Do you need sway control mostly for TT?
#1
Do you need sway control mostly for TT?
I am looking around at WDH setups. It seems that you would certainly want sway control when pullling a big boxy travel trailer behind you that would really catch crosswinds, but I wasn't sure how necessary it would when pulling a car or tractor on an equipment trailer. Maybe in that case, WDH w/out dual sway control would be sufficient? Opinions?
#2
Senior Member
I am looking around at WDH setups. It seems that you would certainly want sway control when pullling a big boxy travel trailer behind you that would really catch crosswinds, but I wasn't sure how necessary it would when pulling a car or tractor on an equipment trailer. Maybe in that case, WDH w/out dual sway control would be sufficient? Opinions?
http://www.etrailer.com/faq-weightdistribution.aspx
#3
Senior Member
Sway is also related to how much of the trailer weight is on the hitch. With only 10% and a big boxy trailer, you will NEED good sway control.
But with 15% of trailer weight on the hitch, I can get away without it. But it still helps.
With my older lighter trailer, I usually ran it without sway control when the TW was 15% or so. No problem. The trailer would occasionally bounce around behind me, but it never affected the truck.
Sway control can also be useful in emergency maneuvers to reduce jack-knifing when braking and swerve induced sway.
I recently had to swerve hard to the right when somebody cut in front of me. I had a single friction bar in place; the trailer swayed back and forth a couple of times and that was it. The truck's built in anti-sway never came on. A lower tongue weight trailer with no sway control could easily have gone into an uncontrolled oscillation. Not good.
But with 15% of trailer weight on the hitch, I can get away without it. But it still helps.
With my older lighter trailer, I usually ran it without sway control when the TW was 15% or so. No problem. The trailer would occasionally bounce around behind me, but it never affected the truck.
Sway control can also be useful in emergency maneuvers to reduce jack-knifing when braking and swerve induced sway.
I recently had to swerve hard to the right when somebody cut in front of me. I had a single friction bar in place; the trailer swayed back and forth a couple of times and that was it. The truck's built in anti-sway never came on. A lower tongue weight trailer with no sway control could easily have gone into an uncontrolled oscillation. Not good.
#4
Grumpy Old Man
It seems that you would certainly want sway control when pullling a big boxy travel trailer behind you that would really catch crosswinds, but I wasn't sure how necessary it would when pulling a car or tractor on an equipment trailer. Maybe in that case, WDH w/out dual sway control would be sufficient? Opinions?
I don't normally use a sway control hitch on my utility trailers, but then I rarely gross more than 4,000 pounds with those trailers. If I need to haul more weight, then I would haul it in the cargo trailer that has the Strait-Line hitch. If I have to haul a heavier load on the flat-bed utility trailers, then I would move the Strait-Line hitch to the utility trailer. (Moving the ProPride hitch from one trailer to another is a major undertaking I don't want to do unless absolutely necessary.)