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Argosy 22' rear door wiggle/sway issue
I sold my 22' Argosy Rear Door to Ryan and Samantah. It is to be their fishing shack and their honeymoon cottage. You may remember the posts from him on it this summer.
I had not towed it much, a couple of hundred miles but with no problems with my conventional Round Bar Draw Tight Hitch. The axels (2) on that model are pushed forward to accommodate the rear door. The tongue weight is relatively low, in the 400# range. I recommended to them they keep the front water tank full to put more weight on the tongue. The spare tire is mounted behind the full propane tanks. There is no load in the rear, the holding tanks are not full or hardly used.
Ryan had an Andersen hitch sent to me for delivery half way to them in NM. I towed it 850 miles, all interstate, cross winds and trucks and all, with no sway or stability problems whatsoever. The hitch was slightly high on my rig, so the trailer tongue was slightly high too. When we got to the transfer location in Wyoming, we found that the drop shank hitch bar he ordered was too low for his rig, and it had to be mounted so the tongue was fairly high to get them back home. They said it was completely stable on their return trip, and they also had cross winds, trucks and interstate driving. Their rig is a Suburban. They had another shank delivered to them, so it would tow more level and it was then re set up, for their trip to PA to get married. They left on that trip yesterday.
I just got a call from them. They have had a 600 mile run of white knuckle driving with the Argosy all over the road, lots of sway, and dangerous. We discussed it and I suggested they move the hitch ball up at least one notch so the trailer is less level and more tongue weight is on it.
A further call a minute ago found that Ryan had moved it up a notch, and it was much better now. I am not sure if it is as stable as it had been on my delivery run or theirs, but it is better at least.
I asked if I could post the question to the group so some answers may be available when they stop for the evening.
Anyone have any ideas why the rig should be so very unstable when level but raising the tongue a bit returns the stability? Remember, this is an unusual Argosy and the axels are very close to the center of the rig, not pushed back like most all other Argosy's and Airstreams. But both he and I have experienced very stable towing on our mutual delivery run with the tongue slightly high.
Even the Andersen sway control did not stabilize the rig on the first part of this current trip, but now moving the ball up has helped, apparently considerably.
We await your expert help and thoughts.
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