Anti-Sway Bars Needed?

Tachdriver wrote:

mosseater wrote:

TomG2 wrote:
If you experience sway, then take care of it. After that, you can add all the gizmos and toys you want. Real sway is so scary and uncontrollable that you will wish you never hitched up a trailer. It can be caused by many factors but the most common is insufficient rear suspension including tires. Wind buffeting is not sway by my definition.

I'm by no means an expert, but I believe the definition of what sway actually is has been perverted to mean "anything that makes the trailer pull the rig off the intended track", and speaking as someone who has seen the vids AND in person, that is not what sway is.

The uncontrolled build up of forces, for whatever reason, that make the trailer overtake and upset the control of the tow vehicle is what sway actually is, IMHO. And that can be a very ugly day indeed. More likely than not, you will just be along for the ride if it happens. You may never need the control a system can provide, and may regard it as needless. But if the perfect storm ever catches up to you some day, a properly sized and adjusted system may just save you from getting a good, close look at the median grass upside down. Why take the risk?

Sway isn't a swerve or push caused by wind, or a passing truck, or emergency braking, though all those things can start, or contribute to starting the cycle in motion. Sway is the cycle that you can't break out of, that will quickly cause loss of towing composure, and set the entire rig into a series of unrecoverable serpentine snaps, back and forth, until upset occurs and the rig rolls over, usually taking the tow vehicle with it. This is just my take on it, but I believe I'm pretty close.

^^^^^^^^

This is correct.!!!!

Well actually it is only partly correct: I agree with Mosseater's definition of "Sway" however if as he says comes the day that your trailer is induced to set up an ever increasing "Harmonic" violent fishtailing the simple solution is to know how to handle it and recognize it early on.

The proper response is to ACCELERATE while lightly applying the trailer brakes. No sway apparatus needed. This combination of forces will counteract the so called sway and return the trailer's wheels to the ground.

What most people do, as I have witnessed several of these over the years on the highway, is to immediately tap or step on the TV brakes or at least DECELLERATE. It is this action, which I admit is the "built in" response for most folks, that actually makes an easily controllable situation much worse. Fear takes over and clear headed decision making goes to hide under the backseat very quickly at this point.

But the fact is if driven correctly and loaded correctly the chances of this kind of occurrence is nearly nil. But should it happen it is very easy to control. It very may well leave you with a few butterflies in your tummy, but there is absolutely NO evidence by ANY independent testing agency that the expensive "anti sway systems" work at all.

And finally THE DRIVER is the biggest cause of sway. By often doing the wrong thing in reaction to an event it is the driver who induces this action.