Re: [SilverStreak] towing

["Eddie" <EddieHuffstetter@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vincent,
No, you chain idea won't work. The most important thing when towing any 
trailer with anything is tongue weight. Go to the site Tom Patterson linked 
and read the whole thing. Read every word he wrote because it is exact, 
perfect, and complete. You must understand that like a crane overloaded, 
there is a point of no return with sway. There is usually no warning 
sufficient to stop the oscillation and regain control. Any application of 
brakes is usually sudden disaster. Loss of control is usually at 50+ mph but 
can be at 45mph. You can induce for sway at 40mph to find out if you have 
probable loss of control. So speed attention and patience for your turning a 
4 hour trip into a 5 hour trip may make a lot of people behind you angry, 
but get you to destination. Still, that semi that passes you will try to 
first blow the trailer off the road but then immediately suck the trailer in 
behind the semi. A good cross wind being blocked by a semi passing you wants 
to put the trailer into the semi, then throw you off when it finally passes. 
You cannot control these environments. It will bite you! You must get tongue 
weight on your truck or the trailer is driving you and your truck.

I have an anti-sway bar. You will need to attach the plate it needs and 
comes with beneath your hitch ball. If you did not use antiseize compound or 
grease on your ball threads, it probably won't come off if it is fine 
threaded, so be prepared to buy another ball when you have to cut off the 
old one. My sway bar uses a L handle which you can adjust on the fly for as 
much tension as you want until the trailer cannot be turned any corner. It 
uses two disk brake pads which the L handle clamps on both sides of the 
sliding bar. Relatively inexpensive and needing only one of two possible, 
you will get extremely good anti-sway control results. The load distribution 
levelers are two required. There must be a receiver installed for the bars 
to attach to your truck. This will require a adapter, but usually a 
different hitch on your truck designed for the bar system you choose. It is 
expensive. It will make the truck and trailer level instead of dipping down 
at the hitch. It will transfer the weight on the truck so as to load the 
trucks front wheels. It will give you more control in the form of weight on 
the trucks front wheels. IT WILL DO NOTHING FOR ANTI-SWAY!

There is no substitute for getting a trailer nose heavy versus balanced 
level or tail heavy. No sway bar or anything else will overcome a level or 
tail heavy trailer. When you let the trailer down on your truck, and the 
truck does not substantially drop down (in your case) with the added weight, 
you do not have enough tongue weight. You don't have enough truck, because 
the trailer is too close to the weight of your truck, but you can safely do 
your tow if you follow everything Tom and the others have said about tongue 
weight, and spend the money to buy and use an anti-sway bar.

I never use my anti-sway bar. It was a one time use when I towed my 79 
Supreme Luxury Liner 3200 miles with a 78 Argosy motorhome. Not a weight 
factor, I had a wind factor created by towing a trailer with a motor home, 
which created a draft envelope on the trailer problem, from the motor home 
which was destroyed with every passing semi. If you are in or near Houston, 
I will lend you my anti-sway bar complete system for your trip. It works.
-Eddie-
Houston, TX