Trailer too long for truck?
Back again. We went to the RV Supershow in Tampa yesterday and found a trailer that checks most of our boxes. Trailer specs: GVW is #7995, #UVW is #6327, dry hitch weight is #658. total length...
Forum Discussion
otrfun wrote:Dick_B wrote:Definitely disagree. A 33 ft. TT has a lot of real estate on each side. Acts like a big sail when there's high side winds. The only thing that counters that twisting/swaying motion brought on by high side winds is the sheer weight of the truck. The heavier the TV the more stability.
. . . the length of the trailer has no affect on the tow vehicle . . .
We've towed a few 30+ ft 8k-10k TT's with a 1/2-ton (5.5k weight) and 1-ton SRW truck (8.2k weight). The 1-ton SRW truck's almost 3k of additional weight brings a lot more stability to the table when there's high winds.
Lastly, even a trailer that only weighs 8k-10k could be handful for 1-ton SRW truck with a tow rating of 16k **IF** the side surface of the trailer is extremely high with high side winds. At some point excessive side surface area on a trailer can easily make the truck's tow rating completely moot.
For a 33' travel trailer, the side force with a wind of 30 mph blowing perpendicular to the travel direction is about 2.3lbs/sq ft. Side area of the trailer is about 264 sq ft, so 264 x 2.3=(approx) 600 lbs of force.
An increase of 10 mph to 40 mph will cause a side force of 1080 lbs on that same trailer.
From www.engineersedge.com
The formula is 0.00256 x V^2 (in mph)= lbs/sq ft where V is wind velocity and 0.00256 is a constant.
Just sayin............:)
