Need Advice on Sway

I ran into a similar issue when I mounted our Thule bike rack on the back bumper of our TT and loaded it with 4 bikes. I did not compensate with more weight up front and got some sway, but actually noticed the dolphin effect more than anything. Now all of our stuff goes up front in the bedroom when travelling and it is much better.

For those of you who mount the bikes on a receiver in the front of the TV, do you find it affects the coolant temp at all?

Put the scooter on front on Excursion and put bikes on rack on front of trailer (over propane tanks).

Find a way to fit it inside the camper when transporting it. Can it fit through the doorway?

Or can you remove the propane tanks and fit it there? Longer shanks are available for your hitch (not extensions).

Hannibal wrote:
Travel trailers are on the verge of catastrophe by design to keep tongue weight low for our lightweight tow vehicles. It takes very little to tip that balance the wrong way. Sway control hitches help control minor sway like passing trucks and gusts of wind. The forces of self induced sway caused by improper loading are too strong for any hitch to control. The Equalizer is one of the best and may have prevented things from getting much worse.

Definitely too dangerous to tow anything heavy back there. I'll still be getting good use from the platform, so not all is lost. Thank God that I didn't get into an accident for mile I drove on the highway with the Scooter on back. Thanks for all the feedback.

Travel trailers are on the verge of catastrophe by design to keep tongue weight low for our lightweight tow vehicles. It takes very little to tip that balance the wrong way. Sway control hitches help control minor sway like passing trucks and gusts of wind. The forces of self induced sway caused by improper loading are too strong for any hitch to control. The Equalizer is one of the best and may have prevented things from getting much worse.

Time to go to the scales.

Then you will know where you are.

I suspect even before you added anything to the rear of the trailer you were very low on tongue weight percentage.

Even if you were able to get enough weight moved forward to counteract the scooter weight it will still sway badly. A 300+lbs weight hanging off the back will act like a large pendulum. Any steering movement, turn, bump etc will set that pendulum in motion.

I dont think you are unable to take the scooter, but even though your excursion is based on a full sized truck frame understand that your wheelbase is almost identical to a F-250 Regular cab short bed truck. Length is your friend, just as tongue wight on the trailer is your friend. The 35' trailer with only a 11% load on the tongue combined with a tow vehicle that was on the short side combined to make your attempt harrowing. You could add weight forward, Maybe an additional battery and make it a big one, as well as shifting some items from the rear of the trailer forward to effectively gain the additional weight twice, (off the rear and added to the front) as a means of regaining control. Be careful though, that model only has a CCC of about 1100 lbs, which means you dont have much room to work with.
Good luck

jbjuices wrote:

Funny you say that...I have thought about a front hitch for bicycles and now I'm thinking about switching my bikes to the rear and scooter up front. Just means more $$'s overall; thinking my wife is going to kill me.

Better than having a catistrophic sway event, "kill you."
Follow the advice of others above about getting the weight off the rear bumper and back on the tongue...
Good luck with it all.

rbpru wrote:
Just for the heck of it I would try reducing the WD Hitch up force by reducing the number of links bending the bars.

If adding the scooter reduces the tongue weight by 100 lbs. try taking away 100 lbs. of bar lift. It does not cost anything to try it and you know what it pulls like now.

Another issue is the fact that you have changed the center of gravity effecting the weight ratio with respect to the axels. What effect this has on the handling is unknown. Again maybe it can be offset some by reducing the WD hitch lift.

This is terrible advice. Sway is caused by not enough tongue weight. You even admit that with just the rack on the back you had sway problems. You are lucky the extra weight off of the tongue did not take you to the scene of the accident.

Even with just bycycles on the rear you need to add more weight to the tongue...another battery or even extra water.

Fifth wheel trailers can handle that much weight on the rear because their pin/tongue weight is closer to 20%, not 10.