sway control question...

[rusty ol ranger]

I bought the "fricton sway control" for my camper, in order to mount the plate to the camper for the sway bar to hook to it says to use 6 self tapping bolts....my question is...could i use u bolts instead....i would rather not drill into my new camper frame

thanks.

later,
Dustin

[AllanD]

I cannot imagine why not.

I don't particularly care for self-tapping screws for anything important.

Dustin,
The rest is not as much adressed to you (though if I say anyting you don't already know...)
but to others...

Though I'll comment that "swaw damping", via a friction device doesn't fix
the real problem.

"Sway" of a towed trailer is caused by one of three things.
1)Insufficient static tongue weight
2)Insufficient dynamic tongue weight (Aerodynamic forces tend to reduce tongue weight)
3)Straightness of alignment of the trailer axle (generally more on single axle trailers)

Insufficient tongue weight can be aggrevated by excessively compliant rear suspension
1) I've never seen a vehicle with a "Four link" rear suspension that wasn't
aggrevating to tow with.
2)Soft rear tires
3)insufficient rear anti-sway bar
4)Pilot induced oscillations

On Pilot induced oscillations, most drivers even those relatively experienced
with towing trailers tend to try to unconciously damp out the lateral oscillation
we know as "trailer sway", they often get their corrections "in phase" and make the oscillations worse, when an "out of phase" correction of simply holding the steering wheel rigid (braced against a knee) would "kill" the oscillation.

Additionally if you have electric trailer brakes momentarily applying just the trailer brakes will kill sway almost instantly if the situation isn't cause or aggrevated by aerodynamic drag (also known as excessive speed)

And while I think a friction brake sway control is a good idea, I'd personally find out what imbalance is causing the sway before attempting to damp it out mechanically.

Because even with your friction brake device the underlaying "Sway" is still there and if your device should work loose, fall off, the sway could come back, with a vengance when you least expect it.

Frankly the first thing I would do would be to install stiffer springs in the tow vehicle, along with stiffer (higher load range) tires on the tow vehicle. this is all to "support" the next step which would be to either redistribute weight in the towed load (move weight forward) or add weight to makle the trailer more nose heavy.

If dealing with a camper, which has a large exposed frontal area I'd think real hard about some sort of air "deflector" to smooth the airflow around it.

The low density and frontal area of campers tends to make them tip "nose up" at speed, often this is something that happens suddenly at some critical speed.

The effect is rather like a high speed hydroplane, say a drag racing boat, suddenly tipping nose up at speed...

[Tractorman]

It should work, I would just fear that it might possible slide back and forth. I would just use the self tapers.

[rusty ol ranger]

I installed my weight distribution bars....even with just those i was able to run 50MPH and it wasnt to scary even with a crosswind....I ended up getting the self tappers cause its impossible to find a 6 inch I.D by 3 inch long u bolt

Allan, its a 30 ft camper that weighs about 6500lbs...weight in it is kinda what it is...my truck (77 F250) handles it pretty well even without no sway control/weight distribution (i could pull it about 40 or 45 before it got scary)....

Havent got the bolts yet so i didnt install the sway bar itself, but im pretty sure ill be sittin pretty judging by how much just the brs did.

thanks guys.

[AllanD]

You could do what I did to mount the tongue winch on my tow dolly...

Make a plate to go on the opposite side and then used straight bolts and Elastic stop nuts

Frankly I don't like drilling holes in frame rails either.

[Will]

The scariness is from having too much weight behind the trailer axles, which a too-low tongue weight is a clue of. The friction sway control definitely helps. You can run them on both sides of the tongue. Drilling through the web of the frame doesn't hurt anything at all. I would weld it on though.

It's all about lever-arms. The hitch ball and the drive axle of the truck are one important lever arm. That is what the trailer can use to move the truck around, and why a gooseneck is so much more stabile--I cannot load my gooseneck in such a way that I can even notice it back there. The second important lever-arm is the center of mass of the trailer behind the axles to the axles. That is the bit of the trailer that will try to wag the truck around. That's what causes sway.

When I got married I got a U-Haul to tow behind my '64 Galaxie--we were going from Iowa to Camp Pendleton by way of Glacier National Park, over the Golden gate and down the Pacific Coast Highway. My brother's-in-law loaded the trailer because I was off doing wedding things. Naturally, they put the big things in first--couch, etc. The boxes of books and tool chests ended up in the rear. We started driving and that things was throwing us from lane to lane--I thought we were going to die. Our first night, I had to unload the trailer at a campground and move the heavy shit forward. It was smooth driving after that.

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

This is the cats ass in weight distribution/sway control. It is what I'm using for my 35 foot 9700lbs travel trailer. Not cheap at around $800 for the complete set up, but works wonders.

http://www.huskytow.com/FTP/HuskyFea...eHitch_hv.html

[Will]

Wow.

I'm sure it works, but it's still a crutch for a bad trailer design. I think RV makers purposely put the axles 3 feet further forward so they could build a new trailer-control industry. You ever see a backhoe on a pintle trailer behind a dump truck with sway control and equalizer bars? Me neither.

But I've had that type of thing and I know it works. It just shouldn't be needed.

[4.0B2]

Originally Posted by Will

Wow.

I'm sure it works, but it's still a crutch for a bad trailer design. I think RV makers purposely put the axles 3 feet further forward so they could build a new trailer-control industry. You ever see a backhoe on a pintle trailer behind a dump truck with sway control and equalizer bars? Me neither.

But I've had that type of thing and I know it works. It just shouldn't be needed.

I agree... we pull all the time with a f150, just with good tires on the rear, sway bar, and leveler system. sometimes we use the sway bar... i've seen some people use 2 sway bars. I'm talking about these

which is the friction deal yall are talking about. we don't always use that thing... it's more annoying than worth it sometimes.

[rusty ol ranger]

Yeah thats basically what i got. Other then the fact it makes it kinda hard to turn on wet ashphalt and makes alot of noise in the rain it works really well. ALOT less scary then nothing at all.

...and yes will, i agree its a bad design, they all put the axles right directly in the middle of the trailer...i think it has to do with tounge weight....
later,
Dustin

[wildbill23c]

You would be fine to use bolts, make sure you get lock washers, and tighten those down as much as you can so it has no chance of moving. Then afterwards before you tow always check the bolts and make sure they are tight.