Dewinterized and all ready to roll for the season...with one question...

[Voyageurs]

Hi all. We are all dewinterized and ready to roll for the season. Quickl question. We never felt the need to get one of those sway control thingies. Trailer feels nice, feels solid and we are not experiencing any issues. But a number of folks have been surprised that we don’t use sway control. Those who are using them.

1. Did you install them because you had a problem.
2. Did you install them as a precautionary measure?
3. How are your results?

Here are a couple snaps of the combo. Geometry is good and the SUV outweighs the trailer by about 1000 pounds.

Thanks all for your input.

 

[Rich W.]

Are you rerfering to sway control or a weight distribution hitch? Many people confuse the two. Often they are combined. If the tongue weight squats the rear you’ll be light in the front degrading handling and control and raising your head lights and weight distribution is important. If not, no big deal.. Sway control is just that but isnt necessary if the trailer is loaded correctly, and if its not, sway control will probably help but it wont eliminate the possibility of a problem. Pics finally loaded - Id be surprised to see either on a trailer that size but I don't know anything about the towing capabilities of the vehicle.

 

[Voyageurs]

Are you rerfering to sway control or a weight distribution hitch? Many people confuse the two. Often they are combined. If the tongue weight squats the rear you’ll be light in the front degrading handling and control and raising your head lights and weight distribution is important. If not, no big deal.. Sway control is just that but isnt necessary if the trailer is loaded correctly, and if its not, sway control will probably help but it wont eliminate the possibility of a problem. Pics finally loaded - Id be surprised to see either on a trailer that size.

Thanks for the quick response. I'm not sure what those little slidey thingies are called that people attach to the tongue. Maybe a friction sway control or something like that. So tongue weight is about 10 percent of the total trailer weight. We don't have a weight distribution hitch (Tesla doesn't recommend them for our car). We try to load all the heavy stuff that goes in the SUV in the FRUNK so the weight is over the front wheels. We have maybe 105 pounds of stuff in the FRUNK. The SUV doesn't squat much, maybe 1/2 to 1 inch when trailer and junk is loaded. It pulls really nice. I have just had the odd surprised look from the odd person when they saw we used no sway control.

Thanks for your response.

 

[Rich W.]

well I don’t know if this will help, but I’ve towed many trailers of all different types, including well loaded equipment trailers and I’ve used load equalization on a few but never felt the need for sway control nor would I rely on it. To me sway control is proper loading and good driving skills.

 

[Voyageurs]

well I don’t know if this will help, but I’ve towed many trailers of all different types, including well loaded equipment trailers and I’ve used load equalization on a few but never felt the need for sway control nor would I rely on it. To me sway control is proper loading and good driving skills.

Thanks Rich. We are.pretty careful about loading and tongue wait. We also don’t travel over 90 kmh when towing. Easy to do here as speed limits tend to be low.

Thanks again.

 

[Rich W.]

I think youre in good shape. Have you seen this?

All-Electric, Powered Airstream eStream Trailer Can Assist Its Tow Vehicle

The power assist helps with the tow vehicle's driving range—good if it, too, is electric.

www.motortrend.com

I read somewhere that it also has regenerative braking.

 

[Voyageurs]

I think youre in good shape. Have you seen this?

All-Electric, Powered Airstream eStream Trailer Can Assist Its Tow Vehicle

The power assist helps with the tow vehicle's driving range—good if it, too, is electric.

www.motortrend.com

I read somewhere that it also has regenerative braking.

Yah. Cool technology. Lots of stuff coming down the pipe.

The regen and traffic aware cruise control (TACC) on our car plays real nice with the Tekonsha P3 brake controller. The trailer brakes rarely engage as most braking is done by regeneration on the car. But if someone cuts us off or whatever and a hard braking application is required you can see the Tekonsha engage the trailer brakes. Pretty smooth.

Thanks for your input.