RE: Controlling Sway

[Starcraft Dad]

 
Here is an interesting article about controlling trailer sway.  It was published in the 1994 Trailer Life magazine.
 
 http://www.timberman.com/RIG/sway.htm

[wahoonc]

 Starcraft Dad
Gee and how many of those " rules"  of physics did Fleetwood/Coleman break with the Grand Tour Elite line[:@]?
 
 Spare tire on the rear, water tank behind the axle, 5-8% tongue weight....[&:]
 
 
 Aaron[]

[mike4947]

 Starcraft Dad
And the worst part is instead of fixing the sway problem they predrill the tongue so you can " PURCHASE"  sway control.  Between the ABS roof & ABS panel problems over 7 years and the uncorrected sway problems it s more like Dilbert s PHB is running the engineering department.

[Gone-Camping]

 Starcraft Dad
That was a good piece, very informative, and quite helpful, though it pretty much covers the same things that have been preached here for the last several years. It should be mandatory reading for all new trailer owners!!!
 
 The article was clearly geared toward larger TT s, and never mentioned PU s but the theory behind it all still relates the same.

[tlhdoc]

 wahoonc

 

ORIGINAL:  wahoonc
 
 
 water tank behind the axle,
 
 
 Aaron[]
 

 My water tank is in front of the axle.
 

[wahoonc]

 Starcraft Dad
Tracy,
 For what ever reason, Fleetwood, in their infinte wisdom (yes I am being sarcastic) chose to locate the water tank, the fridge and the spare tire, all behind the axle in the Niagara. This is partially offset by the water heater being installed in the storage trunk,  however it does little to help the approximate 4% tongue weight that a brand new Niagara off the lot has. You would need to add at least 200# to get it even close to the 10% mark, and when you do you have just used up almost 60% of your cargo capacity, and I don t even have any food in the fridge yet, much less any DO s and associated cooking equipment. Add furnace and A/C and the numbers get even uglier.
 
 Aaron[]

[AustinBoston]

 Starcraft Dad
" Were it not for the tendency of many travel trailers to sway at least occasionally, the fifth-wheel trailer may not have grown so popular. Certainly, fifth-wheels have strong attributes. Travel trailers do, too, but the fifth-wheel does not, indeed, cannot sway."
 
 Interesting article, but I didn t get beyond the first paragraph before finding something that was not true.
 
 Fifth wheel trailers are much less likely to sway, but they can and do sway.
 
 Austin