Thread: Cant believe he didnt roll it! Trailer slide

A friend of mine did something similar with a car trailer loaded with furniture.

He was towing with a 4WD Ford Raider (I think that was the model name). He knew when he loaded it that there was not quite enough weight on the towball, but rather than rearrange the furniture to get the weight distribution right, he thought that if he took it easy, he would be OK.

Going down the hill past the turn in to Mittagong, it started to sway and he was unable to get it under control. He said that when he saw the trailer out almost at right angles to the vehicle, he decided that he didn't care what happened to the trailer and that he would concentrate just on saving the vehicle.

He managed to pull up with no damage other than a couple of bent rims and blown tyres on the trailer. After replacing the wheels, he redistributed the weight before setting off again.

He was particularly embarrassed about the incident because for a couple of decades, his job had involved towing that same trailer behind a Falcon ute to deliver farm machinery that was much heavier than that load of furniture and he had never had a problem in all that time. He knew how important weight distribution was, but thought this load might be light enough that it didn't matter much.

Even experienced people can get into trouble if they get complacent.

I thought Subaru's were regarded as an extremely safe motor vehicle and have a high safety rating!


Cheers, Mick.

Was about to say I bet it had a negative tongue weight...

There's nothing hard about towing if you know what you're doing and how to set it up!

Having had a few trailer sway incidents in my time, I can say there is a method that can get you out of trouble. Conventional wisdom says not to brake, but to accelerate. That is completely unhelpful especially going down hill.

What you need to do is jab your foot on the brake pedal, hard, each time the trailer starts returning from the maximum sway angle. The braking force inhibits the return to centre part of the sway enough to damp the sway within a short time. At no time must you have any pressure on the brake pedal as the trailer is swinging out. Good timing is essential! All your slowing is done by the brake being applied less than 25% of the time. Once your speed is below swaying speed, keep it there.

I agree with bee utey, I ha an incident years ago with a car trailer, the usual trailer i used was out of action so hired one for a race meeting, pretty much as we got over 50 odd KM/hr it started swaying and got worse as we accelerated so braked on the inward swing untill safe to pull over, found the axle alignment was out by 50mm, nothing will stop swaying when that far out.

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

When transporting cars on my trailer, we have always loaded them on backwards otherwise the ball weight would have been too great.
I think (and others will correct me) the ideal ball weight is ten percent of the mass of the trailer and load.
Some trailers (such as the one discussed in this thread) will require the vehicle to be loaded on forwards to get this ball weight.

Ideal tow-ball weight is listed at 10%, but reality is anywhere between 5-10% is fine.

I do the exact opposite - I always drive a vehicle straight onto a car trailer forwards. The reason for that is if you reverse it on, then the majority of the weight (engine) is BEHIND the axles which is where the issue can begin.

You want the centre of gravity in FRONT of the axles.



Cheers
Chris

Originally Posted by mick88

I thought Subaru's were regarded as an extremely safe motor vehicle and have a high safety rating!

They are. Ignore the negative posts.

Stephen.

Originally Posted by cewilson

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

When transporting cars on my trailer, we have always loaded them on backwards otherwise the ball weight would have been too great.
I think (and others will correct me) the ideal ball weight is ten percent of the mass of the trailer and load.
Some trailers (such as the one discussed in this thread) will require the vehicle to be loaded on forwards to get this ball weight.

Ideal tow-ball weight is listed at 10%, but reality is anywhere between 5-10% is fine.

I do the exact opposite - I always drive a vehicle straight onto a car trailer forwards. The reason for that is if you reverse it on, then the majority of the weight (engine) is BEHIND the axles which is where the issue can begin.

You want the centre of gravity in FRONT of the axles.



Cheers
Chris

Quite a bit of tow ball weight on this one. I couldn't lift it.