sway issue

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.