Sway Controller ? for longtime towers

BossCamper wrote:

humblerb wrote:
When we bought our first TT about 5 years ago, we were warned during our walk-through that we should always remove the sway bar prior to backing with the trailer. Even if we were backing just a little bit. The salesman told us that backing with the sway bar connected would destroy it. He claimed that he had seen them come back in bent in half. He stressed the importance of removing it very strongly.

We have always tried to remember to remove the sway bar before backing the trailer. But there have been a few occasions where I just started backing without thinking about it.
The only problem I have encountered was once when one of the cotter pins got in a bind and it was destroyed. Never had a problem with the bar.

Does anyone know the reason for the strong warning? Is it because you can get the bar in a bind if the turn is tight? I can't think of any other reason, but not sure if there is something I am not thinking of.

Thanks for any thoughts.

I'll assume you're talking about friction sway bars.

They can get bent during an extremely tight turn where they are either completely compressed and forced further, or on the off side, bound up against the hitch, and then forced past that point.
I have checked in my driveway, and on my setup, I can't turn tight enough to bind them before the corner of my truck box hits the trailer. You could check that out on your own rig. Obviously, best practice will be to take them off.

I always loosen mine as soon as I get into the CG so they'll quit moaning on every turn. Once I get to my site, I remove them ... most of the time .... but if I forget, they will still slide loosely because I have backed them off.

I used a friction bar for over 20 years and actually wore one out and did bend one, but on careful anaylsis understood why it happened. Under normal usage as already noted it is not necessary to remove it. It doesn't hurt to loosen it like when manuevering into a camp site where you are doing a lot of backing, etc. Where you run the potential of bending one is when you have it in an extreme extended condition and go in the opposite direction too quickly. The time I bent mine I was pulling out of a parking lot where there was a significant "DIP" right at the highway entrance and I was turning a a good angle and had the bar extended and had just started out onto the highway and had to back up which I did suddenly and the bar was bent since I was trying to force the 12 or 14" of bar back in between the two friction pads way too quickly and there was a lot of weigh from the trailer adding top the interia along with the bar not being totally straight.

As long as you understand and use them within reason they are a fine system for the smaller 20 to 25' and under lighter trailers.

Larry

Larry