the trailer and voila! It towed a million times better. That being said I still dont know that I would have taken it 70mph on the freeway, and I wouldn't bat an eye doing that with my fifth wheel (PLEASE nobody start the tire exploding at over 65mph stuff, thats not the point!). So, while I messed with the towing improvements over the course of a month, I had it up for sale because I had never owned a fifth wheel and wanted one. So as soon as I got mine dialed in somebody showed up to buy it. So on to the fifth wheel I went!

To answer your question, did I think I was safe with sway control? Absolutely not. They are there to improve but I don't believe they 100% prevent sway.

You're right about that. Sway control helps keep things in line with minor gusts of wind or road irregularities, but the forces of an improperly loaded trailer or other self induced sway problems are far too great to be held in check with a sway control hitch.