Trailers on the road today
We did a run to the cabin and back this last weekend (normally do not travel weekends as that is for the worker bees). I didn't have my railer so was going around 80 for the 2 1/2 hour run. I was i...
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We followed a 30'ish newer Jayco yesterday doing over 75mph on I-70 east of Washington PA for a few miles. The setup had the trailer riding nose high by a good 4 to 6 inches, and it was fish tailing badly. The rear of the trailer was swinging back and forth constantly over the dashed center line and solid right hand line while in the slow lane. I was riding shotgun with my plumbing superintendent, and told him to pass the rig as I wanted to see the TV and the moron driving it. It turns out it was an early 2000's Suburban being driven by a woman with at least 5 kids inside, along with about a ton of gear crammed into it. She was totally oblivious to her situation. She had a cigarette in her hand that was on the steering wheel, and was yacking full tilt on her phone with the other. If you were ever on this stretch of I-70 you would understand just how bad a section of Interstate this is. It's heavy bumper to bumper traffic with 4 or 5 merge points in a few miles, as well as combined with I-79 between Pittsburgh and Morgantown WV as it skirts around to the west and south of Washington PA. It's also crammed chock full of all sorts of vehicles from pickups and water trucks to semi flats loaded with pipeline and drill pipe for the Marcellus Shale gas play. This Dingbat was lucky to get through there alive not to mention causing someone else to pile it up.
She had a conventional round bar WDH with no sway control, and I could tell from the angle of the bars compared to the A frame it had way too much spring dialed in to it. She had maybe 2 links from bar to snap bracket, and the bars were almost at the bottom of brackets at the ends. I'd bet it was taking a substantial amount of weight off the rear axle of the TV, by that I mean as in lifting the rear of the Suburban way higher than it should of been with a proper setup. That may have been the cause of the nose high stance of the trailer.
I am never surprised what I see on the road, or coming in and out of the state parks we frequent. I'd guess 80% or better of people towing trailers are clueless to what they are actually doing. When we leave with the weekend summer crowd on Sundays, we follow many down the west side of the 2 western most ridges of the Alleghenies. Both grades are over 9%, one around 4 1/2 miles and the other 2 1/2 miles long. I have seen, and smelled, my fair share of cooking brakes as well as a few who have lost it and ended up in the ditch or woods on the way down.
She had a conventional round bar WDH with no sway control, and I could tell from the angle of the bars compared to the A frame it had way too much spring dialed in to it. She had maybe 2 links from bar to snap bracket, and the bars were almost at the bottom of brackets at the ends. I'd bet it was taking a substantial amount of weight off the rear axle of the TV, by that I mean as in lifting the rear of the Suburban way higher than it should of been with a proper setup. That may have been the cause of the nose high stance of the trailer.
I am never surprised what I see on the road, or coming in and out of the state parks we frequent. I'd guess 80% or better of people towing trailers are clueless to what they are actually doing. When we leave with the weekend summer crowd on Sundays, we follow many down the west side of the 2 western most ridges of the Alleghenies. Both grades are over 9%, one around 4 1/2 miles and the other 2 1/2 miles long. I have seen, and smelled, my fair share of cooking brakes as well as a few who have lost it and ended up in the ditch or woods on the way down.
