Hensley Arrow: How does it REALLY work?

Garfie|d wrote:

6MISFITZ wrote:
Ron, On my thread, there was a story from what happened to Garfield in a corner with his trailer, so I do agree that the hitch won't save me from every law of physics or that of a ham fisted maneuver by the driver and that towing requires more attention - no matter what hitch.

Gee, I think I was just insulted!!! LOL! ;););) (Kidding Mike!) :)

Anyway, this thread extension appears to be focusing around an incident that I experienced last summer, so I thought I should clarify things, expecially because it underscores the need to ensure there's proper braking pressure to the trailer to control the Hensley even in situations where it may not be thought necessary.

I experienced a situation last summer where I was slowly coasting into an intersection to make a 90 degree left turn. I was in a small town and there was no traffic around and I had the whole intersection to myself. I rolled into the intersection doing 10-15 kph and quickly cranked on the wheel without applying the brakes. After pulling a long trailer for a while you get into the habit of pulling well into the intersection and turn sharply, and that's what I did.

What happend next I didn't foresee, although I should have. The short wheelbase Yukon turned very quickly as usual, but of course the trailer wanted to keep moving forward in a straight line, so it did. With no brakes to slow it down, it pushed against the Hensley which pivoted to the right and slammed against the stops with enough force to cause the rear wheels of my Yukon to lose traction and skid several feet towards the curb. As soon as I started sliding I instinctively hit the brakes which allowed the trailer to pull back on the Hensley and immediately halted the spin. If we were going much faster we easily could have jacknifed the whole rig.

As I see it there were three major factors that attibuted to this incident:

1. I didn't apply (even lightly) the brakes to help control the trailer in a decelerating change-in-direction manouver.

2. The intersection was wet as it had recently started to rain. It had also been very recently paved and was covered in a mixture of oily water.

3. The short wheelbase of my Yukon worked against me as it turns VERY quickly. A longer WB vehicle wouldn't have been able to turn as quickly and might have prevented this incident.

I consider myself a conservative driver (expecially when it comes to towing) but this incident really caught me by surprise because of the low speed involved. What I've learned from this is the need to apply the brakes in pretty well any decelerating speed manouver in order to ensure the Hensley is well behaved. It also convinced me that there is no way I will ever tow the trailer on snow or ice.

I hope this helps to clarify things.