Sway disaster...

[redbarron55]

You might want to look at this. Ignore the ad, look at Tuscon sway control.

[MC1]

Originally Posted by redbarron55

You might want to look at this. Ignore the ad, look at Tuscon sway control.

Good stuff rb. It is great to see all this technology being developed. When they play at the limits they learn how to make the rigs safer with less sway and accidents. Lets face it. Crap rarely happens on a nice sunny day driving down the road in a straight line.

My hat goes of to all of those who are out there on the test tracks learning and looking for a better mouse trap. We all benefit.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by redbarron55

You might want to look at this. Ignore the ad, look at Tuscon sway control.

Here is the AL-KO unit:

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

I'll relate another story that happened to me that makes me a firm believer of trailer brakes. In Los Vegas, on I-215 north bound, there's a slight hill with curve as it goes over the top. Blind, you can't see very far in front of you at that point. At that point all traffic in front of me had stopped for some reason. No choice but brake as hard as I could. I glanced in the side mirror towards the outside of the curve, there's my trailer trying pass me. Still no choice but the keep braking hard. I figured that my trailer would be gone. When stopped I looked in the center mirror and there was the trailer right where I wanted. If feel certain that without the brakes and good controller I would have lost the trailer.

Byron,

I always mention that we have an anti-sway bar for emergencies. Your situation may have been one where an anti-sway bar may have helped prevent your trailer trying to pass you.

We've had an emergency stop situation towing at speed where someone just pulled across the road blocking our way, full stop, smoking tires and all, and the trailer never budged from a straight line. It's for those emergencies that we have an anti-sway bar. It may not solve everything but it's in the right direction when you're in trouble.

[Stan and Carol]

Originally Posted by CPW

Yep. Driving out of control for the load he was towing endangering everyone else on the road. Just like the majority of 18 wheel drivers who seem to think that the interstate speed limits are for non-commercial drivers because they obviously can stop their 80,000 pound loads on a dime, even when going 10 or 15 mph over the limit or on wet, slick roads. Sorry, my pet peeve. Skeeter is the poster child for all the irresponsible idiots who for some reason were granted licenses to operate a motor vehicle.

Now now, give us old semi retired truck drivers a little respect, we are not all Skeeters.

[redbarron55]

If you look at the Tuscon video you will see that they went to some effort to induce sway by putting 1/2 full totes in the trailer and balancing very incorrectly. The point is that the system brakes the trailer on the correct side to counteract the sway. This works better than the stabilization program for the truck alone.
If the cars and trucks had trailer brake signals for left and right separately then the vehicle's stability system could do this job.
Failing in that the accelerometers in the trailer control unit detect sway and activate brakes as necessary. This could be incorporated into the Tek wireless unit (for extra cost) since it has the basic electronics (accelerometers) to control braking level to match the car now.
This would be a great add-on for safety if it were engineered and offered.

[Darwin Maring]

Many thanks for your definition of Skeeter - Skeeter is the poster child for all the irresponsible idiots who for some reason were granted licenses to operate a motor vehicle. I like that definition allot. It also applies to Boat drivers.

[Darwin Maring]

I have to agree with Stan, I haven't met a semi truck driver yet that I call Skeeter. The Skeeters that I see are driving a pickemuptruck that cost less than their blue tick hunting dog and the pickemuptruck cost more than the trailer they live in. The baseball hat that is turned around backwards on their head has a fishing hook on the bill and that have stickers on the rear window of their truck, some are flags and others are offensive to just about everyone. There appears to be no muffler on their vehicle and they don't know that because of the volume of the radio blasting "A long neck beer and a plate of retried dreams, Are driving to gast without caring for anyone else on the road, u employed and not looking for a job. No body in their right mind would put them behind the wheel of a Semi Truck / Trailer on our highways.

[RogerDat]

I have seen a lot more late model high end SUV's and cars than commercial trucks being driven by people that apparently got their license to drive in a cracker jack box.

I do a 25 mile commute now and the only semi I have seen in the ditch in the last 10 years was blown there by a tornado while parked on the shoulder of the road. Can't even count the hours I have spent in traffic jams involving cars in more hurry than the road conditions would support or who figured 6 inches of clearance at 80 mph meant plenty of room to move over.

In the interest of full disclosure I also drove commercial trucks for about 20 years. Not that many careless drivers, simply put the companies insurance wanted nothing to do with people that could not keep it between the lines and greasy side down, shiny side up and no small cars caught in the grill work.

[honda03842]

Without calling names, it's revealing to drive through Delaware. In Delaware people convicted of drunk driving get a black licence plate with white lettering. I like the concept, it serves as a reminder to all and an indicator to the police. There really are a lot of them.

[Darwin Maring]

Skeeter also drives 4 wheel drive vehicles too and here in Virginia they know they can start out quicker in the snow covered roads than a 2WD but haven't figured out they can't stop any quicker thus, they pass us going way to fast on the slick roads and you guessed it, they wind up in the ditch down the road. This is not a rare event, I see dozens each year. I don't see the professional drivers of the Semi variety in the ditch. Their livelihood depends on their safety and they take that seriously - Also, My nephew drives one with a governor and a satellite connection so the home office monitors his driving record.

[kamalamak]

Last year, we were on our way home, driving about 55 to 60 mph (our usual) just out of Van Horn, TX- a little hilly area. We had a Casita sighting--but it was in a bad way. The driver was really speeding down the road and the Casita, probably a 16ft. was swaying right and left. We cringed and watched. Nothing happened and we didn't see her turned over on the way home, but boy! it was frightening. There was no way she didn't know her trailer was swaying so hard.

Now I have a question. We just changed TVs. We had a 2012 Dodge Caravan which pulled beautifully but the miles were adding up and since we are going to go to Alaska this summer, we decided to buy a new TV. We had to use the WDH on the Caravan. Our new TV is a 2015 Silverado 1500 with GVWR upgraded to 6900 lbs. We then had 3-inch lift kit added to the Casita. Owners manual says (even without the upgrade) that the WDH is optional for our size of trailer (< 7000 lbs). When we hitch up the trailer, the truck doesn't seem to move. We've always seen the WDH as a precaution but are now wondering if we really need it.

[Darwin Maring]

I would take it on a 100 mile drive to test it out.

[kamalamak]

Originally Posted by Darwin Maring

I would take it on a 100 mile drive to test it out.

We took it on a 1500 mile run, but with the wdh. We really had to work all the angles at getting the wdh to have any tension.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by honda03842

Byron,

I always mention that we have an anti-sway bar for emergencies. Your situation may have been one where an anti-sway bar may have helped prevent your trailer trying to pass you.

We've had an emergency stop situation towing at speed where someone just pulled across the road blocking our way, full stop, smoking tires and all, and the trailer never budged from a straight line. It's for those emergencies that we have an anti-sway bar. It may not solve everything but it's in the right direction when you're in trouble.

Possibly. But, once the trailer started to move to the side an anti-sway bar would have impeded the trailer trying to get back behind the tow. This was on a curve so the trailer and tow were not in a straight line.

[Darwin Maring]

Try it without the WDH.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by kamalamak

Last year, we were on our way home, driving about 55 to 60 mph (our usual) just out of Van Horn, TX- a little hilly area. We had a Casita sighting--but it was in a bad way. The driver was really speeding down the road and the Casita, probably a 16ft. was swaying right and left. We cringed and watched. Nothing happened and we didn't see her turned over on the way home, but boy! it was frightening. There was no way she didn't know her trailer was swaying so hard.

Now I have a question. We just changed TVs. We had a 2012 Dodge Caravan which pulled beautifully but the miles were adding up and since we are going to go to Alaska this summer, we decided to buy a new TV. We had to use the WDH on the Caravan. Our new TV is a 2015 Silverado 1500 with GVWR upgraded to 6900 lbs. We then had 3-inch lift kit added to the Casita. Owners manual says (even without the upgrade) that the WDH is optional for our size of trailer (< 7000 lbs). When we hitch up the trailer, the truck doesn't seem to move. We've always seen the WDH as a precaution but are now wondering if we really need it.

Van Horn... We've stayed their. John Madden's favorite Mexican restuarant is there. Amazon's rocket company Blue Horizon has their launch pad in Van Horn.

[Darwin Maring]

Just maybe you might want to try a Hensley hitch.

[Paul O.]

All these things - WDH, sway bars, active control systems, Hensley, etc - introduce a variety of trade-offs. If I had to, I would be most interested in the Hensley and start my research there, I think.

[kamalamak]

I miss the "like" button. Thanks for your replies, Darwin Maring, Norm and Ginny, and Paul. Our launch date is set for May 3rd, so I guess we'll go with what we got. The Hensley hitch looks really interesting. --Kamala