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ajcannon · 10-04-2016, 04:52 AM

Check this out - this is one of the best and clearest examples of why proper weight distribution is so important. Watch this (less than 15 seconds):

http://i.imgur.com/dYz2tCE.gifv

xrvr · 10-04-2016, 05:06 AM

Interesting, thanks for posting. I wonder how axle placement would affect this? How about two axles. Love to see this expanded to see results.

Naper · 10-04-2016, 05:08 AM

Excellent demonstration !!!

OTRA15 · 10-04-2016, 05:08 AM

Excellent!

Thanks, and welcome to the forum.

OTRA15 · 10-04-2016, 06:18 AM

Parallel threads:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f464...on-157806.html

Wayne&Sam · 10-04-2016, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Parallel threads:

Because the vehicle is "weaving"?

crispyboy · 10-04-2016, 08:00 AM

That would be a cool test to build a representative of a pivot point projection hitch to see how it would react with the models they have.

**GCinSC2** · 10-04-2016, 11:19 AM

And add an air blast to simulate cross winds or passing a truck.

Time to get popcorn?

TomKirk · 10-04-2016, 12:32 PM

This guy's just a kid playing with toys at the grocery store check-out. LOL

Just goes to show, some kids never grow up.....do we?? LOL

Tom

lovetokite · 10-04-2016, 01:08 PM

cool...thank you for sharing...

dwightdi · 10-04-2016, 07:00 PM

Weight distribution with in the trailer is important, as well as weight distribution between the front wheels and rear wheels of the tow vehicle. This demo is not like real life. The tow vehicle is not towing the trailer. Both are just running along on a moving belt. The Mustang is a cheap plastic low weight model. The demo just demonstrated there can be a difference in stability if the trailer is improperly loaded. This is a U-Haul designed demo to impress their potential renters. It does a good job of impressing.

Barbieri · 10-05-2016, 07:31 PM

What effect is mounting a generator, and other materials on the back of a trailer? How about overweight. I am sometimes amazed with the amount of baggage that is loaded onto trailers, fifth wheeler and yes motor homes. Someday trailers, 5th wheelers and busses will be required to pull into weight stations.

Paul Zmann · 10-05-2016, 07:48 PM

Watching tha video, it is kind of deceptive. Some issues:
1) is the trailer weight within the tow limit of the car.
2) all cargo is shifted from the front to the rear, not likely.
3) the cargo should be a stack of weights, distributing the load as needed.
4) tongue weight goes from max on the hitch to min on the hitch.
I agree with Dwightdi.

rostam · 10-05-2016, 08:25 PM

This is a simple demo by Uhaul to demonstrate the effect of weight distribution on trailer stability. It achieves its goal. I'm puzzled as to why some folks are unimpressed, as if this was supposed to be a real life demo by NASA.

MrUKToad · 10-05-2016, 08:31 PM

I'm surprised at some of the comments here.

The rig on the video simply demonstrates what happens when you remove weight from the tongue and place it at the back of a towed vehicle. The "tow vehicle" is irrelevant because the oscillation induced is around the pivot point on the ball. It wouldn't matter what you were towing with, that oscillation would occur anyway under the conditions set up in the test.

How a heavy tow vehicle would handle that level of oscillation might be interesting to see, but a heavy Airstream swinging that wildly at speed is going to defeat any tow vehicle.

Paul Zmann · 10-05-2016, 08:41 PM

One question, are you going to move all of your belongings fro the couch on the front of the trailer to the headboard at the back of the trailer? Pots, pans, food, clothes etc. if the would have demonstrated the weight distribution by using 3 weights moving the fro front, to the middle, and to the back it would be more realistic. One weight in the front, one in the middle, & one in the back to demonstrate the benefits of a distributed load. Being a retired engineer, it is showing two extremes worst case fore, worst case aft. There are all kinds of distributions that would actually help in towing.

Isuzusweet · 10-05-2016, 08:42 PM

I do understand the premise, having experienced trailer sway as a young know it all pup.

Luckily I knew enough to accelerate to an uphill section.

I wonder how some modern tow vehicles vehicle stability control programme will be able to control trailer sway. Doesn't Ford have some form of anti trailer sway with the new F-150, or is it GM or RAM? Found it, Toyota may also have something on the Tundra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1leczQxgEE

http://blog.toyotaonthetrail.ca/inde...-control-work/

I also wonder how long it will be before your trailer will have stability control, to interact in conjunction with the TV's control? Maybe something for Airstream and a TV manufacturer to consider.

Cheers
Tony

tjdonahoe · 10-05-2016, 08:44 PM

Heavier tow vehicle would not be affected, as a big dump truck pulling a pup trailer,Max loaded on truck with 4 axles is 55,500 and a 3 axle pup at max is 43,500, the truck is the leader and the pup follows, there is no tail wagging the dog...

SteveSueMac · 10-05-2016, 09:01 PM

Seems to me the video is intentionally "dramatic for effect". If you did lift everything off the tongue and put it in the back of the trailer, which you'd never do, but IF you did, the results would be pretty bad.

So the lesson is - don't hang stuff off the back of your trailer, don't be too light on the tongue, and balance the load.

Having said all that - there's been some speculation here about heavier tow vehicles not being affected or virtual pivot point projection hitches not being affected - it would be great to see models of those as well just to test those theories. Anyone know how to set that up? I wonder if a trade school would take that on as a project?

tjdonahoe · 10-06-2016, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Seems to me the video is intentionally "dramatic for effect". If you did lift everything off the tongue and put it in the back of the trailer, which you'd never do, but IF you did, the results would be pretty bad.

So the lesson is - don't hang stuff off the back of your trailer, don't be too light on the tongue, and balance the load.

Having said all that - there's been some speculation here about heavier tow vehicles not being affected or virtual pivot point projection hitches not being affected - it would be great to see models of those as well just to test those theories. Anyone know how to set that up? I wonder if a trade school would take that on as a project?

I have almost 2 million miles with 3 and 4 axle dump trucks pulling 2 and 3 axle pup trailers, off the pintal hitch behind the rear axle ,all on skinny roads, the truck is always heavier than than the trailer, by as much as 10,000 lbs the tail never wags the dog, only one time, I dumped the truck and went down the highway with a loaded pup five miles, at 35 mph , the trailer weighed 43,500 and the truck at 27500 , it was on the scary side and I never let that happen again, also their is not a lot of weight on the pintal hitch, if you unhitched the loaded pup, you most likely will have to find 2 fat boys to push it down back down on the hitch , my dodge weighs 8850 and there are 7400 on the trailer axles and it handles very nice, Ii is not a KW and pup but it is good...