sway issue |
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2rsinapod
Newbie Joined: 29 Apr 2014 Location: s/w Ontario Online Status: Offline Posts: 16 |
Topic: sway issue Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 9:28am |
Hi all. I am having sway issues with my '15 178 towed with a Ford Explorer V8 set up with equalizer and 1 anti sway bar. It was installed and set up by the dealer, (Can Am RV near London Ont)and during the test drive it seemed ok up to 90 km/hr. I filled the fresh water tank and drove the 401 hwy at 100 km/hr and had quite a bit of sway. I tightened the sway control lever as much as I could by hand and also the nut below the lever. I see no improvement. Has anyone had similar issues or needed a second sway bar? Can one over-tighten these bars? This is my first experience with an equalizer and TT after 20+ yrs of pop-ups. Am I expecting too much from the sway control at higher speeds?
Mike |
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'15 r-pod 178
'17 F150 2.7L ecoboost |
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Hairy Podders
Senior Member Joined: 05 Mar 2014 Location: Northwest Ohio Online Status: Offline Posts: 217 |
Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 12:38pm |
with the fresh water tank filled, how much tongue weight do you have?
Since the fresh water tank is behind the axle on a 178, adding water removes tongue weight. The rule of thumb that I follow is 10% of the trailer weight should be on the tongue. That said, I fought terrible crosswinds coming home across Kansas & had bad sway. Or what I would consider sway. A local said that it was a breeze.... |
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Darryl, Julie & Lindsey
Cooper & Libby- Devoted Canines 2014 RP178 2006 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon |
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Budward
Senior Member Joined: 21 Apr 2014 Location: SC/NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 438 |
Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 12:46pm |
Sway is almost always caused by too little tongue weight. If the water tank is behind the axle and you can't move other loads forward to compensate you'll have to unload some water. If your tank is full that is around 300 lbs of water!
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2014 179
Towed by a 2015 Ford Transit Diesel Supervised by a German/Aussie mix and a Labradoodle! |
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Tars Tarkas
Senior Member Joined: 14 Jan 2013 Location: Near Nashville Online Status: Offline Posts: 1446 |
Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 2:10pm |
Two things: I don't use sway bars, so I can't help with that. As others have said, 300 pounds of water behind the axle is going to have a negative impact sway and balance. There are times, usually short distances, when you need to have your fresh tank full, but you can usually get water at or close to your destination. Hauling water, potable or waste, any further than you have to is to be avoided. Five or 10 gallons for emergency stops is usually plenty.
TT |
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2010 176
FJ Cruiser |
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cody91
Senior Member Joined: 12 Feb 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 184 |
Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 3:17pm |
I thought the Equalizer WDH had the sway control built in. Why would you need an additional sway control device?
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RPodWeGo
Senior Member Joined: 10 Jul 2012 Location: Salt Lake City Online Status: Offline Posts: 112 |
Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 4:25pm |
I agree with the others too. I used to haul my water as the wife wanted her water from home (yawn). Not only would it create sway, slow my truck down but would also eat into my fuel cost as I was pulling more weight. The fix was to get rid of the wife, only joking, we now fill as close to our dry camp spot as possible.
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RPodWeGo
RPod 177 04 v8 Toyota 4Runner |
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2rsinapod
Newbie Joined: 29 Apr 2014 Location: s/w Ontario Online Status: Offline Posts: 16 |
Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 8:35pm |
Thanks all ...... it makes total sense and I'm not sure why I didn't put 2 & 2 together! I drained 2/3 rds of the tank and will try it with 10 gallons to start with. After all that was the size of the tank on my last pup.
Mike |
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'15 r-pod 178
'17 F150 2.7L ecoboost |
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9059 |
Posted: 11 Jul 2014 at 11:57pm |
See the link in my signature for info on sway.
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Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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Danno
Newbie Joined: 04 Oct 2014 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 11 |
Posted: 05 Oct 2014 at 12:16am |
Hi Mike and All, I wanted to share my experience with the RP-177 being towed with a '98 Ford Explorer. I don't wish to unnecessarily scare anyone away from towing a travel trailer but I do think people should learn from other people's mishaps and know everything they can about it before rushing out and getting on the highway with one. I am very lucky to not have been permanently paralyzed or otherwise badly injured, not to mention, killed. I was using a WDH and friction sway bar but the bow wave from a very large RV I went by started the Rpod swaying and no matter how I tried to steady it, the oscillation continued to grow very quickly. There was only 6" of shoulder pavement beyond the white line and a few inches of dirt before the highway bed dropped off very steeply. I didn't want to touch the brakes, fearing it would make it worse and I didn't feel I could take either hand off the wheel to try to actuate the trailer brakes but I had taken my foot off the accelerator so was slowing down. The trailer swung the Explorer hard right and onto the dirt, resulting in both rolling down the embankment. The trailer literally exploded with nothing but pieces plus the frame left. Luckily, the Explorer cab wasn't crushed so I managed to escape with very little injury. Yes, I was wearing my seat belt which kept me clamped in the seat and probably wouldn't have survived if not. I just got the trailer last year (2013) and had gone on two trips with it, once even without a sway bar. However, this was the first time I had completely filled the fresh water tank which is unfortunately the last of 3 tanks, located in the back, behind the axle. I was headed into the Nevada desert to go dry camping, with my brother driving separately, and we both take showers and use a lot of water over a several day period so that's why I had it filled. It was a lack of understanding on my part that the trailer isn't engineered to be stable at highway speeds with the fresh water tank being filled and the gray and black water tanks being empty even though the total weight of the Explorer, trailer, and contents were well within what the Explorer is rated to tow. Apparently (I'm still researching this), it's necessary to counter balance the fresh water tank weight with weight placed in front of the trailer axle. According to a salesman I talked to at Poulsbo RV, the 10% tongue weight, shown in the RP-177 specs, is with all tanks empty. So when the fresh water tank is filled, there is about 300lbs of weight pushing down on the back and lifting on the tongue, which would appear to reduce tongue weight to less than 10% of the total trailer weight. I've now seen various websites that say the tongue weight should be no less than 12% to 15% so they're saying even 10% is not a safe percentage. I've also now found companies that make (very expensive) hitches that they 100% guarantee will not allow sway to ever begin in the first place. And they say friction sway bars can actually make a situation worse once the force on the trailer overcomes the friction in the sway bar. In any case, I've definitely learned (the hard way) that you do not take anything about towing a trailer for granted. Your life and everyone else's life out there on the road, is literally in your hands. I do intend to buy another RV, whether TT, 5th wheel, or other. But I will be fully educated and weighing, measuring, and verifying everything myself before ever towing again. BTW, for those that haven't already seen it, here's another person that had a very bad sway problem and crash with the RP-177. Just google "Crashed on the interstate while towing the R-Pod" or see "forum_posts.asp?TID=3141&title=crashed-on-the-interstate-while-towing-the-rpod" on this site. I wish there had been a guard rail where I was, like they had, but I was on a straight highway and they were on a curve.
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Dan
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Podster
Senior Member Joined: 16 Sep 2014 Location: San Antonio Online Status: Offline Posts: 1108 |
Posted: 05 Oct 2014 at 8:04am |
Thanks for sharing this...a very educational read that may save another from this terrible misfortune. Good to hear that you came out of it OK.
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