Definitely just reach over and LIGHTLY squeeze the trailer brakes.. DON"T touch the truck brakes. Very simple to recover from..

 

Excellent answer. Most problems with trailers arise when the trailer is going faster than the puller. When the trailer tries to pass the truck it relates to sway and the puller either needs to accelerate or the trailer slow down. Applying the trailer brakes is one of the best solutions, unless one is dealing with a top heavy trailer which is over compressing the springs and bouncing from side to side. Same thing, get it under control then come to a stop and thank the stars you didn't have to kiss your butt good bye.

 

I guess I am kind of stiuck in my thinking. But with flatbeds, equipment, and low center of gravity loads, I would be fine without a WDH, but when pulling something like a travel trailer that catches a lot of wind in relation to the weight of the trailer, I think I would still want to distribute the load out over the tow rig. But, that is probably just me!! I guess that in my lifetime I have seen a few too many travel trailers splattered all over the highway, so I would tend to err on the side of caution.

 

I think you are correct. Travel trailers inherently have soft springs in order to not shake the dishes out of the cabinets etc. Their tall stance in combination with these springs is a recipe for disaster, especially when the tow vehicle may be marginal to accept the additional weight and totally inadequate to receive a horizontal load. I towed a boat on an older fairly tall narrow wheel base trailer once with my Ranger. The slightest side pressure would start a sway session which would really pump up the adrenaline. Below 50mph it was ok. Hence a very long trip and a lesson learned. Make sure every component of the equipment is capable of handling the loads and speeds asked of it.

 

I have used an Equalizer for several years on my F150 with a travel trailer and 24' flatbed pulling two RZRs. It works but I hate WDH's for several reasons. For one you have to readjust it every time you load the trailer different or if I use a different trailer (I have multiple) I have to take it apart and add or remove washers, and/or adjust the height of the brackets. Big pain.
Then to get enough tension on the bars so that they work well I had to add an electric jack to all of my trailers.
Then when you get where you are going it's a pain to drop the trailer off and put it back on, so we typically just leave it on the truck.
Then add that annoying squeaking sound.

I also haul cattle which can give you extreme sway if you don't pack em in the trailer so they can't move around. I don't use the Equalizer on the 16' stock trailer because I never go farther than about 50 miles. Pulling this trailer with a F150 can be a "puckering" experience. Pulling it with a SD is completely different. Just the weight difference of the SD reduces sway dramatically.

 

While I agree with you about a WDH being a general PITA to deal with, I still used them when ever pulling a TT, and on a flatbed, I just kind of used my discretion. If pulling something like a tractor alone, I could position it on the trailer to get the tongue weight right, but if hauling like my Jeep, and my RZR at the same time I could not choose how to position them on the trailer because the load had to be as far forward as possible to get them both on. I couldn't load the RZR in front because that would not give me enough tongue weight, and the Jeep forward put too much on the hitch without a WDH.
And when EVER I hauled livestock.......bring enough truck!!!!!!!!😎😎😎😎