A friend bought an older ~16' enclosed trailer. Along with the brakes being shorted out (havent tested anything, All I know if my prodigy shows a short when its hooked up, and throws an 'overload' code when I apply the brakes...) the trailer has a DEATH SWAY at 55 mph or higher... It makes the trips to the dunes 5+ hours away very long. From the looks of it, the trailers are DAMN near in the center of the trailer :homer:

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/NateDiggityOly/Random/IMG_0995.jpg

The 16' enclosed trailer has the same, or even less tongue weight than our 14' flatbed, both while unloaded...:

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/qq80/NateDiggityOly/Bikes/IMG_0190.jpg

Whats the best way to get MORE tongue weight on this thing.. Im assuming that will fix the sway (btw it sways loaded of unloaded)... thoughts?

I know the best way to fix it would be to move the axles back, but with the fenders built into the body of the trailer it wont look/work out very well.... Should we try to put something heavy towards the front of the front of the trailer? Usually there is a 32" tube style tv up front and its not enough to combat it....


Any ideas, or anything else I should check out/change??

first check the suspension all out first. are the wheel bearings tight? i assume since its older it has leaf springs?
are the bushings/bolts/shackles all about worn out? alot of that stuff wears pretty bad when they get miles on them............

for shimmy if you fix all that and it still does it i would make shure your tongue angle is correct,
move the axles back, or load it down heavy in the front.....
maybe put 100-200lbs of suitcase style tractor wheel weights in the tongue....

first check the suspension all out first. are the wheel bearings tight? i assume since its older it has leaf springs?
are the bushings/bolts/shackles all about worn out? alot of that stuff wears pretty bad when they get miles on them............

for shimmy if you fix all that and it still does it i would make shure your tongue angle is correct,
move the axles back, or load it down heavy in the front.....
maybe put 100-200lbs of suitcase style tractor wheel weights in the tongue....

I should have mentioned, we sand camp with this, and Ideally what we would want is something removeable for weight.... have thought about a water tank we can empty when we hit the dunes to make it to our camp, and refill before heading home... or maybe some sort of container to hold sand... dump it out when we get there, and refill before leaving..... just thinking out loud here...

Buddy even mention hacking the tongue and extending it


and


its not a shimmy, its a full on SWAY... multiple feet to either side if you wanted to.... and he tows it behind a half ton, so we want to absolutely eliminate it

Go to home depot and buy 20- 90lb bags of concrete and load them in the nose of the trailer. Take it for a spin up the highway and see if it fixes your problem. Then return the bags back to home depot. That should tell you if more tounge weight will fix the problem. If it fixes it move the axles or build your sand box to hold the sand. I would move the axles even though it is more work. I tow a flat bed trailer with a half ton and the last thing I would want to do is add extra weight to have to drag around.

Go to home depot and buy 20- 90lb bags of concrete and load them in the nose of the trailer. Take it for a spin up the highway and see if it fixes your problem. Then return the bags back to home depot. That should tell you if more tounge weight will fix the problem. If it fixes it move the axles or build your sand box to hold the sand. I would move the axles even though it is more work. I tow a flat bed trailer with a half ton and the last thing I would want to do is add extra weight to have to drag around.


We have thought about that, and plan on doing just that.. He has a weight distributing setup he can run on this trailer so a bit more in tongue weight shouldnt hurt him too much... I would love to move the axles, but the cutout in the body kind of ruins that.... He mentioned extending the tongue which would move the axles in relation to the total length of the trailer, however all the weight would still be back over the axles..... as my thinking right? Has anyone ever tried this?

I used to move those Iron Eagle trailers around by hand, so that enclosed trailer must be real light!

How are the tires wearing? Even if the tire wear looks good, I'd still crawl under that thing with a tape and measure everything out.


If he has a weight distribution hitch, does he run a sway control? When you run a weight distrbution hitch, it takes away tongue weight, so I wouldn't hook up the bars. Try running the WD hitch head with a sway control, don't worry about hooking up the bars, and see what that does.

I'm thinking you may be on the right track with the axle placement, but I don't think you could extend the tongue enough to help.

I used to move those Iron Eagle trailers around by hand, so that enclosed trailer must be real light!

How are the tires wearing? Even if the tire wear looks good, I'd still crawl under that thing with a tape and measure everything out.


If he has a weight distribution hitch, does he run a sway control? When you run a weight distrbution hitch, it takes away tongue weight, so I wouldn't hook up the bars. Try running the WD hitch head with a sway control, don't worry about hooking up the bars, and see what that does.

I'm thinking you may be on the right track with the axle placement, but I don't think you could extend the tongue enough to help.

I cant move his trailer by hand, but i can lift it by hand... and the tongue weight on the flatbed is about the same....

He does not have sway control, he asked about it and I thought it would be a bandaid for a bigger problem, and it sways so bad I dont think the sway bars would help enough...


Also, oddly enough, he claims it sways less with the wd setup on... however when I followed him home from the dunes last time he had it on and it seems to sway like a bitch with running it.....