Small Utility Trailer Sway
 

Since I am considering getting a 4 wheeler, I was considering getting a simple Lowes/Home Depot/Etc trailer for that use.

Today, I noticed a smal SUV towing one on the highway. Simply put, that thing swayed all over the road at 60 mph. Are those things safe with a more substantial tow vehicle.

The sway of the trailer is more apt to be from improper load balance (not enough tongue weight) and or low tire air pressure.
I have towed numerous small trailers without any sway issues.

I just pulled a small 5x8 with an empty snap on toolbox about 850 lbs from Anchorage Alaska to Dallas Texas never had a problem evening running 80 across Wyoming never knew it was there. Kept the bearings purged with fresh grease at every fuel stop. Surprised the little 13" tires kept up.

Swaying is often cause by poor distribution of weight. Most of the weight should be over the axle.

BTW i would get a trailer with EZ Lube or Sure Lube axles/spindles. Makes it a lot easier to repack grease. Bearing buddies and the non zerk axles/spindles (like the ones often sold at Lowes) don't even compare. I had all the systems from utility trailers and boat trailers. I would never get a trailer without it.

:) Hi, trailer tires aired up to the max, more weight towards the front, and front of trailer slightly lower than the rear and you should be fine.

Thanks.

Make sure you understand the capacity of the trailer, including the proper inflation, capacity, and speed restrictions of the tires. You see people all day driving trailers at 75MPH. Go read the tire. Most shouldn't be exceeding a much lower speed.

I've been looking at utility trailers as well, specifically the folding variety. I would use it mostly for moving my motorcycles around, some utility work (picking up large / heavy items at Home Depot that won't fit in the bed), and maybe for moving an ATV sometime in the future.

I've read and watched a bunch of YouTube videos on the Harbor Freight trailers. Seems OK for occasional use, but from what I can gather the hubs are a weird size, making it difficult to replace them, add brakes, etc... Basically, lots of people mod them to re-inforce them and make them better suited. Seems like a lot of extra work to me to get it where I want it. Some have commented that it's also difficult to fold single-handed.

Also looking at some on RedTrailers.com. Of course, the ones I'm eyeing can only be picked up in CA, or shipped to NJ unassembled for an extra $200. (Some of the others can be picked up in PA.) They do seem to be better made (look at the tounge and positioning of the stake pockets), but are significantly more than the HF units (starting around 2x the price).

If I was just using it to haul mulch and plywood now and again, the HF would probably do, but I'm not sure about putting a $10-15k bike on it, so I'm leaning toward the RedTrailer. Probably go w/ the 5x8 with the 2k lbs upgrade, which is in the $1k range.

Yeah, load the trailer so it has at least 10% of the gross trailer weight on the tongue. Better is 12% to 15%. Air the trailer tires up to the max on the sidewall. And most trailer tires are speed rated for a max of 65 MPH. So load the trailer right, pump up the trailer tires, and hold down the speed and you shouldn't have any problems with trailer sway.

However, that's if the trailer is the only trailer you are towing at the same time. I towed a 7'x10' box trailer behind a fifth-wheel RV trailer and had trailer sway regardless on how the trailer was loaded. When the 5er did a bobble, the back trailer did a big sway. My fix was to add a simple sway bar to the hitch of the utility trailer. Like this one:
Camco sway bar

That did the job - no more trailer sway from the utility trailer.

Many people tow a small utility trailer with the tongue WAY too high. That is a big mistake and it induces trailer sway. Make sure you have sufficient drop in your hitch insert.