Forum Discussion
- THis video is actually on a boating site. THERE< the axles are granted WAY to the end of the trailer with fishing, water ski boats etc. The point is, once you add a heavy motor or two or three/four as I have seen on some power boats with outboards, even with the axels set back, you can get the trailer to sway. Yes some trailers like tilt bed trailers where the axels are set close to the middle are harder to balance. but they still can be.
Bed mounted hitches or bumper style hitches, ALL can sway if improperly loaded, axels are V'd, too much weight to one side or the other will cause sway. Yes a hensly hitch can stop it, BUT< one still has a trailer with the perpendicy to want to sway. If said Hensley hitch breaks, loses a bar, your screwed! Best to be able to tow your trailer at speeds of 70 with out bars if you have a bumper style hitch setup, THEN ADD the sway/WD bars for a safer towing trip.
Marty GordonThree wrote:
Can you buy a camper with a central axle like in the video? Every bumper pull I've seen, including my own, has the axle far to the rear of center. Making it pretty hard to get much weight behind the axle without drastic means like a weight distribution hitch.
Weight and axel placement is all relative.
If you have a trailer that has 10% tongue weight all it takes is very little weight on the tail to make it a nightmare. If you have a trailer with 15% tongue weight the same thing will happen. It just takes more weight that's all.
Tell you what, I'll let you tow my car trailer (which has the axels way past center toward the rear) with your truck. I get to load it anyway I want. I bet you don't make it over 40 MPH before it will throw you in the ditch. :E- Can you buy a camper with a central axle like in the video? Every bumper pull I've seen, including my own, has the axle far to the rear of center. Making it pretty hard to get much weight behind the axle without drastic means like a weight distribution hitch.
RCMAN46 wrote:
horton333 wrote:
This is a terrible demo if weight distribution is what they are trying to show. When the weight is moved to the extreme back it not only unloads the weight from the 'hitch' it also creates at large moment of inertia. This will exaggerate the swings more than any realistic trailer scenario would. The weight should gave been moved to somewhere nearer the wheels to be realistic.
Maybe but I just read a posting where a Harley was mounted on the back of a fifth wheel.
How does that differ from what was done in the video?
The effect would be somewhat the same but would be muted by the following factors:
1) The ratio of the weight of the fifth to the weight of the motorcyle is probably greater than the trailer in the demo.
2) The axles of fifth wheels are much farther back than they are on bumper pull trailers so anything on the back of the trailer has much less effect.
3) The fifth wheel attaches in front of the rear axle of the tow vehicle instead of way behind so it is less able to make the tow vehicle sway.
That said, fifth wheels are expected to keep more than 20% of their weight on the hitch. Anything that reduces that will degrade stability.blt2ski wrote:
horton333 wrote:
This is a terrible demo if weight distribution is what they are trying to show. When the weight is moved to the extreme back it not only unloads the weight from the 'hitch' it also creates at large moment of inertia. This will exaggerate the swings more than any realistic trailer scenario would. The weight should gave been moved to somewhere nearer the wheels to be realistic.
The video is showing HOW a trailer that is loaded properly vs improperly will behave. Hence why the washer was shown forward initially, then to the back later. Have a trailer with too little or no hitch wt, it will sway just as the model showed! Correct amount of wt forward, trailer will correct itself is "wind" hits it from the side.
Been there did that done that a few times with improperly loaded trailers vs properly loaded.
Marty
seems to me that this is showing exactly how weight distribution can affect stability. I don't think it was meaning to depict an exact replica of a real life RV setup.
bumpy- Good share OP!
- That, hopefully rare lol, case would have some similarity.
horton333 wrote:
This is a terrible demo if weight distribution is what they are trying to show. When the weight is moved to the extreme back it not only unloads the weight from the 'hitch' it also creates at large moment of inertia. This will exaggerate the swings more than any realistic trailer scenario would. The weight should gave been moved to somewhere nearer the wheels to be realistic.
Maybe but I just read a posting where a Harley was mounted on the back of a fifth wheel.
How does that differ from what was done in the video?horton333 wrote:
This is a terrible demo if weight distribution is what they are trying to show. When the weight is moved to the extreme back it not only unloads the weight from the 'hitch' it also creates at large moment of inertia. This will exaggerate the swings more than any realistic trailer scenario would. The weight should gave been moved to somewhere nearer the wheels to be realistic.
The video is showing HOW a trailer that is loaded properly vs improperly will behave. Hence why the washer was shown forward initially, then to the back later. Have a trailer with too little or no hitch wt, it will sway just as the model showed! Correct amount of wt forward, trailer will correct itself is "wind" hits it from the side.
Been there did that done that a few times with improperly loaded trailers vs properly loaded.
Marty- This is a terrible demo if weight distribution is what they are trying to show. When the weight is moved to the extreme back it not only unloads the weight from the 'hitch' it also creates at large moment of inertia. This will exaggerate the swings more than any realistic trailer scenario would. The weight should gave been moved to somewhere nearer the wheels to be realistic.
