What trailer sway looks like

I'm not an experienced tower by no means, but have towed various TV/trailer combinations. I saw comments elsewhere regarding that video and there were some estimates that he was towing faster than 70 mph. I would not tow that fast, I stay at or below 60. Also, I wouldn't haul "loose" load that could move around or become a flying object in a crash.

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

BenK wrote:

I see so many trailers trying to stay as close to a 10% DRY weight tongue as possible

I too have seen that trend. Trying to make the tongue weight as light as possible.

More and more trailers are being built to try and kill you just to keep the tongue weight down. Sad indeed.

I also see many trailers advertised with close to a 10% DRY tongue weight.
Most of them have a large pass-through storage bay at the very front -- about 4-5' behind the coupler.

Scales data show that, with batteries added and loaded for camping, these trailers easily can exceed 13% TW.
If these trailers started out with 13% DRY TW, they easily could exceed 15% TW when loaded.

Ron

As for whether a trailer SHOULD sway or not, those who follow my posts will note that one of the first caveats I write is "a properly built trailer"! I know this based on a lifetime of trailer towing of various sized trailers, both ball and pintle hitches. I only encountered one trailer that had a sway problem, and it was very apparent that it was not built properly. When empty, it balanced on the wheels. No tongue weight at all! Other than that minor problem, it was a great little home-built flatbed trailer. Sadly, I bought it without thinking. When I sold it, I made it clear to the buyer that the axles absolutely had to be cut off and rewelded in a better position!
Other than that trailer, I never had a sway problem, whether with a single axle trailer or a tandem axle, with or without brakes.
The only time I ever used a WD hitch was when towing with a 1970 Jeep Wagoneer. The rear suspension on that thing was so soft that a WD hitch absolutely had to be used! I towed the same TT behind a Ford E150 Club Wagon and a Dodge W200 with no trouble, without the WD hitch.
As always, my posts are either statements of my opinion, based mostly on my own real-world personal experiences, or the stories of those experiences.
Or both.

BenK wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
snip....

I mostly agree with your statement. But to a certain degree design of the trailer frame and loading comes into play. Move the axles as reward as possible and you almost completely eliminate sway. Never see boat trailers swaying. JMO but it seems that too many TT mfg's are not building TT's on TT specific frames. How many TT's have the axles close to the center? Couple that with poor loading and you get a TT that's prone to sway.
Build it right and load it right and no sway control should be needed.

But then there will be more tongue weight and the biggie portion of
the masses (herd or middle area of the bell curve) are the lowest class
of TV's

I see so many trailers trying to stay as close to a 10% DRY weight tongue
as possible

On the money Ben. On the money!

I too have seen that trend. Trying to make the tongue weight as light as possible.

More and more trailers are being built to try and kill you just to keep the tongue weight down. Sad indeed.

nevadanick wrote:
WDH isnt there for sway.

The ones that have built in sway control are.

WDH isnt there for sway.

BenK wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
snip....

I mostly agree with your statement. But to a certain degree design of the trailer frame and loading comes into play. Move the axles as reward as possible and you almost completely eliminate sway. Never see boat trailers swaying. JMO but it seems that too many TT mfg's are not building TT's on TT specific frames. How many TT's have the axles close to the center? Couple that with poor loading and you get a TT that's prone to sway.
Build it right and load it right and no sway control should be needed.

But then there will be more tongue weight and the biggie portion of
the masses (herd or middle area of the bell curve) are the lowest class
of TV's

I see so many trailers trying to stay as close to a 10% DRY weight tongue
as possible

Absolutely agree. I think that's why the spread axle came to life. Spread the weight across a wider area and move the axle points closer to the tongue to reduce weight for the less capable tow vehicles.
My last trailer (TT) actually had a 9% dry TW with spread axles. I had to work hard to get it to 12%. It never did tow all that well. Even after several WDH's. Only one that worked was the Hensley Arrow. I just don't feel it's right to have to buy that type of a hitch to get a TT to tow well. If they had moved the axles reward on my TT by about 1' or so it would've tracked much better. Nothing wrong with wanting to buy an HA, but it should be bought because you want to completely eliminate the possibility of sway occurring, not to control present sway conditions.

goducks10 wrote:
snip....

I mostly agree with your statement. But to a certain degree design of the trailer frame and loading comes into play. Move the axles as reward as possible and you almost completely eliminate sway. Never see boat trailers swaying. JMO but it seems that too many TT mfg's are not building TT's on TT specific frames. How many TT's have the axles close to the center? Couple that with poor loading and you get a TT that's prone to sway.
Build it right and load it right and no sway control should be needed.

But then there will be more tongue weight and the biggie portion of
the masses (herd or middle area of the bell curve) are the lowest class
of TV's

I see so many trailers trying to stay as close to a 10% DRY weight tongue
as possible

sch911 wrote:

mowermech wrote:
I disagree! IMO, it makes a very good case for loading your trailer (ANY trailer!) properly
Any sway control gadget is, IMO, a band-aid approach to the problem.
A properly built, properly loaded trailer, being towed by a proper tow vehicle, on proper tires, with proper inflation, simply should not sway.
IF there is any sway at all, the correct thing to do is find out why, and FIX THE PROBLEM. Trying to cover up a sway problem by using a "sway control" could very likely result in just what the video shows!

I don't think you understand the basic flaw in a TT hitch that actually causes sway. The hitch pivot point is well behind the TV rear axle. Look at the geometry of that and think about that, then look at a Hensley to see how to fix the flaw. Oh, and that's also why fifth wheel trailers have no inherent sway either.

I mostly agree with your statement. But to a certain degree design of the trailer frame and loading comes into play. Move the axles as reward as possible and you almost completely eliminate sway. Never see boat trailers swaying. JMO but it seems that too many TT mfg's are not building TT's on TT specific frames. How many TT's have the axles close to the center? Couple that with poor loading and you get a TT that's prone to sway.
Build it right and load it right and no sway control should be needed.

mowermech wrote:
"However, the statement "simply should not sway" is incorrect."

I have to wonder, how did we tow trailers all those years before WD hitches and sway control gimmicks were invented?
It is amazing that we lived to tell the tale!

I'll tell you what I think. The WD was invented around 1961 or a bit later. The vehicles at that time were not capable of towing at the speeds that we find today and the trailers were much smaller for the most part. Sway may have been not so much of a problem mainly because of speed.
We need WD hitches now because trailers are much longer, heavier, and speeds are much greater.
In addition, there were most likely many sway events and/or accidents that people never knew about because we didn't have the communications capabilities that we have now.

My opinion is that there were probably just as many problems then as now but they were not publicized. People just did what they had to do to get the job done. I know I towed my parents 27ft Avion all over the state of Michigan with a Reese WD hitch and friction sway bar in the late 60's and they traveled all over the U.S. while full timing in the rig for about 8 years. Their tow vehicle at the time was a Suburban and before that a Chev that was 1/2 car and 1/2 pickup (can't remember the name of that thing!) but I'm sure it was very overloaded.
Barney