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Old 07-08-2020, 09:56 AM   #166
prydey
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Woodcroft S.A.
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Default Re: Towing a Caravan - Mechanical strain etc

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tassie f100 View Post
Bet you will find a lot more crashes caused by low ball weight rather than too much.Over 50+ years of trailer towing car trailers,the only times there were swaying problems were when there wasn’t enough ball weight.
Correct. This is why its bad advice to rearrange the payload to reduce the ball weight on a trailer not designed to have a light ball weight.

Sway is caused by the trailer bossing the car. Often this is due to the weight of the trailer, but also, like you mention, if there isn't enough weight on the ball, the trailer can take weight off the rear axle of the car. The last thing you want when towing a trailer is to have less weight on the driving wheels.

This is also a problem when people over tension WDH. They don't understand the relationship between mass and tyres and tyre pressures etc If you increase the 'mass' over the rear, but then overtension the WDH so that 'weight' is moved back to the front, the tyres lose the ability to hang on to the road when lateral forces are at play.

anyway, thats a very simple overview and getting a bit off topic.
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