I was on my way home and look what in the other lane.
Looks like a single-axle Airstream. I don't know how many like it I've seen on the highway that were swaying back and forth like crazy. I really dislike single-axles trailers of any kind. But this may not have been the trailers fault either. A high gust of wind or another driver cutting him off would have helped trigger this.
Wind was calm today, the one thing that is weird is the truck is pointing like he was going northbound but he was on the southbound shoulder, and I don't see any tracks in the median.
Looks to me like a classic case of the tail starting to wag the dog and then you start the disscussion on whether you should brake, excellerate, close your eyes, xxxx yourself , the outcome would suggest the wrong decision was made :bash though the later might well of occured also
um it was probably over loaded to the back of trailer, thus the wag the dog effect....
Where in WA was, and what was towing it? minimax
always be safe, guys. your life depends on it, and so do the lives of others, including your family members.
Washington State Route 18 just north of Maple Valley. Looks like a chevy truck.
IS there a good answer to the question of what to do when the tail wags the dog??
According to an RV video, if your trailer is equipped apply small amounts of manual trailer brake. DO NOT APPLY VEHICLE BRAKE. The trailer brake will allow for it to want to go the farthest back it can (straight). Then slowly coast to a stop and see if anything is wrong (blown tire or such)
Wow... that is a bad day! Ok, here I am posting away hoping, to meet the minimum, so that I can start a new thread to get answers... the whole reason I registered. This forum seems to be one of the best on the web after 3 days of scouring for information!
Short answer no! A lot of factors can lead to the situation where you suddenly become aware that you have a problem, and they vary from trying to change a CD, retuning the radio, lighting a fag, etc, etc, eg lack of concentration in what you are doing. The extreme is a tyre blow out but in my opinion most are caused through a lack of concentration. Best advise I was given and I pass on when asked is dont panic, dont do anything rushed, DONT brake, DONT accelerate, DONT try and correct the wag with the steering. Try and hold the steering wheel as steady as you can, if going around a curve you need to try and maintain that curve, otherwise if going straight try and keep straight keeping a little power on is better than a rapid deceleration through taking the foot completely off the loud pedal but try not to put more power on. Hopefully now you are concentrating 100% with sweat poping out on your forehead with you too scared to take your rigid locked arms off the wheel to wipe the stinging in your eyes, & you were going to give up smoking anyway Concentrate 100% on the road in front, dont bother trying to get a quick peek in the mirror to see how bad it is you'll only make it worse because you will move your hands when you move your head to look ( Guaranteed you never got around to moving those mirrors just a little so you could see in them by just moving your eyes ) and besides if your still wagging its still wagging Gently ease off the throttle and still DONT brake ( unless you have no other option like standing traffic ) gently ease yourself to a stop, exit vehicle and go get some clean pants. :cool2 Hope this helps, most of us that have towed something will have experienced some stage of the experience and depending on what it was that distracted us will govern how bad it got
If it has electric brakes GENTLY apply brakes till you start to feel a bit of drag on the tow vehicle and let the trailer slowly bring its self back in line. Now since your a diligent driver and tower you DID check the brake adjustment before you left on your trip right? if not your on your own with whatever happens. If its surge brakes DONT panic just ease off the gas pedal and hold the wheel strait. DO NOT try and fight it back and forth this will make things much worse. just let off the throttle gentle like and let the engines compression slow you down gradually. BUT the smartest thing is don't let this happen in the first place. proper load distribution is KEY. you must maintain proper tongue weight on the tow vehicle. if you have to much weight behind the trailers axles it will pull the rear of the tow vehicle around and sling you strait into the ditch. Single axle trailers suffer from this much much more than tandem axle trailers. Personally i dont think i would ever own a single axle trailer. even my little welder trailers are tandem axles.
"DO NOT try and fight it back and forth this will make things much worse" Great advise. Reactionary over-correcting will make things allot worse.
Gotta love rescuing almost 4 year old threads.Wonder what the record is????
Needed my 3 post minimum to start a new thread.
Yair . . . Just curious (again). All good advise about recovering from a wobble but no where do I see any mention of equaliser bars . . . do you folks in the 'States use them? Unless a trailer is completely out of whack the spring tension between trailer and tow vehicle is a real help. Cheers.
Ya they are used alot .... but mostly for undersized (suspension) vehicles ... as they are called they are for equalizing the load so the vehicle does not look like a Dog trying to mount a football going down the road ....... I have used them alot for just that on a light duty p/u .... take that same trailer and put it on a 1-ton dually with no bars and it trails perfect ...... they (the bars ) are not designed for use as a sway control, but there is a separate sway bar that can be installed alls it is, is a friction pad that is supposed to reduce sway ......... all of these thing are a p**s poor excuse for trailers with a bad alignment of the axels and of coarse bad loading practices. What would you do if you take a single drawbar (as in a boat trailer) where you can't use the dual load leveling/equalizer bars as in the case of the a-frames that travel trailers have ?? Nothing ! ... just load the boat properly and have the axels in the proper location ......jmho
Yair . . . Gotcha CRAFT . I guess they are more universal here because our tow vehicles top out at 7700 pounds maximum . . . most considerably less. Cheers.
in my point of view its the driver responsibility not to over load the truck. make inspection before loading that every part of truck is faultless. driver should be a competent person who knows the rules and regulation of truck driving. precautionary measures are better because these save you from big loss.