Trying to figure out what caused it.
Speed??

 

Dunno.

Every time the vid has been posted over the years, people have theories.

Stewart

 

trailer sway gone VERY bad!

 

What causes a trailer to sway that much other than wind?

 

i've never delt with trailer sway but from what i understand and correct me if i'm wrong please. but the slight sway gets made worse by driver over correction? thus the swaying may start out slight but with the wrong amount of correction it can get out of hand quickly. right track any of you travel trailer guys?

 

not enough forward weight.. bad setup. probably some moron first time towing, set the hitch wrong.

 

he should have sped up. almost looked he let off the gas making the sway worse and the trailer started pushing the excursion where the trailer wanted to go.

 

Bingo!! I have had a small work trailer do that when I loaded too much weight in the rear. Pulled over threw all my air nails in the front and no more sway.

 

Peronally I think he was busy checking out the exotics and the X and trailer were on the shoulder and he erked it back over and it went fromthere!

 

It can be caused by either. Sway can only exist on a conventional bumper-pull hitch; fifth wheels never see it to this degree. This is because the trailer imparts a lateral force on the hitch ball, which is located behind the rear axle of the truck. My trailer had nearly 1,500 lbs of tongue weight and it still gave me some sway problems on the way out here, I really should have had some form of sway control.

Any trailer of size can sway if force is applied to it, and sometimes the driver has to respond correctly to keep it in a straight line. One quick way to an uncontrollable trailer is to do what b-uno said, load it heavy in the back. If the center of gravity is behind the axles of the trailer the tongue will be pulling up on the hitch ball, and this is a VERY dangerous situation. Just about anything over 20 MPH will have a serious sway problem no matter what you do, and it can very well drag you out of control if the conditions are right and the trailer is heavy enough.

From how bad it was swaying I would guess that he had too much weight in the back. Either that or he reacted really badly when the sway was induced. Red head should use that video in their advertising!

 

One thing the guy should do is to pull the trailer brakes when it started to sway. This helps pull the entire rig straight. Last thing you want to do is to apply the brakes in the tow vehicle as this would cause a jack knife.

 

My thought on the deal is this:

Traveling way to fast going around a corner. The trailer started to sway a bit while making the corner and was over corrected exiting the turn. From there it was back and forth till the 180.

 

That was my thought as well....

The first instinct is to let off the gas and try to start correcting the situation. But in situations like that (unless you have experience) people tend to freak and over correct causing the situation we saw in that video.

 

I was originally going to say pull the trailer brakes and accelerate the tow vehicle at the same time, but if he was going too fast already, that would not be advisable.

 

i bet the idiot didnt even have the trailer brakes hooked up, maybe not even the trailer at all anyone tell if brake lights are comming on the trailer?