Towing with bikes on back

[openthegates]

I have a trillium 1300 and was towing the camper 5 hours. Every time we reached 65 mph the camper went into a back and forth sway that would continue to get worse. As a result, we traveled under and around 60 mph. It made for long travel. Does anyone have experience in this area and if so, how was it resolved. Thanks in advance for your expert advice.

[Jacqueline in BC]

We had the exact problem. Too much weight on the back of the trailer causes low tongue weight which make your rig prone to sway.

Our approach was to move the bikes into the truck bed. You could also carry bike on the car roof or get a front carrier.

Good luck! Sway is very scary!!

[WizWid]

Originally Posted by openthegates

I have a trillium 1300 and was towing the camper 5 hours. Every time we reached 65 mph the camper went into a back and forth sway that would continue to get worse. As a result, we traveled under and around 60 mph. It made for long travel. Does anyone have experience in this area and if so, how was it resolved. Thanks in advance for your expert advice.

Have you weighed your trailer (total weight vs tongue weight)?

[Bobbie Mayer]

You may be able to shift some of the other things in the trailer forward to compensate for the weight in back. Also look at your bike rack- I have a cargo rack on the back of my trailer and by putting a new hole in the hitch bar I was able to move it six inches closer to the trailer which helped keep the center of gravity further forward as well.

[Joe & Cherie]

Agree. The issue is not so much the bikes on the back as it is the total weight distribution. If you want the bikes on the back (I do), add weight to the front and all should be well.

[mary and bob]

Don't block the taillights of the trailer. When I used a rear bike rack I put an extra set of lights on it plus a turn / stop / marker light bar over the rear window.

[Mr Lynn]

Originally Posted by mary and bob

Don't block the taillights of the trailer. When I used a rear bike rack I put an extra set of lights on it plus a turn / stop / marker light bar over the rear window.

Good point. We just installed a Perfect Casita receiver-hitch on our 17SD, and I'm now attempting to assemble a Kuat Transfer 2 bike rack. Have to check when I get it all on the trailer and see if the bikes block the taillights. Were you able to place and wire your extras without drilling holes in the trailer? (I should have looked when we met at Schodack last September!)

I'm also a little worried about the additional weight on the rear. Figure I won't travel with a full fresh-water tank (which adds a lot of rear weight). Probably should look for a place to get the trailer weighed, once the rack and bikes are on it.

/Mr Lynn

[Johnny M]

Another concern in addition to sway should be if the frame is capable of handling it. See my thread from the other day about the frame/rear bumper breaking:

http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ure-80974.html

[ironbutt]

Hi guy's;

I also am being plagued with sway. I have installed the receiver hitch kit to carry a box with the extra stuff that I previously carried in the back of the tow vehicle. All in all it wasn't that much weight but I found that I couldn;t open the box on the rack because it was right on and rubbing on the spare tire. So I purchased an extender for the 2 inch receiver. Now that put the additional weight farther back and took more weight off the front. Which increased the tendancy to sway.. So now the stuff is going back into the bed of the truck. ( Live n learn...)

[WizWid]

Originally Posted by ironbutt

Hi guy's;

I also am being plagued with sway. I have installed the receiver hitch kit to carry a box with the extra stuff that I previously carried in the back of the tow vehicle. All in all it wasn't that much weight but I found that I couldn;t open the box on the rack because it was right on and rubbing on the spare tire. So I purchased an extender for the 2 inch receiver. Now that put the additional weight farther back and took more weight off the front. Which increased the tendancy to sway.. So now the stuff is going back into the bed of the truck. ( Live n learn...)

At the risk of sounding like a broken record - did you weigh the trailer in its "swaying" configuration? I am curious even if you aren't!

[mary and bob]

Mr Lynn; I did not want to drill any holes in the fiberglass, so I cut the trailer cord at the tongue and installed a "weatherproof" junction box there. Replaced the plug and cord to the tow vehicle with a coiled cord that I salvaged from a tractor trailer. Then I ran a 4 wire cord from the junction box back along the trailer frame to my rear lights. Have found that the "weatherproof" box is not totally so, but haven't come up with a better one. That was all done when we were at Schodack, but I hadn't built the rear receiver yet. The rack that I had lights on was on our Uhaul camper, same idea with the wiring, junction at the tongue and wiring run back along the frame and a 4 wire flat plug at the rack so I could unplug and remove it. We went south with the Uhaul with bikes on the back and covered in one of those travel bags. Our Casita wiring goes into the front closet so I could have tapped in there, drilled a hole in the floor, and run my wiring back. What I did worked for me, maybe others wouldn't like that solution and can come up with one of their own.
Edit; we do not normally travel with bikes on the rear of our Casita, they go in the truck bed. Did carry one on the rear around Florida a little with no problem.

[Kenny Strong]

Do you have trailer tires and not automobile tires ? radial tires for cars can cause sway. the walls of the tires are flexible for good ride in the car. My trailer has trailer tires, use 50 pounds of air pressure. Maybe!

[Tom 72]

Please don't take this the wrong way. Recall, or go to the playground, find a see saw, and observe how a person of much less weight can counter a larger person by moving farther out from the fulcrum/midpoint. Similarly the bigger person moving toward the fulcrum alters things. I think one point is that way out on the bumper, or back hitch, a little weight can have great effect. One other tip, do not let the person on the other end jump off. Oh, my tailbone still hurts!

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Bobbie Mayer

You may be able to shift some of the other things in the trailer forward to compensate for the weight in back. Also look at your bike rack- I have a cargo rack on the back of my trailer and by putting a new hole in the hitch bar I was able to move it six inches closer to the trailer which helped keep the center of gravity further forward as well.

Compensating with extra weight to front does nothing to change the dynamics of the extra weight in the rear. It's still a long pendulum and subject creating sway. Moving weight to the front may mask the problem but doesn't fix the problem.

[Glenn Baglo]

Maybe somebody can link to the video that shows the dynamics.
Moving stuff from the trailer to the tow vehicle is also not an option if you go over the allowable axle weight or the Gross Combined Vehicle Weight.

[Mr Lynn]

Here's what Jim (or Terry) at The Perfect Casita (Orbital Machine Works) says about the effect on hitch weight of adding weight at the back of Casitas:

Weight and balance considerations when adding a rear hitch.

Trailers that are tail heavy will sway more (or at a lower speed) than the same trailer in a nose heavy configuration. Thats just the way it is. That is why trailer manufacturers generally put the axle(s) in a place that will give some amount of weight on the tongue. The allowable tongue weight is usually specified as a percentage of total weight and is often somewhere in the range of 6% to 15% of total weight. 16 foot Casitas are a bit tongue-light to start with so this is important.

If your tongue weight is too low you add weight in front of the axle. You do this by either loading the trailer with the heavy stuff forward, or carrying batteries/generators/gas cans on the nifty OMW utility shelf over your propane tanks.

If your tongue weight is too high you need to remove some weight from the front, or add some weight to the back. Thats where the OMW Receiver hitch comes in. But you need to know how much adding weight to the back will affect the tonque weight. Assuming that you have our receiver installed, and it sticks out 3" behind your "bumper", and any weight you add is centered 12" behind the back of the receiver, here are the official figures

For every 10 pounds added at the back, on a
13 foot Casita 6.3 pounds is removed from the tongue
16 foot Casita 6.3 pounds is removed from the tongue
17 foot Casita 5.7 pounds is removed from the tongue


When you are done - get the trailer weighed. You need both total weight and tongue weight just to be sure you are safely within the load limits for both the trailer and the tow vehicle.

How much does the Casita Receiver Hitch weigh?

It weighs about 42 pounds including the attachment hardware. Shipping weight is nearer 60 pounds by the time we add the shipping frame and put it into that expensive box. Installing the hitch in the stock location will lower your tongue weight by about 18 pounds.

perfectcasita.com

/Mr Lynn

[Bigfoot25]

I'll take a chance and "weigh in" here. I tow a much larger travel trailer, a 25' Bigfoot, than you have. When I picked it up at the Canadian border in June 2016, to save a wad on delivery, I had never towed a trailer before. I took along the Equal-I-Zer anti-sway and weight distribution hitch that my dealer assured me was a necessary item. But I couldn't install it due to to my ignorance and issues on the front of the trailer. So we drove 350 miles to Olympia, WA on a Saturday night over Snowqualmie Pass. We were pulling with a 2014 Toyota Tundra 4x4 equipped with an anti-sway control device. That darn thing went off no less than FIVE times when the trailer began to sway during that harrowing journey, nearly stopping my heart every time. No one should experience trailer sway; you'll live longer if you don't.

After that unforgettable nightmare, I hooked up the Equal-I-Zer along with buying a tongue scale for $135. The scale is invaluable if you want to know all that you should/must know about your trailer weight and its distribution.. You have to know your tongue weight and learn what it means. And you have to know what your fully loaded trailer weighs. DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING. I travel with two bicycles on the rear of the trailer, two full 5-gallon cans of gas there also, and Four 100lb deep cycle flooded batteries on the tongue. I know that my tongue weight is within the recommended 9%-15% of the total weight and does not exceed the weight rating of my hitch ball. I have NEVER experienced any sway since installing the Equal-I-Zer. That thing is worth its weight in gold, which is a lot of gold since the two solid steel control bars weigh 23lbs each!

I just traveled through gale force cross and head winds on the west coast of Newfoundland at 50mph (the same speed as a gale force wind) on our way down from the northern tip of the Great Northern Peninsula. The trailer DID NOT MOVE, as in SWAY, the entire way. You want to eliminate trailer sway, buy an Equal-I-Zer and learn how to install and adjust it. Oh yeah, and WEIGH YOUR TRAILER AND YOUR TONGUE WEIGHT FULLY LOADED. Better weigh it unloaded too so that you know how the weight redistributes as you change loads. This is vital and critical information. Believe it!

You can tow with bikes on the back. Just make sure your rear bumper is designed to handle the load. I've heard stories of rear bumpers disappearing along with the bicycles that were attached to it. I had my bumper designed and built with a receiver hitch. Additions without design considerations can be disastrous.

Good Luck
Better to Make Your Luck Good
It is good to BEWARE, but as important to be AWARE

[DeBreez]

Originally Posted by ironbutt

Hi guy's;

I also am being plagued with sway. I have installed the receiver hitch kit to carry a box with the extra stuff that I previously carried in the back of the tow vehicle. All in all it wasn't that much weight but I found that I couldn;t open the box on the rack because it was right on and rubbing on the spare tire. So I purchased an extender for the 2 inch receiver. Now that put the additional weight farther back and took more weight off the front. Which increased the tendancy to sway.. So now the stuff is going back into the bed of the truck. ( Live n learn...)

I also installed the OMW hitch receiver on my 17SD. We routinely carry a couple of full-sized bikes with us, and since the bike rack I have is pretty heavy, I decided to carry the spare in the bed of the pick up. This gave me more room to move the rack forward in the receiver by drilling a new 5/8" hole through the mount. (I could probably move it further forward by cutting an inch or two off the rack, but don't have a need at this point.)

We never really had a sway problem, but there was a difference when carrying the bikes. Can't tell much of a difference with or without the bikes in the current configuration.

To save room in the back of the truck, I bought this spare tire bracket on Amazon. Pretty easy to install, excellent quality and reasonably priced. Very happy with our current bike/spare/hitch arrangement.

[J Ron]

Moving weight to the front does fix the problem. Weight is weight regardless of how it is obtained. My ST trailer tires are speed rated 65nph, I KEEP my speed down to 60 for tire safety even though my rig does really well at 80.

[J Ron]

Smaller and lighter units will respond more to the same weight as a heavier unit will. The weight is a larger percentage of total weight than a heavier unit. Since the unit is mounted on an axle like a seesaw small amounts of weight changes thing quickly. Comparing lighter trailers to heavier ones for weigh distribution may not b such a good thing