Sway problem need help

Gdetrailer wrote:

DiskDoctr wrote:
You can engineer the platform and mounting. But that doesn't mean the trailer can handle it. No need to be so hard on the engineer.

While I do have a lot of "respect" for GOOD Engineers there are BUNCHES of BAD Engineers out there.

The term Engineer can be used in ANY FIELD (IE electrical, mechanical, plumbing, structural and so on).

The problem starts when an Engineer in one field decides to "engineer" something in a field that they have little or NO training in. This just may be the case.

HOWEVER, if that engineer was a GOOD engineer that would have done several things..

FIRST, RECOGNIZE that they do not have enough understanding of the project. Instead they would either design and then send design to ANOTHER ENGINEER to have them run the numbers on the overall design (which includes all the trailer data). Then if the proper engineer approves the first one can allow the design to be built.

Or the engineer would REFUSE to design the project AND send you to one that DOES HAVE PROPER understanding..

SECOND, A GOOD ENGINEER WILL REFUSE to design and stamp the design if they do not have the correct expertise.

A trailer is not a STATIC design, no it is a DYNAMIC (in motion) design and therefore the calculations of all the motion forces must be accounted for. Plus you add in the complexity of the proper weight loads of the tongue. Makes for a lot of work to get it right.

In the case of the OPs situation, the engineer did not account for the trailer nor the tongue weights and solely designed the PLATFORM without taking the overall affects of the added load to the dynamics of the trailer loads...

That is a fact. It is obvious the engineer didn't have a clue what he was dealing with. The problem is that this situation can be fatal. I've been building equipment trailers on and off for about 40 years. I would never even consider designing a mount for this project, even if it were on a 5th Wheel trailer. That is just too much weight on the back of a trailer without the axles being placed much further back. A 5th Wheel trailer may not have the excessive swaying issues of a regular trailer with this load hanging over the rear, but most 5th Wheel RV trailer frames would never handle this excessive load. Many 5th Wheel trailers can't handle the load that they were actually designed for, forgetting the 1,100 # of extra weight hanging over the rear. It is just not a good idea no matter how you look at it. A toy hauler is what you may want to consider because the load will be near the axles, not hanging over the rear.