Pogo Stick Ride or Saddle Up Your Bucking Bronco

[travelnman]

Anyone experienced this...pogo stick ride especially on Wisconsin
interstates. Your TV bounces up and down like your breaking in
a horse. Some manufacturers say the new axel placement being
further apart prevents this, I keep thinking a new TT might be worth it if that's the cure. The word is IF. I have noticed almost all
the new TT do have the axels further apart, got to be a reason. I
think the wife has finally had the swelling go down from the raps
she took on a recent trip in Wisconsin with the TT in tow but the
dents in the TV roof are still there. Most other states we hardly notice the pogo stick affect. Can anyone shed some light on this?
I had a UHaul come off the hitch while traveling in Wisconsin. We
were really lucky no one hit the thing as it passed me by and rammed
into a ditch. The UHaul was undamaged but took myself and a passerby
to hook it back up. We did not experience this in ILLINOIS just
to the South but as we got closer to Madison, Wisconsin the pogo
stick affect started. I wrote to the state but the DOT said it was
not their problem and would pass my letter on. We never heard a
thing.

[rhagfo]

travelnman wrote:
Thanks to all of ya. I wonder if 5th wheels experience this probably not.
Those of you going to the Wis Dells get ready for the ride of your life just before Madison and after but take some Benadryl with you and stop in Janesville and check your hitch connections. Last year I arrived at the campground and
started unhooking as I cranked up the front end of the TT I noticed the
ball came right out of the hitch, the nut had come off from all the bouncing.
I think my guardian angels held it on.

5ers can get a similar issue, refereed to as "Chucking". It is more of a push pull effect of the tandem tires and expansion joint spacing.

[travelnman]

Thanks to all of ya. I wonder if 5th wheels experience this probably not.
Those of you going to the Wis Dells get ready for the ride of your life just before Madison and after but take some Benadryl with you and stop in Janesville and check your hitch connections. Last year I arrived at the campground and
started unhooking as I cranked up the front end of the TT I noticed the
ball came right out of the hitch, the nut had come off from all the bouncing.
I think my guardian angels held it on.

[Oldme]

That was at onetime called "Freeway Hop".
It can even be dangerous at higher speed.
Usually of you slow down or sometime speed up a little
you will pass the pint where the expansion joints
interact with the wheel base and speed to setup the
harmonic vibration that causes the problem.

I had a sports car with a very tight suspension.
At certain speed it would almost bounce off the pavement.
Go above or below that speed and there was no problem.

I soften the suspension to near stock and the problem went away.
My suspension was too stiff.

[manualman]

It's called curled joints and happens with concrete highways built with poor moisture control during the curing period. Was less common in the 60's era construction because the Portland cement granules were coarser and they had to use more of it to get their 14 day strength. Modern mixes get strength faster, but respond poorly to drying out during the curing process.

It will be bad until they either do grinding at the high points to smooth things out or overlay the whole thing with asphalt.

[Beaker]

Try a different speed. The spacing of roadway joints, the spacing of axles, and the timing of when they are hitting will cause oscillations to develop. Slowing down may get them out of rhythm.

harmonics!
Slowing down or speding up should help.

[AndyW]

Apparently several years ago there was a flaw in the construction methods being used, causing this issue to appear on all interstates constructed during that period. Parts of 94 are bad, 41 near Appleton is terrible, I'm sure there are others. These roads aren't so much worn out (though others certainly are!), but rather fundamentally flawed yet too expensive to rip out and replace.

In my experience, the effect varies drastically with different trailers and tow vehicles, though not necessarily by weight or length. Probably a resonance thing.

It's not noticeable in an average passenger vehicle, so there isn't much of a push by citizens to correct the problem.

[stetwood]

Wisconsin is projected to have 2 Billion shortfall so don't expect the roads to improve much. To help the budget our Governor is cutting the University system 13%, next thing will be selling the infrastructure.

[GordonThree]

Having "survived" the roads in northern BC, Yukon and to some degree Alaska, the roads here in the south don't seem so bad anymore.

[azchuckmo]

Got the same issue on the interstates in the west, especially the freeways in and around LA.

[chevor]

Janesville :R Slow down drive in a lower gear helps. I can't figure it out either. Have traveled that road weekly. Whole road is resurfaced to Minneapolis but the WORST part.

[steve-n-vicki]

drive I40 across Arkansas and you will never complain abut another road ever

[hawkeye-08]

You might want to verify your hitch setup.

I experienced some bouncing and the cause was under sized WDH bars and some hitch flex on the truck. It seemed to amplify each dip or bump. After upgrading hitch on truck and WDH including shank, no more bounces being amplified. (I had 1000lb bars, new ones are 1500lb, tongue weight 1350lb or so).

Changing WDH and hitch will not fix bad roads, but may make them less stressful.

[RCMAN46]

Check your tongue weight. A trailer with low tongue weight will make the effect worse. Also make sure a TT is level or slightly nose low. Never nose high.

[handye9]

travelnman wrote:
Anyone experienced this...pogo stick ride especially on Wisconsin interstates. Your TV bounces up and down like your breaking in a horse. I think the wife has finally had the swelling go down from the raps she took on a recent trip in Wisconsin with the TT in tow but the dents in the TV roof are still there. Most other states we hardly notice the pogo stick affect. Can anyone shed some light on this?

We travel through Wisconsin, couple times per year. We're probably talking anout the same parts of I94. There's a couple of washboard sections between Kenosha and Madison, and yes, they are really bad. They're fairly new sections to be so bad, whoever put them in, should be forced to re-do them.

I've not heard the thing about trailers with wider axle seperation. I don't think that would make any difference on that road.

My wife has mentioned, she can feel a difference, since I started using an Andersen WD hitch. They advertise it, as taking out some of the bouncing. I can't tell the difference, but she seems to think those washboard sections are not as bad with the Andersen vs a drawtite trunion bar style hitch. She used to tie a towel around her chest, just to go through that section of road. That's one reason, I haven't tried my BlueOx Swaypro.

I agree with not spending a lot of money, trying to fix something that is built into the road.