This video shows the importance of anti-sway and correct weight distribution for towing caravans. For more tips on how to prevent swaying, check out our help article: caravansplus.co...
When I was 16, i got a Job working for a guy that had a tree service. One day we needed to clear a lot. So he rented a bobcat. This guy had a DUI, so he had me drive his truck all day. We picked up the bobcat, went and did the job, and at the end of the day, he loaded the bobcat on the trailer. I remember him telling me that the bobcat needed to be loaded evenly on the trailer wheels (wrong). I was 16, so I took every word out of this 40 yr old guys mouth, as fact. I get to driving, doing about 25mph and I notice the trailer swaying bad behind me. I tell him something is wrong, but he tells me its cause we are going slow and it will get better with acceleration. We get out if the residential area and into the highway. Doing 45 now and the trailer is pulling this truck all over the place, im nervous as hell, but he's saying speed up and in refusing. A moment later we start going up a bridge and the second we get slightly up hill and the trailer weight is now fully pulling up on the bumper, all hell breaks lose and the truck and trailer are skidding left and right across all 3 lanes, until we jack knife in the middle of the road. Some how the tie down chains held and the bobcat was still on the trailer, but all 4 trailer tires were blown. He starts yelling at me, telling me how i wasnt keeping enough acceleration on the trailer. Again, im 16 and im thinking he knows best and pulling a trailer with heavy weight is supposed to be a constant battle, and I just couldn't handle it. Anyway, the rental company comes out and sees the location of the bobcat, mounted on the trailer and the guy screams "whos the idiot that loaded this bobcat, there is literally zero pounds of tongue weight with that position!" The rental guy ended up congratulating me for being able to drive the 12 miles I had done. I was like "so its not normal for the trailer to be swaying all over the place at 10 mph?" He got a good laugh out of the whole thing.
I guess by tongue weight you mean with the weight more to the front of the trailer which is correct, in the UK we call it the nose weight, but lots of people don't understand that both the trailer and the car have maximum nose weights , the nose weight of the trailer is taken at the hitch and the nose weight of the car is at the towball , both weights can differ and the lowest weight must be used, you can measure the weight with a tool that can be bought cheeply from most trailer shops and is easy to use on the trailer but it must use the cars nose weight if the cars nose weight is less than the trailer , most people don't even know what weight their car is allowed to tow never mind the nose weight, I see people all the time towing caravans and trailers with cars that are far too small to tow them, and don't ever think you can drive through a snaking trailer because that's just asking for trouble, yeah you'll always get the clever shit that says it's the thing to do and it's worked for them but just because it's worked once in one scenario doesn't mean it's going to work every time, personally I think they are full of it.
as a motorcycle rider, I can tell you that one thing not being mentioned here is the air bubble around the front of that big rig that pushed the trailer and got that sway started
True, but that could have also been a gust of wind. On a trip through Colorado we saw two accidents at the exact same spot, asked a local and he said the same as this video in essence. Canyon winds, always pushing at a specific point in the road due to the terrain, unbalanced trailer, trailer sway, accident. Every year multiple accidents occur at the precise point because people see the wind warning signs and it doesn’t ‘click’ in their mind how it might affect their vehicle/trailer.
Don’t know why you got some thumbs down. This is some good information and demo for anyone wanting to learn how to use your camping or cargo trailer properly. Thanks!
Some people are just negative from nature. Can't do anything about that. They are sour from head to toe and giving a thumb down just brigthens up their miserable day, week, month or even life.
Probably because the driver with the dashcam was lanesitting in the passing lane. The driver with the trailer had to pass on the right. Doesn't change the info here, but the lanesitter is a dangerous driver.
This is the best visual I have ever seen demonstrating how crucial weight distribution in a trailer (caravan) becomes. Also, the relative mass and traction of the towing vehicle is crucial. I am a sadder but wiser survivor of a roll over pickup truck and trailer crash in US in October 2005.
I'm a manufacturing engineer so i design machines and processes that make the parts, not the parts themselves. Many times I'll have to design test fixtures and other things that the final customer would never imagine. Some people might laugh at their test fixture... the converted treadmill... but something that simple that can give your such great data is critical! That thing is awesome!! Cheers!!
Here’s another tip with towing. Having more axles creates a more even and distributed load throughout the trailer being towed. We run a landscaping business running multiple single, double and triple axle trailers with every kind of load you can dream up. With well over a million towing miles under our belts, the triple axle trailer is by far the most stable of any towed trailer we own and run down the road. So if you decide to purchase a caravan, please consider towing with a minimum of two axles, preferably three if purchasing a larger rig (usually associated with a fifth wheel but not necessarily - certain triple axle custom trailers are available). Don’t forget to use trailer brakes independently of the towing vehicle if required to offer immediate assistance in getting the entire rig straight again. It happens fast.
Yes agreed..twin axil is the way to go especially in the case if a unexpected tire blow out..in a twin axil it's not a big deal..in a single axil it's life threatening!!!.💥☠️
My uncle totalled his car and never went on holiday again because of this. He was passing a semi at 110kph and the turbulence started the sway. A difficult situation, when you have 50 tonnes of truck next to you. I was also following my wife when we were moving some long steel. I had to stop her as I saw the car/trailer start to snake. It does not take very much weight imbalance to cause this. I actually got on the phone to her (hands free!) and saying just let up the gas and slowly draw to a stop so we can talk. I said not to go near the speed where the trailer started swaying. We got home.
As @SteveButler mentions here, telling is how the trailer and its tow began swaying to out-of-control as it passed by the front of the big truck! This happened to me as I was relocating to Louisiana, driving a large U-Haul box truck, towing my trailered vehicle behind. My rig would begin swaying with larger and larger oscillations, the moment of which kept growing, even if I got off the gas, subsiding only after gently getting on the brakes and coming to near stop on the shoulder of the superhighway. But only for certain trucks! It was only the really old-school, long-nose trucks with the really old-school, foot-and-a-half tall, totally FLAT front bumper that set my rig off! It seemed other, more modern, more aerodynamic trucks had little effect on making my rig sway. It may be that I had not placed enough of my heavier gear far enough forward in the truck box such that when I hung the trailer tongue on the hitch, the front wheels of the truck were not supporting enough weight. In aviation parlance, my Weight & Balance figures may have been off. I thankfully survived my relo, and needless to say, I tried to avoid those flat-bumpered trucks the remainder of the trip. If I saw one ahead of me, I tried NOT to pass him, and if I saw one coming up behind me to pass, I tried to slow down as much as possible, to allow him to go by as quickly as possible!
If you get enough weight on the drawbar, speed doesn't factor into it... I've seen single axle caravans over take me like I was standing still, and I was doing the 110km/hr speed limit... I don't get why they do it, they should be enjoying the journey instead of risking the lives of everyone else on the road...
As a truck driver, how many times have I seen a tow vehicle that was way too small going way too fast down the highway? I once saw an Chevy S10 hauling a 30 foot trailer at a high rate of speed. His front end was about 8 inches higher than his back end. 2 miles down the road he had jackknifed it up against a barrier. Why there doesn't seem to be a law against small Vehicles hauling big rigs is beyond me.
@ I can assure you that I don't have the freedom to drive my tractor trailer over length and overweight. Why should he have the freedom to put other people in danger because he's either too cheap or too stupid to buy a proper tow vehicle?
en the sway starts, the only way to stop it is to gently tap the brakes when everything is lined up straight. then release when it's not straight, then tap again when it's straight. I've done this with a light towing van and a heavy trailer: the sway got started in a skewed hollow in the road surface.
I have a travel trailer and as soon as it starts the sway (around 60 mpg) I let off the gas and give the brakes a lite tap. Yes I drive slow towing, but I get to my destination.
Well that's just common sense, shouldn't need kudos for it, everyone should simply have the common sense to slow down when faced with a situation like that!
Based on the accents of the gentlemen in the video....folks in Australia drive on the left side of the road when NOT passing. It was the vehicle on the right who WAS passing and had the accident. Hope those folks were ok...after they caught their breathes.
Suddenly that 820 U.S. dollar check I wrote today for a 10,000 lb. rated weight distribution and sway control hitch does not seem like that big of a deal.
I got to ride behind a Chevy Tahoe today that took the "weight toward the front" to heart towing a travel trailer (caravan in euro/aussie speak).... hitch nearly dragging and front wheels of the truck barely touching pavement. Going along at 60mph in a 70.... he probably couldn't get it to go any faster. Balanced load is what should be preached not "all weight on the front".
This is the first video that tells people not only about weight distribution , But Also ball weight or trailer tongue weight which is Very Important !!! Good Video !!! Too many people don't have a clue and shouldn't even be allowed to pull any kind of trailer !!!! Hell , most people can't back up a trailer to save their soul !!!!!
What an amazing demo i once had a boat an when anything towedit as soon as it got to 50 mph it would start to sway. we used it as a speed reminder when we went fishing never got caught speeding with that rig in my 10 years of ownership lol
That can be dangerous still, even at a lower speed. You shouldn't ever have sway on a trailer. I recommend everyone who tows watch this guys videos. He has three of them. Could save lives. czcams.com/video/JeEEC5eVNCk/video.html&ab_channel=L2SFBC-RobertPepper-autojourno
Use a nose weight gauge and get about 80kg of weight on the coupler by shifting load around. Make sure items can't move backwards too changing the load distribution. I have towed my caravan all over using my Mitsubishi Shogun with no issues by checking nose weight.
This is the second video of this type that I have seen, as mentioned in other posts, the wind curtain that trucks produce especially at the front is certainly an invisible force to be respected ! The pressure variations combined with the speed required to travel through this curtain can obviously be enough to create this fish-tail loss of control. My truck was 100KM/h speed limited, and when I overtook another truck who was traveling a little slower than me on a freeway everything was like a normal overtaking situation until I hit the wind curtain, but my 100km/h speed could not break through the wind curtain. Both prime movers were C.O.E. ......... Yes I fell back behind him and enjoyed the scenery !
This is a very nice demo. However it’s really hard to measure load cause cargo changes all the time. I have 5000lbs tt (7000lbs loaded). I upgraded my tow vehicle to 8000lbs diesel pickup with 12K lbs tow capacity… now even though I still try my best to distribute 10% to 15% tongue weight, I don’t have to worry too much about it anymore. This video is very helpful when u max out your tow capacity.
when you build the caravan you don't install the axle in the center of the caravan, if you bring the axle a little more to the back you will never have that problem
If you are towing a trailer with trailer brakes and it starts to sway, apply just the trailer brakes with your brake controller. It will help pull it back in line and get it back under control (if you apply them before its too far gone) but then you need to figure out what caused it to sway. I had it happen to me very bad one time (my fault for the way I loaded the trailer suspecting it was tail heavy but going with it) and using the trailer brakes saved me though I had to change my underwear after.
Only time that happened to me i was pulling a big old Ford car on a single axle hire trailer behind a Chev V8 powered FJ45 Cruiser. Nearly lost it but luckily the road started to rise ahead so it all just stabilized again by counteracting the sway and lifting off the gas pedal. We hadn`t checked the air pressure in the hire trailer, it only had 30 pound in each tire. Drove about 50km at 40km/h to get to a town we could inflate the tires properly at. Trailer had light truck wheels and tires so we put in 70 psi each side and from then on it towed like a dream. I know we had good weight on the drawbar but on that day it was tire pressure in the trailer wheels that sorted the problem.
Wow this is a super cool explanation of trailer weight distribution! When they show the van for the 2nd time you can actually see the rear tires of the van sliding on the pavement!! So cool!
Very Informative. Thank you so much. I have 10-years Bus driving experience. I have only driven a large truck twice. Weight distribution in a trailer is apparently a critical factor. I'm in the planning stages of a custom-built 33-foot Travel Trailer. Learning all I can before I'm out there.
You want the good news or the Bad news , well tell you the People survived , but bad news Most of Vehicle and Vans have Insurance , when the Insurance People attended most of you Will find your Insurance void It Called overweight , you think Your smart and think you can Bluff your way through , your Up against experts
@@CarlosRodriguez-hb3vq Has nothing to do with car size. This accident would have occurred even if the trailer was attached to a full size pickup truck. Two factors contributed to this accident. #1. Distribution of weight: you can actually see that the trailer is tilting backwards as the car passes the semi. #2. Axel is in the dead center of the trailer: A braindead idiot must have engineered this thing. In conclusion, make sure you put 90% of the weight at the FRONT of any RV you tow, and don't buy RVs from whatever company made the one in this video.
Electronic systems that apply the caravan brakes when it detects a sway can be lethal if this occurs when trying to pass a truck since it can hold the combination in the bow wave and boy have you got a problem.
When this happens a lot of people first reaction is to hit the brakes to slow down. This is the wrong thing to do. As soon as it happens hammer the skinny pedal (throttle) to the floor. This will pull you out of a shit storm.
I had that start, it is speed dependent, but had electric trailer brakes with also manual activator, so just braked the trailer hard, and it straightened out.
@@grancito2 You are very correct sir. But there are a lot of people out there that pull trailers that are not equipped. You can never have too much good information. Thanks for the input.
I'm always amazed even when I see semi's with the load at the back of the trailer. The load always goes in front of the trailer wheels and as far forward as possible without over loading the hitch. This is why 5th wheels and goose necks tow so much better than bumper hitches, more of the weight is on the tow vehicle. To a point of course, you don't want to overload the tow vehicle either. But you never want the trailer's center of gravity to be behind the trailer wheels.
Semi's (articulated / multi combination vehicles) with a partial load distribute the weight over the trailer and then dolly/ B trailer / prime mover wheels for a very good reason my friend. Trailer brakes do not work very well without weight over them nor does an empty trailer follow very well. Bad example / comparison sorry.
@@mjhmech4903 Perhaps I didn't explain myself very well. Of course you want weight on the trailer wheels but you don't want to under-load the hitch either. So for example a typical simple flatbed trailer with 8 wheels at the back of the truck and 8 wheels at the back of the trailer should have a the load more or less centered so all the wheels are equally loaded. If you put too much weight at the back of the trailer the truck isn't the boss anymore, the trailer is. This is especially important if towing a trailer that has the wheels in the middle, like say an RV. Too much weight at the back can lead to disaster as the trailer may actually be lifting the rear wheels of the truck up and unloading them. This can lead to excessive sway and loss of control.
Weight proportions are a little off in this video. The point still remains but the biggest thing to worry about it where are your tanks on your trailer? If you can tow unloaded then do that. Put water in when you're close to your destination and in the mean time but a few cases of water and store in the tow vehicle.
Because of that, many people tend to move extra weight to the front of the trailer, creating other problems. the pressure on the rear wheels of the car reduces the grip of the front wheels and they tend to lose grip, especially when going uphill and on turns. The weight distribution of the trailer should be close to balanced but with a slight tendency (10%) to the front
Great info. I have a 2020 Jeep Weangler. I take my spare tire off the back gate of the vehicle. I store it in the trailer. So if I and more forward of the axle that should be a good place for what I seen in your demo.
another reason too buy a trailer, almost any trailer with a dual axle setup. another thing they fail to mention is to make sure you have trailer brakes and male sure they work.always use a sway control hitch and always load heaviest to the front. slowing the vehicles down with trailer brakes can sometimes help you regain control.
Thanks for the education. Super informative. I think every new RV trailer owner should watch this. BTW, for the trailer in the video, it is such a short wheel base for a trailer of that length. It is not safe at all. Even tail swing would be a big problem with that much tail.
I wish they'd talk about the draft and suction when passing or being passed, especially by other high profile vehicles. That caused the wobble to start on that example
Please be aware that the Maximum Speed Limit when towing a Caravan, Boat or Trailer in Western Australia is 100 Kph, at that speed it at least gives you some degree of added controllability or extra power to pull a swaying rig out of trouble.
In the Netherlands the MSL for towing Caravan, Boat or Trailer is 90 Kph. I stick to that. When it rains slow down to 80 Kph. Remember you are carrying more mass, so longer brake distance.
@@michaelrussell6661 The distances in Western Australia are incredibly vast. People are driving for many hours across vast stretches of nothing. If you force people to go too slow, they fall asleep at the wheel. but you can set your own limit. There is nothing forcing you to drive at the signposted limit.
The other factor that you could demonstrate here is speed. Stability and speed has a nasty almost exponential relationship. What was "just" stable ato 95km/h will become a mess at 110kmh for many setups. In the video shown, you can guarantee that the increase in speed during overtaking, combined with the disturbance from the truck was the trigger. At the overtaking speed, almost any disturbance would send the car into sway, but at 90kmh, I'd bet that the thing would be pretty rock solid still
This video clip of the crashing caravan isn't just down to bad loading in fact it could be loaded properly , the clue is in what it is overtaking, that along with the extra speed needed to overtake, trucks give of a huge wall of turbulent air and this mixed with the extra effort to pass them can cause really bad snaking and it's made even worse if the caravan is badly loaded, I've passed hundreds of trucks with caravans and you can definitely feel the thing becoming unsettled so try not to use excessive speed when doing so and make sure you're loaded correctly and have a good quality stabilizer fitted, and it's even better if you have a caravan fitted with an esp that works along with the cars esp ( electronic stability program).
The passing vehicle passing the bigger truck is being pushed aside by the force of the air being displaced by the truck it is passing, that's why it's easy to draft behind a semi, but when you go to pass, the truck is again pushing so much air to the outside of the rig, it can flip a trailer like in this video.
Looking at the design of the trailer with the axles centered at the half way point would make it easy to mindlessly put too much weight past the wheels and cause this. Some travel trailers have the axles about 2 or 3 feet from the rear of the trailer and you can't make them sway! Alot safer.
The reason why he lost it was down to speed, yes loading incorrectly won’t help it will amplify the issue but speed is what takes vans out. Drive at the correct speed !
NO that will make it worse. The ONLY thing that works is to take your foot off the gas and let the car gradually slow, i.e. let the trailer essentially be the force that straightens out the car. Do not brake or accelerate. Of course proper weight loading of the trailer (10-15% tongue load) prevents the problem from developing.
It is also how the Trailer was designed. Manufactures put the axle to far to the front to make the tongue weight less, so it can be pulled with a lighter vehicle. needs to be 60 percent in the front and 40 percent behind the axle....MINIMUM!!
how about getting a car big enough to handle the load? and yea proper weight distribution sway control and such. I drive truck for a living and usually it's people with way to much hitch weight. they go down the road with the front tires barely making contact. and then they say airbags. airbags work great to level the vehicle or on a a 5th wheel set up but with a bumper hitch they actually transfer weight to the rear wheels of the vehicle. good video.
SPEED CAUSED THIS,if you're pulling a r/v why are you going fast,take time to stay alive,no one has time to pull what's left of your belongings off the pavement,SLOW DOWN AND FORGET THE STUPID STUFF,REMEMBER YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING FUN,IMO
Now that my hair is straight; I think I'll add the anti-sway when I order my trailer! But also, if you're going faster than a mac truck, then an accident is kind of probable! In general, macs do like 80 on city highways; given this is desert area, I'd bet on it.
Here In Wyoming we call it the tail wagging the dog. Had it happen to me and I just let of the throttle and was able to get the trailer calm. Kept it 55 mph after that with no problems.
this very common rookie mistakes in loading too much behind trailer axle i prefers to loads slightly bit forward of center axle as stable we do have same problem in usa too i recently witnessed a commercial roofer van with big heavy trailer loaded too much to back of dual axles with discarded roofing shingles it did sway and rolled over spilled roofing shingles all over the highway which closed 3 lanes to one lane for traffic to pass though gez
If u ever deal with this while driving ur own car. Punch the gas pull the trailer outta the swerve the start to slow down. I can't tell u how many trailers I have been involved with that have done this but Everytime punching the gas and pulling the trIler out works everytime
If you'll apply your trailer brake control, don't lock up the wheels on it, just apply enough braking to straighten it up, it will stop the swaying.......use the trailer brake control ONLY
td li when me and my sister was 8 and 9 years old we was riding in a camper that our parents were towing. We felt the camper swaying and we was screaming because we thought it was going to flip over with us inside the camper.
@@summergirl4522 I'm pretty sure it is illegal to ride inside a caravan in all states of Australia now. You need a motorhome or campervan for that now. It's not illegal to have your pet ride inside your caravan by itself but that is also a bad idea.
I just watch three of these style videos ... and I love how in EVERY case even though the trailer is OBVIOUSLY *W I L D L Y* ... out of control ... they keep accelerating! :) .. in this case he's still out pacing the big rig EVEN while rolling over! :)
@Hooha888 Bullshit. Brake the trailer by applying the electric brakes. You do not continue to accelerate. At what point do you start to slow down???? HMMMMMM Worst advice ever is to accelerate.
@@rossatkinson3160 That's fine if you have electric brakes. Most of these single axle trailers only have mechanical over ride brakes which rely on pushing against the car. Hitting the brakes on the towing vehicle will only make it worse.
The air flow from the 18 wheeler started the sway because the towing vehicle is to small to counter the campers side push and once it starts it only grows. Quit using these small vehicles to pull campers. 1 ton dually sis what needs to be used.
Its called the crack whip effect. You can clearly see the vehicle went to get over and saw they were to close and quickly turned back into their lane and thats all she wrote. Operator error. Not saying Weight distribution hitches are not great, just pointing out what actually caused the rollover in this video they decided to use as their example
When your trailer is wooobling like that - you must reduce your gear and put PEDAL to METAL and try to accelerate hard - this is only way to stop not crash
What about a toy hauler that is meant to have the heavy load in the back? Do you need to also add more cargo/weight to the front and middle in order to compensate/redistribute some of the weight to avoid sway?
This is the first time I've seen a treadmill simulation and the consequences of moving the weight - Excellent demo!
Batman video of me is that it
+john bridges Word salad?
Video Batman of you it's not all that friend zone me?
When I was 16, i got a Job working for a guy that had a tree service. One day we needed to clear a lot. So he rented a bobcat. This guy had a DUI, so he had me drive his truck all day. We picked up the bobcat, went and did the job, and at the end of the day, he loaded the bobcat on the trailer. I remember him telling me that the bobcat needed to be loaded evenly on the trailer wheels (wrong). I was 16, so I took every word out of this 40 yr old guys mouth, as fact. I get to driving, doing about 25mph and I notice the trailer swaying bad behind me. I tell him something is wrong, but he tells me its cause we are going slow and it will get better with acceleration. We get out if the residential area and into the highway. Doing 45 now and the trailer is pulling this truck all over the place, im nervous as hell, but he's saying speed up and in refusing. A moment later we start going up a bridge and the second we get slightly up hill and the trailer weight is now fully pulling up on the bumper, all hell breaks lose and the truck and trailer are skidding left and right across all 3 lanes, until we jack knife in the middle of the road. Some how the tie down chains held and the bobcat was still on the trailer, but all 4 trailer tires were blown. He starts yelling at me, telling me how i wasnt keeping enough acceleration on the trailer. Again, im 16 and im thinking he knows best and pulling a trailer with heavy weight is supposed to be a constant battle, and I just couldn't handle it. Anyway, the rental company comes out and sees the location of the bobcat, mounted on the trailer and the guy screams "whos the idiot that loaded this bobcat, there is literally zero pounds of tongue weight with that position!" The rental guy ended up congratulating me for being able to drive the 12 miles I had done. I was like "so its not normal for the trailer to be swaying all over the place at 10 mph?" He got a good laugh out of the whole thing.
Yo lmao what a story dude good on you I hope that old guy learned his lesson 😂
I guess by tongue weight you mean with the weight more to the front of the trailer which is correct, in the UK we call it the nose weight, but lots of people don't understand that both the trailer and the car have maximum nose weights , the nose weight of the trailer is taken at the hitch and the nose weight of the car is at the towball , both weights can differ and the lowest weight must be used, you can measure the weight with a tool that can be bought cheeply from most trailer shops and is easy to use on the trailer but it must use the cars nose weight if the cars nose weight is less than the trailer , most people don't even know what weight their car is allowed to tow never mind the nose weight, I see people all the time towing caravans and trailers with cars that are far too small to tow them, and don't ever think you can drive through a snaking trailer because that's just asking for trouble, yeah you'll always get the clever shit that says it's the thing to do and it's worked for them but just because it's worked once in one scenario doesn't mean it's going to work every time, personally I think they are full of it.
We learn so much by these kind f mistakes. Glad you survived it all. :)
People need to remember when you are pulling anything that along with loading it properly you also need to reduce your speed.
Most camper trailers and motorhomes that I've ever seen are way overloaded with
various junk
Short and concise.
Every caravan/ travel trailer owner should watch this video.
Every dealer should be required to show it.
as a motorcycle rider, I can tell you that one thing not being mentioned here is the air bubble around the front of that big rig that pushed the trailer and got that sway started
True, but that could have also been a gust of wind. On a trip through Colorado we saw two accidents at the exact same spot, asked a local and he said the same as this video in essence. Canyon winds, always pushing at a specific point in the road due to the terrain, unbalanced trailer, trailer sway, accident. Every year multiple accidents occur at the precise point because people see the wind warning signs and it doesn’t ‘click’ in their mind how it might affect their vehicle/trailer.
very true I ride and have seen this.
driving 80 doesn't help either. Its why speed limit for trailers is 55
What caused that is driving way too fast and attempting an ill advised pass with an underpowered tow vehicle.
so its the trucks fault is it lol
Don’t know why you got some thumbs down. This is some good information and demo for anyone wanting to learn how to use your camping or cargo trailer properly. Thanks!
Some people are just negative from nature. Can't do anything about that. They are sour from head to toe and giving a thumb down just brigthens up their miserable day, week, month or even life.
Tow truck operators. He's cutting into their business
Thumbs down due to the happy music that was playing when the vehicle and trailer crashed. Totally inappropriate, lol.
Its from unbanites that live in boxes in highrises...They dont like it that other people move around and camp
Probably because the driver with the dashcam was lanesitting in the passing lane. The driver with the trailer had to pass on the right.
Doesn't change the info here, but the lanesitter is a dangerous driver.
This is the best visual I have ever seen demonstrating how crucial weight distribution in a trailer (caravan) becomes. Also, the relative mass and traction of the towing vehicle is crucial. I am a sadder but wiser survivor of a roll over pickup truck and trailer crash in US in October 2005.
I'm a manufacturing engineer so i design machines and processes that make the parts, not the parts themselves. Many times I'll have to design test fixtures and other things that the final customer would never imagine. Some people might laugh at their test fixture... the converted treadmill... but something that simple that can give your such great data is critical! That thing is awesome!! Cheers!!
Here’s another tip with towing. Having more axles creates a more even and distributed load throughout the trailer being towed. We run a landscaping business running multiple single, double and triple axle trailers with every kind of load you can dream up. With well over a million towing miles under our belts, the triple axle trailer is by far the most stable of any towed trailer we own and run down the road. So if you decide to purchase a caravan, please consider towing with a minimum of two axles, preferably three if purchasing a larger rig (usually associated with a fifth wheel but not necessarily - certain triple axle custom trailers are available). Don’t forget to use trailer brakes independently of the towing vehicle if required to offer immediate assistance in getting the entire rig straight again. It happens fast.
Yes agreed..twin axil is the way to go especially in the case if a unexpected tire blow out..in a twin axil it's not a big deal..in a single axil it's life threatening!!!.💥☠️
That is a very good demonstration and explanation of how to avoid serious trouble.
It happened to my sister... my bro in law put a load in the rear of the trailer to compensate for vehicle sag... a big mistake.
The lesson that every driver must learn.Thank you gentlemen.
That was an awesome demonstration, it's great to visualise this in action.
Thank you
My uncle totalled his car and never went on holiday again because of this. He was passing a semi at 110kph and the turbulence started the sway. A difficult situation, when you have 50 tonnes of truck next to you.
I was also following my wife when we were moving some long steel. I had to stop her as I saw the car/trailer start to snake. It does not take very much weight imbalance to cause this. I actually got on the phone to her (hands free!) and saying just let up the gas and slowly draw to a stop so we can talk. I said not to go near the speed where the trailer started swaying. We got home.
As @SteveButler mentions here, telling is how the trailer and its tow began swaying to out-of-control as it passed by the front of the big truck! This happened to me as I was relocating to Louisiana, driving a large U-Haul box truck, towing my trailered vehicle behind. My rig would begin swaying with larger and larger oscillations, the moment of which kept growing, even if I got off the gas, subsiding only after gently getting on the brakes and coming to near stop on the shoulder of the superhighway. But only for certain trucks!
It was only the really old-school, long-nose trucks with the really old-school, foot-and-a-half tall, totally FLAT front bumper that set my rig off! It seemed other, more modern, more aerodynamic trucks had little effect on making my rig sway. It may be that I had not placed enough of my heavier gear far enough forward in the truck box such that when I hung the trailer tongue on the hitch, the front wheels of the truck were not supporting enough weight. In aviation parlance, my Weight & Balance figures may have been off.
I thankfully survived my relo, and needless to say, I tried to avoid those flat-bumpered trucks the remainder of the trip. If I saw one ahead of me, I tried NOT to pass him, and if I saw one coming up behind me to pass, I tried to slow down as much as possible, to allow him to go by as quickly as possible!
Speed was a factor in this video.
If you get enough weight on the drawbar, speed doesn't factor into it... I've seen single axle caravans over take me like I was standing still, and I was doing the 110km/hr speed limit... I don't get why they do it, they should be enjoying the journey instead of risking the lives of everyone else on the road...
As a truck driver, how many times have I seen a tow vehicle that was way too small going way too fast down the highway? I once saw an Chevy S10 hauling a 30 foot trailer at a high rate of speed. His front end was about 8 inches higher than his back end. 2 miles down the road he had jackknifed it up against a barrier. Why there doesn't seem to be a law against small Vehicles hauling big rigs is beyond me.
@ I can assure you that I don't have the freedom to drive my tractor trailer over length and overweight. Why should he have the freedom to put other people in danger because he's either too cheap or too stupid to buy a proper tow vehicle?
Great advice. Easy to understand, the proof is in front of your eyes. This should be compulsory to know for all guys doing towing. Thumbs way up.
en the sway starts, the only way to stop it is to gently tap the brakes when everything is lined up straight. then release when it's not straight, then tap again when it's straight. I've done this with a light towing van and a heavy trailer: the sway got started in a skewed hollow in the road surface.
I have a travel trailer and as soon as it starts the sway (around 60 mpg) I let off the gas and give the brakes a lite tap. Yes I drive slow towing, but I get to my destination.
Kudos to the truck driver who saw the situation developing and began slowing down early.
That's why they are the best of the best, getting a lorry or big vehicle license at least in the UK isn't easy
Well that's just common sense, shouldn't need kudos for it, everyone should simply have the common sense to slow down when faced with a situation like that!
@Jerry Moody it's Australia; the truck/lorry IS in the slow lane. Hint: Australia drives on the left.
Based on the accents of the gentlemen in the video....folks in Australia drive on the left side of the road when NOT passing. It was the vehicle on the right who WAS passing and had the accident. Hope those folks were ok...after they caught their breathes.
Not like it was hard to miss
Suddenly that 820 U.S. dollar check I wrote today for a 10,000 lb. rated weight distribution and sway control hitch does not seem like that big of a deal.
Great video! Illustrates why it is necessary to load weight towards the front. Something that is often stated but rarely explained.
I got to ride behind a Chevy Tahoe today that took the "weight toward the front" to heart towing a travel trailer (caravan in euro/aussie speak).... hitch nearly dragging and front wheels of the truck barely touching pavement. Going along at 60mph in a 70.... he probably couldn't get it to go any faster. Balanced load is what should be preached not "all weight on the front".
This is the first video that tells people not only about weight distribution , But Also ball weight or trailer tongue weight which is Very Important !!! Good Video !!! Too many people don't have a clue and shouldn't even be allowed to pull any kind of trailer !!!! Hell , most people can't back up a trailer to save their soul !!!!!
What a superb demonstration and explanation! Thank you very much!
Thank you. I was thinking of loading heavy stuff on the back to take weight off of the hitch.
That could have ended bad.
What an amazing demo i once had a boat an when anything towedit as soon as it got to 50 mph it would start to sway. we used it as a speed reminder when we went fishing never got caught speeding with that rig in my 10 years of ownership lol
That can be dangerous still, even at a lower speed. You shouldn't ever have sway on a trailer. I recommend everyone who tows watch this guys videos. He has three of them. Could save lives. czcams.com/video/JeEEC5eVNCk/video.html&ab_channel=L2SFBC-RobertPepper-autojourno
Use a nose weight gauge and get about 80kg of weight on the coupler by shifting load around. Make sure items can't move backwards too changing the load distribution. I have towed my caravan all over using my Mitsubishi Shogun with no issues by checking nose weight.
This is the second video of this type that I have seen, as mentioned in other posts, the wind curtain that trucks produce especially at the front is certainly an invisible force to be respected ! The pressure variations combined with the speed required to travel through this curtain can obviously be enough to create this fish-tail loss of control. My truck was 100KM/h speed limited, and when I overtook another truck who was traveling a little slower than me on a freeway everything was like a normal overtaking situation until I hit the wind curtain, but my 100km/h speed could not break through the wind curtain. Both prime movers were C.O.E. ......... Yes I fell back behind him and enjoyed the scenery !
As a soon to be owner of a caravan, this was needed information. Thank you
This is a very nice demo. However it’s really hard to measure load cause cargo changes all the time. I have 5000lbs tt (7000lbs loaded). I upgraded my tow vehicle to 8000lbs diesel pickup with 12K lbs tow capacity… now even though I still try my best to distribute 10% to 15% tongue weight, I don’t have to worry too much about it anymore. This video is very helpful when u max out your tow capacity.
Weigh stations will tell you how much weight is on each axle, this way you can estimate what needs to be moved forward or backwards.
when you build the caravan you don't install the axle in the center of the caravan, if you bring the axle a little more to the back you will never have that problem
You are right about that you have lots of towing experience.
@Bainsworth He didn't flinch the wheel. The sway push was from the airstream created by the semi-truck.
If you are towing a trailer with trailer brakes and it starts to sway, apply just the trailer brakes with your brake controller. It will help pull it back in line and get it back under control (if you apply them before its too far gone) but then you need to figure out what caused it to sway. I had it happen to me very bad one time (my fault for the way I loaded the trailer suspecting it was tail heavy but going with it) and using the trailer brakes saved me though I had to change my underwear after.
Only time that happened to me i was pulling a big old Ford car on a single axle hire trailer behind a Chev V8 powered FJ45 Cruiser. Nearly lost it but luckily the road started to rise ahead so it all just stabilized again by counteracting the sway and lifting off the gas pedal. We hadn`t checked the air pressure in the hire trailer, it only had 30 pound in each tire. Drove about 50km at 40km/h to get to a town we could inflate the tires properly at. Trailer had light truck wheels and tires so we put in 70 psi each side and from then on it towed like a dream. I know we had good weight on the drawbar but on that day it was tire pressure in the trailer wheels that sorted the problem.
Wow this is a super cool explanation of trailer weight distribution! When they show the van for the 2nd time you can actually see the rear tires of the van sliding on the pavement!! So cool!
But I hope no one was hurt lol
Very Informative. Thank you so much. I have 10-years Bus driving experience. I have only driven a large truck twice. Weight distribution in a trailer is apparently a critical factor.
I'm in the planning stages of a custom-built 33-foot Travel Trailer. Learning all I can before I'm out there.
That trailer with that car seems like a suicide mission regardless of hitch equipment.
Yes he set himself up for failure when he floored it to pass the truck.
Yes, the car seems much too small to be towing a trailer that size. When your trailer starts telling you which way to go, you know you’re in trouble
You want the good news or the
Bad news , well tell you the
People survived , but bad news
Most of Vehicle and Vans have
Insurance , when the Insurance
People attended most of you
Will find your Insurance void
It Called overweight , you think
Your smart and think you can
Bluff your way through , your
Up against experts
@@CarlosRodriguez-hb3vq Has nothing to do with car size. This accident would have occurred even if the trailer was attached to a full size pickup truck. Two factors contributed to this accident.
#1. Distribution of weight: you can actually see that the trailer is tilting backwards as the car passes the semi.
#2. Axel is in the dead center of the trailer: A braindead idiot must have engineered this thing.
In conclusion, make sure you put 90% of the weight at the FRONT of any RV you tow, and don't buy RVs from whatever company made the one in this video.
55 mph max and stay in the rightmost lane unless overtaking or otherwise indicated. High speeds and lane changes are where the fishies live.
one thing to think about when passing trucks is the "bow wave effect" that they can cause that can affect the stability of the overtaking caravan.
Electronic systems that apply the caravan brakes when it detects a sway can be lethal if this occurs when trying to pass a truck since it can hold the combination in the bow wave and boy have you got a problem.
When this happens a lot of people first reaction is to hit the brakes to slow down. This is the wrong thing to do. As soon as it happens hammer the skinny pedal (throttle) to the floor. This will pull you out of a shit storm.
No throttle, just tap the brake when in a straight line.
You have to hit the throttle to get it back in a straight line. If you hit the brakes while it's swaying you will end up with you shiny side down.
I had that start, it is speed dependent, but had electric trailer brakes with also manual activator, so just braked the trailer hard, and it straightened out.
@@grancito2 You are very correct sir. But there are a lot of people out there that pull trailers that are not equipped. You can never have too much good information. Thanks for the input.
Turn into it then step on it and straighten out
What is the rush to get past the the truck any way,another holiday down the gurgler.
I never rush.. but way out there you could potentially be stuck behind someone for several hours because the roads are seriously that long...
I'm always amazed even when I see semi's with the load at the back of the trailer. The load always goes in front of the trailer wheels and as far forward as possible without over loading the hitch. This is why 5th wheels and goose necks tow so much better than bumper hitches, more of the weight is on the tow vehicle. To a point of course, you don't want to overload the tow vehicle either. But you never want the trailer's center of gravity to be behind the trailer wheels.
Semi's (articulated / multi combination vehicles) with a partial load distribute the weight over the trailer and then dolly/ B trailer / prime mover wheels for a very good reason my friend. Trailer brakes do not work very well without weight over them nor does an empty trailer follow very well. Bad example / comparison sorry.
@@mjhmech4903 Perhaps I didn't explain myself very well. Of course you want weight on the trailer wheels but you don't want to under-load the hitch either. So for example a typical simple flatbed trailer with 8 wheels at the back of the truck and 8 wheels at the back of the trailer should have a the load more or less centered so all the wheels are equally loaded. If you put too much weight at the back of the trailer the truck isn't the boss anymore, the trailer is. This is especially important if towing a trailer that has the wheels in the middle, like say an RV. Too much weight at the back can lead to disaster as the trailer may actually be lifting the rear wheels of the truck up and unloading them. This can lead to excessive sway and loss of control.
I don't have a van or i don't tow anything. But this is a very very informative video. There is nothing wrong to gather extra knowledge. Thanks
Weight proportions are a little off in this video. The point still remains but the biggest thing to worry about it where are your tanks on your trailer? If you can tow unloaded then do that. Put water in when you're close to your destination and in the mean time but a few cases of water and store in the tow vehicle.
Because of that, many people tend to move extra weight to the front of the trailer, creating other problems.
the pressure on the rear wheels of the car reduces the grip of the front wheels and they tend to lose grip, especially when going uphill and on turns.
The weight distribution of the trailer should be close to balanced but with a slight tendency (10%) to the front
Great info. I have a 2020 Jeep Weangler. I take my spare tire off the back gate of the vehicle. I store it in the trailer. So if I and more forward of the axle that should be a good place for what I seen in your demo.
Okay i understand the point but can you explain one more thing which is
If we put the more weight on front in carven orteolly then what happened
another reason too buy a trailer, almost any trailer with a dual axle setup. another thing they fail to mention is to make sure you have trailer brakes and male sure they work.always use a sway control hitch and always load heaviest to the front. slowing the vehicles down with trailer brakes can sometimes help you regain control.
Excellent demonstration! Thank you, from the state of Tennessee.
Thanks for the education. Super informative. I think every new RV trailer owner should watch this.
BTW, for the trailer in the video, it is such a short wheel base for a trailer of that length. It is not safe at all. Even tail swing would be a big problem with that much tail.
I wish they'd talk about the draft and suction when passing or being passed, especially by other high profile vehicles. That caused the wobble to start on that example
Right. The camper being bigger than the vehicle didn't help either.
Pass slower... might be most helpful.
When being passed, that's not within one's control, now is it?
I drive tractor trailer see this a lot Some people have no clue
You see cars flipping a lot , ya sure you do mate
Please be aware that the Maximum Speed Limit when towing a Caravan, Boat or Trailer in Western Australia is 100 Kph, at that speed it at least gives you some degree of added controllability or extra power to pull a swaying rig out of trouble.
The speed limit when towing in WA is 100 km/h, not 80.
www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/licensing/lbu_vs_ib_107.pdf
Tony Belts, Thank's Mate, I was not aware of the change & I have edited my post. :~)
In the Netherlands the MSL for towing Caravan, Boat or Trailer is 90 Kph. I stick to that. When it rains slow down to 80 Kph. Remember you are carrying more mass, so longer brake distance.
100 kph is still way too fast. should be a max of 85 or 90kph
@@michaelrussell6661 The distances in Western Australia are incredibly vast. People are driving for many hours across vast stretches of nothing. If you force people to go too slow, they fall asleep at the wheel.
but you can set your own limit. There is nothing forcing you to drive at the signposted limit.
The other factor that you could demonstrate here is speed. Stability and speed has a nasty almost exponential relationship. What was "just" stable ato 95km/h will become a mess at 110kmh for many setups. In the video shown, you can guarantee that the increase in speed during overtaking, combined with the disturbance from the truck was the trigger. At the overtaking speed, almost any disturbance would send the car into sway, but at 90kmh, I'd bet that the thing would be pretty rock solid still
This should be mandatory taught to anyone buying a trailer
This video clip of the crashing caravan isn't just down to bad loading in fact it could be loaded properly , the clue is in what it is overtaking, that along with the extra speed needed to overtake, trucks give of a huge wall of turbulent air and this mixed with the extra effort to pass them can cause really bad snaking and it's made even worse if the caravan is badly loaded, I've passed hundreds of trucks with caravans and you can definitely feel the thing becoming unsettled so try not to use excessive speed when doing so and make sure you're loaded correctly and have a good quality stabilizer fitted, and it's even better if you have a caravan fitted with an esp that works along with the cars esp ( electronic stability program).
The passing vehicle passing the bigger truck is being pushed aside by the force of the air being displaced by the truck it is passing, that's why it's easy to draft behind a semi, but when you go to pass, the truck is again pushing so much air to the outside of the rig, it can flip a trailer like in this video.
Umm no
@@tylerbonser7686 Umm YES
@@rossatkinson3160 if that were the reason for this role over it would happen all the time. It dosen't ever happen.
Sea Pilot your an idiot
And now thanks to you I learned something today. Thank you for posting this.
why did this happen poor loading and speed
Looking at the design of the trailer with the axles centered at the half way point would make it easy to mindlessly put too much weight past the wheels and cause this. Some travel trailers have the axles about 2 or 3 feet from the rear of the trailer and you can't make them sway! Alot safer.
I share this video every chance I get.
This is the best examples to demonstrate the root cause of problems.
Excellent demonstration!
The reason why he lost it was down to speed, yes loading incorrectly won’t help it will amplify the issue but speed is what takes vans out. Drive at the correct speed !
wouldn't lightly applying the trailer brakes when the sway began and slowing down, straightened it out?
NO that will make it worse. The ONLY thing that works is to take your foot off the gas and let the car gradually slow, i.e. let the trailer essentially be the force that straightens out the car. Do not brake or accelerate. Of course proper weight loading of the trailer (10-15% tongue load) prevents the problem from developing.
I saw a crash like that on the way back from one of my grandad's houses...
It is also how the Trailer was designed. Manufactures put the axle to far to the front to make the tongue weight less, so it can be pulled with a lighter vehicle. needs to be 60 percent in the front and 40 percent behind the axle....MINIMUM!!
Camp Trailer is kinda big for a single axle. Tandems would be lots better.
Why do we still see spare tyres in the back of a caravan?
Another way to help correct sway is to have your braking set up so the van does most of the braking.
Alan McEwen Man, have you ever got a surprise coming if you really believe what you said...
@@oneselmo Yep! That's why modern trailers have electric brakes! The TRAILER should do most of the braking!
Excellent info.most people know this. But unless you have had experience with this ,you won't know.
Wow, that is so horrendously scary! Thank you for explaining the loading factor. I'm taking off my spare wheel right now!
W0e 😃
@Hooha888 Ok, thank you! Good to know. Yes, my RV has a tire holder on back. So much to learn about weight balancing alone!
how about getting a car big enough to handle the load?
and yea proper weight distribution sway control and such. I drive truck for a living and usually it's people with way to much hitch weight. they go down the road with the front tires barely making contact. and then they say airbags. airbags work great to level the vehicle or on a a 5th wheel set up but with a bumper hitch they actually transfer weight to the rear wheels of the vehicle.
good video.
SPEED CAUSED THIS,if you're pulling a r/v why are you going fast,take time to stay alive,no one has time to pull what's left of your belongings off the pavement,SLOW DOWN AND FORGET THE STUPID STUFF,REMEMBER YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING FUN,IMO
I almost did that with a pop up dodging animal on the the interstate. Thank God I was able to keep control. Scary.
Now that my hair is straight; I think I'll add the anti-sway when I order my trailer!
But also, if you're going faster than a mac truck, then an accident is kind of probable! In general, macs do like 80 on city highways; given this is desert area, I'd bet on it.
Here In Wyoming we call it the tail wagging the dog. Had it happen to me and I just let of the throttle and was able to get the trailer calm. Kept it 55 mph after that with no problems.
this very common rookie mistakes in loading too much behind trailer axle i prefers to loads slightly bit forward of center axle as stable we do have same problem in usa too i recently witnessed a commercial roofer van with big heavy trailer loaded too much to back of dual axles with discarded roofing shingles it did sway and rolled over spilled roofing shingles all over the highway which closed 3 lanes to one lane for traffic to pass though gez
No worries, that'll buff right out, mate.
If u ever deal with this while driving ur own car. Punch the gas pull the trailer outta the swerve the start to slow down. I can't tell u how many trailers I have been involved with that have done this but Everytime punching the gas and pulling the trIler out works everytime
True, done same, it saves it.
Aussies are some intelligent people for sure, love this demo
If you'll apply your trailer brake control, don't lock up the wheels on it, just apply enough braking to straighten it up, it will stop the swaying.......use the trailer brake control ONLY
Single axle trailers are not stable especially when being towed by a vehicle that is not big enough. Hitting the brakes was the worst thing to do.
td li when me and my sister was 8 and 9 years old we was riding in a camper that our parents were towing. We felt the camper swaying and we was screaming because we thought it was going to flip over with us inside the camper.
Riding inside a camp trailer is super dangerous. Have you ever seen what is left after a camp trailer rolls over? Toothpicks!
@@summergirl4522 I'm pretty sure it is illegal to ride inside a caravan in all states of Australia now. You need a motorhome or campervan for that now.
It's not illegal to have your pet ride inside your caravan by itself but that is also a bad idea.
I just watch three of these style videos ... and I love how in EVERY case even though the trailer is OBVIOUSLY *W I L D L Y* ... out of control ... they keep accelerating! :) .. in this case he's still out pacing the big rig EVEN while rolling over! :)
@Hooha888 Bullshit. Brake the trailer by applying the electric brakes. You do not continue to accelerate. At what point do you start to slow down???? HMMMMMM Worst advice ever is to accelerate.
@@rossatkinson3160 That's fine if you have electric brakes. Most of these single axle trailers only have mechanical over ride brakes which rely on pushing against the car. Hitting the brakes on the towing vehicle will only make it worse.
Thanks for this!
Blessings🧚🏻♀️
Great demonstration. Thanks guys. Now I know why that happens.
Need to know more about trailers. Anti-sway bars and weight distribution.
Highly informative.
The air flow from the 18 wheeler started the sway because the towing vehicle is to small to counter the campers side push and once it starts it only grows. Quit using these small vehicles to pull campers. 1 ton dually sis what needs to be used.
A sway-bar friction brake on a load distribution hitch will practically eliminate that problem. Coupled with proper loading, that should never happen.
Its called the crack whip effect. You can clearly see the vehicle went to get over and saw they were to close and quickly turned back into their lane and thats all she wrote. Operator error. Not saying Weight distribution hitches are not great, just pointing out what actually caused the rollover in this video they decided to use as their example
When your trailer is wooobling like that - you must reduce your gear and put PEDAL to METAL and try to accelerate hard - this is only way to stop not crash
That works in principle, but when you car is maxed out overtaking a B Double....
Putting pedal to metal is an old bullshit story by shit talkers..
Damn I had no idea. This was super useful
What about a toy hauler that is meant to have the heavy load in the back? Do you need to also add more cargo/weight to the front and middle in order to compensate/redistribute some of the weight to avoid sway?
WHO HAS THE WHEELS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRAILER? Even with no weight is of balance!
Other than excessive tongue weight, is there a downside to too much weight forward?
Thanks for this great demo. Had no idea how important this was👍
Great video... How about not passing semis when pulling a trailer? ;) Or. Driving to fast with a trailer?
Good demonstration but would have been a with small rectangle magnetic blocks. As people don't load caravans dead centre front back or middle.
His wife was on the back😂😂😂😂
,🤣🤣🤣
🤣 🤣 🤣 lmao
😂😂😂🤣
Very good. People need to watch this.