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Dadboni View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Not an owner, yet...
    Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 2:03am
Which weight distribution system do you have?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 6:56am
We have an Equalizer 4 point wdh with built in sway control. We tow our 179 with a Ford Expedition EL and it handles very well. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 7:24am
I have a Reese Pro WDH with separate sway control. I prefer the two functions to be independent so I can adjust them separately based on conditions. Sway control works by stiffening the connection between the trailer and the tow vehicle, which in turn puts lateral force on the TV rear wheels. On wet or soft surface roadways there is a school of thought that its better to have less stiffness in your sway control so you don't risk breaking the tow vehicle rear wheels loose. So when driving in the rain or on gravel I remove friction in the sway control. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 8:13am
Not exactly sure I agree with offgrid re sway control on all units. I use a separate friction adjust sway control with my WDH. It limits the side to side movement by drag that is manually adjusted. The WDH moves weight from the rear axle to the front and trailer axles, so the rear axle is lighter. In my experience with the WDH tight, the rear axle is more prone to slide over rough roads when braking because the hitch sends the weight between the two focus points ahead and behind that axle. The suspension lifts off the rear axle somewhat and is more prone to slide when the surface is uneven and/or wet. Usually, on fairly smooth even surfaces (blacktop) you will not notice the difference. I have noticed it when on rougher roads when applying brakes.
Greg n Deb 2020 195 HRE
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 9:11am
We need to consider the effects of sway control separately from weight distribution.

Its usually easier to visualize physical phenomena if we look at the extreme aka the "limiting" case. So, consider the extreme case of a completely rigid sway control system, and imagine the rig going around a right hand curve. In that case the sway control will not allow the rig to articulate and there will be lateral force trying to push the TV rear axle to the left relative to the front and trailer axles.

Completely removing the sway control friction allows the rig to rotate so each axle can follow a curved path, and there isn't an additional lateral force on the TV rear axle keeping it straight as it goes around the curve. So, clearly, friction based sway control puts lateral forces on the TV rear tire contact patches that wouldn't otherwise be there. This is going to happen even if there is no weight distribution system or an excessively tensioned wdh on the rig. Its not a problem on dry pavement but could contribute to breaking the wheels loose on a slippery surface. 

Now, on to weight distribution. When you hang a trailer on the hitch it rotates the TV up in front reducing load on the front axle. That load has to go somewhere so you end up putting more than the trailer hitch load to the TV rear axle. The purpose of the wdh is to increase load on the TV front axle, getting it back to where it was with no trailer. That load on the front axle is what the TV is designed to have so that there is proper steering control and so that the front wheels (which have the biggest brakes) do most of the braking. 

In the process of making the front axle load correct the wdh also increases the load on the trailer axle. This isn't necessarily desirable, especially on trailers with fairly marginal axles like rPods, but it can't be avoided. Just the way wdh's work. 

The TV rear axle load goes down when you tension the wdh, which is a good thing. It still ends up higher than it was without the trailer, but it should be closer to what you would have when not towing, which should improve handling.  

If you are getting side slip on the rear axle on low friction surfaces then reducing the friction in the antisway system ought to help. If you are losing traction in a RWD TV then reducing wdh tension should help but at the expense of poorer handling and braking. 

I don't understand what you mean by "the hitch sends the weight between the two focus points ahead and behind that axle"  






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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 1:15pm
Forgive me, I am not the ME you are. I only know what I have experienced on the ground. With the WDH secured, and I go thru a dip on gravel roads, or leaving pavement to gravel in some cases, when braking, the vehicle and trailer tend to slide more until the weight returns to the rear suspension as the vehicles level out. May not be science, but it sure as hell is practical - and I've had shorts to prove it. Taking the tension off the WDH gives a lot more control on rough gravel using the brakes on six wheels. I've driven on gravel roads over the past sixty years with and without trailers, in various vehicles, WDH's are great most of the time. Sway control is important, and I'd keep it in place with or without the WDH. This is the last I'm gonna post on this line.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 1:55pm
That is why I like the concept of electronic sway control that activates when the trailer moves beyond the range where one could reasonably expect to control it. It activates the trailer brakes then. So, it is not putting any lateral stress on the tire patches when it is not needed, only when it is needed to help bring the trailer back in line.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2020 at 4:32pm
Originally posted by Dirt Sifter

Forgive me, I am not the ME you are. I only know what I have experienced on the ground. With the WDH secured, and I go thru a dip on gravel roads, or leaving pavement to gravel in some cases, when braking, the vehicle and trailer tend to slide more until the weight returns to the rear suspension as the vehicles level out. May not be science, but it sure as hell is practical - and I've had shorts to prove it. Taking the tension off the WDH gives a lot more control on rough gravel using the brakes on six wheels. I've driven on gravel roads over the past sixty years with and without trailers, in various vehicles, WDH's are great most of the time. Sway control is important, and I'd keep it in place with or without the WDH. This is the last I'm gonna post on this line.

Not sure we actually disagree much. 

Definitely when going through a swale when the TV rear axle is in the dip it has lower load on it then it does on a flat surface. There is a classic photo floating around the internet where a front wheel drive Olds Toronado is towing a trailer with its rear wheels removed, hanging on n overtensioned wdh. Similarly if the TV rear axle is on a berm the wdh will lose tension and act like its not there. If I had a lot of that kind of roadway I would reduce tension on the wdh too, just to have consistent load on all 3 axles if nothing else. 

It sounds like we also agree that sway control is a different function from weight distribution, and it looks like we both have wdh's and sway control systems that can be adjusted separately, which was the point of my original post. 

I reduce or eliminate sway control on low friction surfaces.  Sounds like you don't.  I'm going slow then anyway, and I think it reduces the likelhood of breaking an axle loose. Many foiks on the forum have integrated sway and wdh systems so they don't have the option. Not a big deal. 
1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
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