[f4igrad]

i bought a nice 5x8 tilt trailer today for hauling my f4i and soon-to-have dirtbike. it has 15 inch tires and is made of heavy steel. One question though, I was towing it home on the interstate and for the most part it was fine. However, sometimes it would start swaying back and forth, making the back end of my Pathfinder wag back and forth with it. Felt pretty weird at 70 mph. This was when the trailer was empty. Usually it pulled straight, but a lot of times when I was slowing down or braking it would start swaying back and forth pretty violently.

I got home and noticed that the tires only had 11 psi in them, so I filled them up. Also, I have read that I might need more weight on the tongue, which will stop the swaying? If so, what should I put in the trailer to weight the tongue when I am heading down to pick up my dirtbike tomorrow morning? Thanks for the advice!!!

 

[auron88]

sandbags if you have them, other than sandbags, maybe try some cinder blocks? I dont know if you will have room if you are gonna be hauling the dirtbike though, oh well, slash open the bags and pour em on the sellers front lawn, tell him he should have gone down that last 200 bucks :flipa . well hopefully that helped, what bike are you buying?

 

[cruiser1]

air pressure could have been a factor
maby a couple of cement blocks in the front will help

If it starts to sway real bad once the bike is on it try not to hit the brakes this will only make it worse, if possible apply power till it stablizes then slow down

 

[auron88]

um, i forgot to mention, on our trailer, you can change how far back the actual hauling part of the trailer sits by adjusting a pin on the tongue part of the trailer, check that out, maybe having it too far away from the rear of your truck would affect it being caught by wind and such. hopefully any of this helps.

 

[cruiser1]

if more than half of the weight of the tlr was pass the axle that would make it very unstable and prone to sway when you load try to get the weight 60/40 toward the tongue

 

[auron88]

thats what i was sayin, u gotta get it set up right so its evenly distributed.

 

[arma]

I know on our camper (not sure if it's the same) my parents got something that was specifically called "Sway bars". Not sure if you can do it with trailers but may want to look into it.

 

[BigGulp]

:headbang don't worry about it, if that SOB is still behind you.......Keep going :flipa :flipa

 

[Eric8650]

Actually you can get a steering dampner for the tounge, we have one on our 30' enclosed car trailer and it helps alot..Just go to any trailer sales and see what they have....Or call some RV stores they should be able to help...

ERIC
RUSSO-RACING

 

[Kawisixer01]

I had the same thing happen to my pop up. I decided to put my huge ass game rack on the back of my pop up and put my quad on that. When I hit about 55 mph the whole works started just about jumping side to side about five feet. Too much weight in the back of the trailer. No four wheeler camping that time....

 

[Ghost Rider]

There is an anti-sway steering-damper type of thing you can attach to the tounge. It is required for large trailers, but not considered necessary for smaller ones. You have three choices: drive slow, get the damper, or get a heavier tow vehicle so the tail can't wag the dog.

It will be worse slowing down, cause the trailer will be trying to pass the car (unless you have trailer brakes, which you don't).