A picture is worth a thousand words!

burningman wrote:

Most of these people were going too fast for their setups. I see it all the time, the guy with the big powerful diesel towing his travel trailer, passing me at 70.

Seventy is on the low end of the chaos dial. I can't count how many times some chucklenut, in a lifted 4dr diesel bro-dozer pulling a toy hauler TT, blew my doors off, going at least 80-85. Sad part is how many of these wrecks could of been avoided, if the operator knew to point the tow vehicle where you want to end up, hit the gas and manually lock the brake controller. It's counter-intuitive and a lot to perform in a crisis, but there was plenty of time in most of the wrecks shown.

I actually watch a new trailer delivery driver do this once. He was pulling a large (35 ft +/-) trailer, with a dually. He passed me on the interstate, going at least 75, with nothing but a ball hitch, no sway or distribution. As he came off a bump, the tail started wagging the dog pretty hard. I saw the trailer snap straight as he locked up the controller, at the same time, a puff of black smoke blew out the exhaust as he gunned it. A few seconds after it was heading for being out of control, it was snapped back into line. All it took was enough experience to immediately grab the manual level on the controller and stomp on the throttle. it was over a few seconds after it started. Unfortunately, the usual instinct is to do the opposite, stand on the tow vehicle brakes and hope that you get the thing back in line before it takes control of the situation. As the video repeatedly shows, that rarely works.