Let's Talk Travel Trailer Sway

[TylerG]

have good year marathons on current trailer, they are almost worn out, going to put another set on it in the spring. Dad's trailer has some knock off garbage that are wearing fast

 

[Teth-Air]

So what about a one ton dually pulling a 16,000 lb toy hauler or a 12,000 kg rig pulling a 51,000 kg super B?

Generally the heavier the trailer the bigger it is too and it is a big sail in a wind storm. Are you going to feel it, hell yes and it can be downright dangerous. My point is that you less likely to run into problems if the truck is heavier than the trailer. I've seen many semi trailers flipped on their sides on highway 22 southwest of Calgary.

 

[Teth-Air]

I've pulled everything from 10ft single place sled trailers to 35ft goosenecks with trucks ranging from a Ford ranger to dodge 3500. Never had even a hint of sway and its always been a standard hitch(except the gooseneck obviously). I think that weight balance has everything to do with it, especially just last night I watched the guy in front of me almost hitch the ditch due to his trailers death wobble. When I got close enough to see his load there was about 6 feet hanging off the back and probably negative weight on the tongue.




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There is no excuse for sway when it's not windy as there are good products to reduce this and if weight distribution is your problem then fix it. If you have your rig set up right you still can run into problem driving into a storm like we get in Southern Alberta.

 

[Absledder]

There is no excuse for sway when it's not windy as there are good products to reduce this and if weight distribution is your problem then fix it. If you have your rig set up right you still can run into problem driving into a storm like we get in Southern Alberta.

I completely agree. Southern Alberta is a different animal with the wide open space, I'm up north in the bush lol. And I completely agree there's no excuse for continuing to travel when your load is swaying, like I said that was a stranger I encountered on the road that was swaying all over.


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[landownunder]

I have a 25' bumper pull toyhauler with a 12' garage. It does fit both of my quads inside the garage but the one time I tried to pull it with both quads inside the swaying was scary as hell....just no way to get enough weight further forward. It's my first travel trailer and I hadn't even considered that it might sway when I bought it, I was just glad I could fit both quads in the garage but was pretty disappointed to find out it wasn't gonna work. Now I put one quad in the back of the truck and one in the toyhauler. With a set of air bags and friction sway controllers it pulls nicely now, but has my Nissan Titan working pretty damn hard..... In my situation the friction sway controllers worked perfectly, might be overkill but I use two of them because they are cheap and the idea of the trailer swaying again scares the crap out of me. I'm going to be upgrading to a diesel for next spring though!

 

[OVERKILL 19]

I have a 25' bumper pull toyhauler with a 12' garage. It does fit both of my quads inside the garage but the one time I tried to pull it with both quads inside the swaying was scary as hell....just no way to get enough weight further forward. It's my first travel trailer and I hadn't even considered that it might sway when I bought it, I was just glad I could fit both quads in the garage but was pretty disappointed to find out it wasn't gonna work. Now I put one quad in the back of the truck and one in the toyhauler. With a set of air bags and friction sway controllers it pulls nicely now, but has my Nissan Titan working pretty damn hard..... In my situation the friction sway controllers worked perfectly, might be overkill but I use two of them because they are cheap and the idea of the trailer swaying again scares the crap out of me. I'm going to be upgrading to a diesel for next spring though!

I had a friction bar on my first set up, seamed to work ok. I bought this Husky set up this time, my trailer is 36' and I don't look back.
Do you have load equalizer bars? If so you might have them cranked up too much with both quads in back. Take some tension out of bars it might put more weight on your pin/ball.

 

[landownunder]

I had a friction bar on my first set up, seamed to work ok. I bought this Husky set up this time, my trailer is 36' and I don't look back.
Do you have load equalizer bars? If so you might have them cranked up too much with both quads in back. Take some tension out of bars it might put more weight on your pin/ball.

Yes I do use the load equalizing bars...when I put both quads in the trailer I did try adjusting the height of the hitch and it helped a bit but can't remember if I tried adjusting the tension on the bars. I might have to give it another try next spring and see how it goes. I'm sure I will have to adjust my setup a bit to get it to work well with a newer/bigger truck too.

 

[OVERKILL 19]

Bigger truck shouldn't change trailer sway....it will probably just Handel it better

 

[Lococoin]

I used the Hensley arrow for my hitch on my bumper pull. You can drive with one finger in 100 km/h side wind gusts. I would never use anything else.

I've switched to a fifth wheel now so I'm selling it as I doubt I'll ever go back to a tt.

The New Hensley Hitch

 

[BIG DAWG]

I have a 25' bumper pull toyhauler with a 12' garage. It does fit both of my quads inside the garage but the one time I tried to pull it with both quads inside the swaying was scary as hell....just no way to get enough weight further forward. It's my first travel trailer and I hadn't even considered that it might sway when I bought it, I was just glad I could fit both quads in the garage but was pretty disappointed to find out it wasn't gonna work. Now I put one quad in the back of the truck and one in the toyhauler. With a set of air bags and friction sway controllers it pulls nicely now, but has my Nissan Titan working pretty damn hard..... In my situation the friction sway controllers worked perfectly, might be overkill but I use two of them because they are cheap and the idea of the trailer swaying again scares the crap out of me. I'm going to be upgrading to a diesel for next spring though!

on one of our previous units i simply mounted an extra couple batteries acrosss the front and what a difference that made and who wouldnt love having 4 batteries

 

[landownunder]

on one of our previous units i simply mounted an extra couple batteries acrosss the front and what a difference that made and who wouldnt love having 4 batteries

Thats not a bad idea....I was gonna buy new batteries in the spring time anyway and I was on the fence about buying two 6 Volts vs just replacing the single one it has now. Won't make as much a difference as 4 but even one more battery should help a bit. I usually don't get any sway at all now except if I dump all of the water out and it's really windy.

 

[CS989]

I have a 34 ft toyhauler. The best weight distribution hitch that I've used with sway control is the reese straight line. It's a little spendy but worth it.


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[weeksy]

i have a pro pride hitch NO sway at all in any situation.