[VAC] Re: Sway Control

["Weimers" <mweimer@xxxxxxxx>]

Those are very good questions that I'm not going to find out except if I do
it the "hard way". This is why I asked about the sway control ...to see what
people said about the handling and the safety considerations of various
set-ups. Having driven with trailers for many years, I can state that I am
very much afraid that in an emergency situation, any trailer I have towed
will be terrible. They might be stable on a straightaway, but in an
emergency, stopping distances are greater, the rig can not make a sharp
turn, and the weight of the trailer swinging on the back of the rig could
pull the tow vehicle right off the road. I can't say that my trailer has
scared me in any situation except in a panic stop. With a trailer of 4000
pounds and a tow vehicle of 6000 pounds, my problems are not the same as a
guy trying to tow a 6000 pound trailer with a 3000 pound minivan. One
consideration with my tow vehicle is that it is a station wagon and
therefore has a large distance between the hitch and the axle which allows
the trailer to pull the car out of line a lot easier than it would a van
with a small distance between the hitch and axle. I have read many stories
about trailers pulling tow vehicles off the road, even to the extent where a
shockwave from a speeding truck causes a complete loss of control and a
severe roll over. My rig has never felt unstable like this.
    It would be interesting to see a study (by an agency that is not out to
sell a particular hitch set-up) concerning the road worthiness of trailer /
tow vehicle combinations. I'm sure different tow vehicles behave
differently. My brother-in-law towing a 16 foot Sunline trailer with a
Bronco II had a rig so unstable that he dared not venture out onto the road
without his sway control tightened snugly. My Dad towed a dual axle boat
trailer with a severe sway problem with an  old Pontiac wagon. The trailer
nearly caused the tow vehicle to go out of control. Subsequently, he
purchased a Chrysler wagon which may have been slightly heavier and had an
even longer (which should make it worse) hitch to axle distance. This car
was not affected very much by the swaying trailer (which swayed just as
badly as before).  The Pontiac wagon, by itself, felt very agile on a curve.
The Chrysler wagons wanted to go in a straight line even on a curve (drives
like  boat!).  People claim that Chevy Astro vans are good tow vehicles.
Driving one solo (w/o trailer) my sister wound up in a ditch when a wind
gust blew it off the road.  So, does the most popular tow vehicle, the
Suburban, handle better than my car does? I don't know.  Will it tow my
trailer better than my car does? I don't know that either. But ...how can we
find out? Maybe a Suburban benefits greatly by using the Hensley hitch. I
doubt it would be cost effective to put one on my antique station
wagon....and would it be a benefit?
      Towing my '71 GT feels stable compared to my Dad's trailers. I thought
it was pretty good. Then I towed a '63 GT with a Reese dual cam. The '63
tows better.   It is  (for instance) like the difference between a  station
wagon and a  2 door sedan ..... when you drive the station wagon, is feels
fine.  You don't realize that the wagon feels big and bulky until you drive
the sedan and feel how much more stable it feels. It's a subtle difference.
When the going is easy this difference is slight, but  could become very
significant in an emergency situation.  When I bought my '63 GT I was lead
to believe it weighed less than 3000 pounds (wet) . I thought my '71GT
weighed about 4500. This is the way the rig felt when I towed it ..like
there was a large difference in the weight. It turns out that the difference
is less than 700 pounds (3380 and 4060). Is it the dual cam hitch that did
this?  Does a  '71 have a bunch more hitch weight that goofs it up?
Something makes the '71 feel bulkier than it is. I'm thinkin' it might be
the sway control!!!
   Okay ....so after all this dissertation ,  my question still is: will a
friction type sway control make my rig any safer and stable?  Will it handle
better? It's a $100 investment that would be worth while if it would make a
difference.

MARC WEIMER
Punxsutawney, PA
#15767
1963 Globe Trotter
1971 Globe Trotter

P.S.  it would be informative to see if ABS brakes make a big difference
while towing too!! (I'm guessing it does).