broke one side of my sway bar assembly

[Rodney Robinson]

Hello all

Well thanks again for all the help I recieved here as to my brake controller. That is resolved now.

So here we are in Nebraska City, Nebraska with one broken bracket. The one back on the tongue

so I only have side left. This is my anti sway assembly.

We had to put on some miles to get in for the night, with no problems with sway.

My question is How serious is this? Should I have repair effected immediately, or can it wait.

Right now I am thinking I will continue on at reduced speed for now.

Am I better off keeping the half that is left, or would it be best to take it off and go without.

Thanks in advance.

Rodney

[Joe Z]

Depends on your tow vehicle and how close to tongue weight you are...If your in a larger pickup type you should be fairly ok and use the stabalizer bar if you have it........... really not sure if one tension bar is okay. driving a little slower is always good.
joe

[Pete Dumbleton]

It's not clear to me whether you have broken your friction bar sway control or one side of a weight distributing hitch (WDH).

If it's the friction bar, and you are having a noticeable difference driving it, then something else is wrong (tongue weight, load distribution, etc.) and you should get that worked out. The bar was only hiding trouble.

OTOH, if it's the WDH, then you want to get it fixed right away because with one side tensioned and the other side not, there's likely to be some handling differences depending on which way you may be turning or being pushed. Also, the entire weight being distributed is now on the remaining bar and you risk breaking it. If it's a WDH, the recommendation is to replace both bars if one is damaged. You should be trying to find out why it broke in the first place.

[Rodney Robinson]

Thanks for the replys. Once again, I am being helped at this site. Thanks to those who responded.

The full story is I used to have an assembly almost exactly like this one on my 17 ft Bigfoot, that I towed with a 98 Plymouth Gran Van. That trailer came with a oversized hitch that had slots on each side for a approx 30 inch 1 1/2 square bar, that had to be lifted up and pinned to a bracket farther back on the tongue.

Currently the tongue bracket broke when I went downhill out of a gas station, turned right onto an uphill street. I believe the bracket on the tongue dragged and broke right then.

It was the first day with a 21 ft trailer I had just bought used. The seller kept telling me how he had spent $600 on, what he called an anti-sway bar assembly. By the way the tug is a 2002 Yukon XL.

After hitching up yesterday, I couldn't lift the rear of that 30 inch bar into place at mid tougue, so I had to lower the adjustable bracket, until I could get it lifted in. By that time the whole works only went up a little bit. Not like the bigfoot, which seemed to go up approx an inch.

I will have to tow it someplace for repair.

After sleeping on the problem and reading the responses I got here. I believe what I have is a weight distrubution hitch, but not under very much pressure because of the adjustment I made.

I believe I will keep the half I have left in place for now, unless I detect unusual movement, as it will provide some friction for anti-sway. Then drop my speed way down to about 55 and not speed up on a downhill.

I have just filled my two oversized propane tanks, that sit on the tongue and I believe I can find about 100 lbs of stuff to move from the back of the trailer to the front.

Thanks again and now back to the web for a repair shop. I will try for one that will repair problems as a person drives down the highway. Johnny Carson said once that in L A people change tires at 50 miles per hour.

Rodney

[BobB]

Rodney,

Sounds like you might be talking about the Equal-i-zer hitch. Hopefully you can get it fixed. The previous owner probably wouldn't have added it unless it was needed. Some of the 21 footers had balance/sway issues which related to their being light on the tongue end, I think. Your reference to loading the front end of the trailer makes me think you already are aware of this. Keeping the fresh water tank relatively empty might also be helpful. Be careful, as there may be some serious weather headed towards you!

[Joe Z]

Rodney....
Looks like your towing a 21' bigfoot with a Yukon your hitch setup should have two (torsion)equalizer bars ( one on each side which one is broken) and you should have one stabalizer bar ( the thing that you crank the handle on real tight then back off half turn) that yukon is at the limit to handle the trailer without the two stabalizer bars for now as that is a good size tow vehicle..... I would just use the stabalizer bar(friction bar) until you can get another bracket for the torsion bar.....drive a little slower and you should be just fine.....just be a little careful in the rain as the front end will be a little lighter and going around curves could cause it to slip.(if it starts to rain i would be inclinded to stop and wait for dry roads)......do a test and see how high your headlights shine up in the air.....if it's way up it's dangerous..... if it's almost where it was you should be okay until you can find a replacement

Joe

[BobB]

Rodney,

I don't know if you are still out there, but you might be interested in a similar thread on the Bigfoot Owner's website:

http://www.bigfootowners.com/

Click on BOCI Forum -> Trailers -> Equalizer hitch size for 21 footer. There are 3 pages of this thread covering the experience of several owners of recent 21 foot models.

[Pete Dumbleton]

I suggest you find the web site for your WDH (there should be some rating info engraved or tagged on the hitch and bars) and download the owner's instructions for setting it up properly.

BTW, many people think that all WDHs are anti-sway devices, but AFAIK only the Reese Dual Cam and the EqualIZer actually are.