Best Anti-Sway Hitch?

[BayouBiker]

I suggest you look closer at the various combination WD and sway control hitches which employ various methods of friction and asymmetric geometry tensioning to achieve yaw damping. You and I both know that any amount of yaw angle resistance increases yaw damping and critical speed. You may not recall or realize it shifts yaw damping vs. speed nearly proportionally for the entire range of speeds of interest.

As you review the various designs you will notice for many sway damping partially or fully relies on WD tension to achieve yaw damping, so it is not possible to release WD without removing sway control. But again for situations like mine with 15% tongue weight and a vehicle 3000 lbs heavier than the trailer, with no sway control critical speed is apparently north of 80mph, and oversteer is not an issue and yet is employ both WD and sway control. If I understand you correctly, you are advising that I remove WD. I'm at a loss to see why you advise that for my situation.

[StreamNTyme]

Originally Posted by tjdonahoe

....I don’t agree...our Reese duel cam does both...anti-sway and load equalizing...

We had a Reese! It was only good to a point. When it reached its maximum ability, it failed. Anti sway is not NO sway. After our accident we couldn't even find the anti sway bars!

We now have a Propride. NO SWAY! We went an email to Reese and they did not even respond!

Hensley is the only other NO sway hitch. They did not seem to have the great service that Propride has.
Lesson learned, you get what you pay for. So how much is your life worth?

[GettinAway]

Originally Posted by ASWinos

So does anyone on this forum use a Blue Ox hitch? I believe that’s what my dealer is likely to suggest for our new GB 25.

I do. It works fine pulling my 25FB with my Toyota Tundra. AS in Chicago only installs BO.

[BayouBiker]

Originally Posted by StreamNTyme

We had a Reese! It was only good to a point. When it reached its maximum ability, it failed. Anti sway is not NO sway. After our accident we couldn't even find the anti sway bars!

We now have a Propride. NO SWAY! We went an email to Reese and they did not even respond!

Hensley is the only other NO sway hitch. They did not seem to have the great service that Propride has.
Lesson learned, you get what you pay for. So how much is your life worth?

Just be aware the Hensley and ProPride PPP hitches are not NO SWAY. They too have limits. On a winding steep downgrade when articulation angle exceeds 1.5 degrees, which is the curvature of a 50-60 mph corner, the effective projection has dropped enough that sway risk is non-zero depending on other (rather rare) circumstances.

[Ultraclassic]

Originally Posted by Halford1

exactly! I have been preaching that one size do not fit all sizes. That applies to all Bambi, Caravel, Nest, and Basecamp AS which has low tongue weight compared to longer ones.

When I buy longer AS (25 or 27) that is when I will consider looking into WDH, depending on which TV I would tow with.

If i buy a bike to tow 16' Bambi, ill get a WDH

So why do you follow this topic?

[Halford1]

I just picked up 2019 Flying Cloud 19CBB in Salt Lake City, Utah but did not practice proper weight distribution placement. There was slight swaying where there was strong winds in Idaho toward West Yellowstone I pulled off and moved heavy stuff toward the front. No more swaying at all. I drove on without any issues No WDH at all. No anti-Swaying bars at all.

FYI I drove 75 MPH even in 80 MPH areas. No issues. I am not saying that you should drop all bars but it’s the weight of your AS vs your TV.

[Halford1]

Originally Posted by Ultraclassic

So why do you follow this topic?

One WDH doesn’t fit all sizes

[Collyn]

Originally Posted by BayouBiker

I don't know, Collyn, I'm going to have to call BS on that. You should dust off your matrix algebra and Laplace transforms and run this again, because when I look at it, it doesn't take much yaw damping to raise the critical speed and sway periodicity enough to make a world of difference. I mean 10 mph is almost a world away if all you need is 2. Also though forces rise with the square of velocity, net sway damping declines almost linearly with speed.

I do not need to 'dust off my matrix algebra and Laplace transforms' to advise you they relate primarily to the space and time of two systems moving at a constant velocity relative to each other and mainly at the speed of light' - which travels even faster than you tow your Airstream.

Re your "Also though forces rise with the square of velocity, net sway damping declines almost linearly with speed." Are somehow suggesting that 'speed' and 'velocity' are totally different concepts - or what do you mean?

Collyn

[BayouBiker]

Also useful dimensional kinematics and feedback control stability. I often informally use velocity and speed interchangeably though perhaps I shouldn't.

Still waiting for you to address concerns about modest WD tension used when nowhere near axle and towing limits.

[Collyn]

Originally Posted by BayouBiker

Also useful dimensional kinematics and feedback control stability. I often informally use velocity and speed interchangeably though perhaps I shouldn't.

Still waiting for you to address concerns about modest WD tension used when nowhere near axle and towing limits.

Basically, there are no plusses (but some minuses) if you use a WDH when nowhere near axle and towing limits. As you post a fair bit re this I would have not unreasonably thought you would be aware of them yourself.


Towing a trailer via an overhung is inherently unstable - but not likely to be an issue if the limitations are limited and reduced as far as possible. So why use that WDH if 'nowhere near axle and towing limits'?

The issue is simply that any WD tension tends to reduce 'cornering power' and that can only be a minus - albeit a small minus if that tension is modest. So why use it at all?

Collyn

[BayouBiker]

An underloaded setup has excessive understeer. WD adds load but no mass to the font axle, increasing front axle cornering power. I show the effect as improving cornering power. Where have I gone wrong?

[Collyn]

Originally Posted by BayouBiker

An underloaded setup has excessive understeer. WD adds load but no mass to the font axle, increasing front axle cornering power. I show the effect as improving cornering power. Where have I gone wrong?

RE - "An underloaded setup will only have excess understeer if the rear tyre pressure is too high- or the front too low."

You have a good point but its really better to use tire pressures that are correct for the load - than mess around with WDH settings that may or may not be correct.


Collyn

[azflycaster]

Originally Posted by Collyn

RE - "An underloaded setup will only have excess understeer if the rear tyre pressure is too high- or the front too low."

You have a good point but its really better to use tire pressures that are correct for the load - than mess around with WDH settings that may or may not be correct.


Collyn

92 is your current post count.

[gandttimes]

Originally Posted by BayouBiker

Also useful dimensional kinematics and feedback control stability. I often informally use velocity and speed interchangeably though perhaps I shouldn't.

Still waiting for you to address concerns about modest WD tension used when nowhere near axle and towing limits.

Skip the gobbledygook and use an EQUALIZER.....

[DCPAS]

Originally Posted by Collyn

RE - "An underloaded setup will only have excess understeer if the rear tyre pressure is too high- or the front too low."

You have a good point but its really better to use tire pressures that are correct for the load - than mess around with WDH settings that may or may not be correct.

Wait, you say that WD is bad because of reduced rear traction and your solution to the reduced front traction from no WD is to reduce rear traction with air pressure?

[WilRichwin]

Me and my father before me have towed our 7 Airstreams with Reese Sway Control Equalizing Hitches for over 50.years. I even went through an ice storm in Arkansas and down over an embankment Chrysler wagon and 66 Tradewind in tow. No problem. No offense to newer approaches but they have served us well from 19’ globe trotter to 31’ Sovereigns. New ones are fine but nothing wrong with used ones. Classic American Enginering! If there is a sag you can just go up one link on the chain. The dual cam sway control can’t be beat. Forget these new complicated hitches. I was at the Cherry Blossom Rally over a decade ago where one of these newer hitches got stock in the mud. Had to be unhitched and I got through fine.

[Profxd]

Originally Posted by DCPAS

Wait, you say that WD is bad because of reduced rear traction and your solution to the reduced front traction from no WD is to reduce rear traction with air pressure?

Front(lower)to rear(higher) pressure differential controls how the TV handles. An example is that 1/2 tons almost always have the same air pressure recommended for both front and rear while 3/4 tons have a pressure differential. The 3/4 tons have this to control handling with higher loads in the rear of the vehicle. The same principle applies to load in the bed or trailer tongue load. The newer way of thinking is to find the balance of Understeer Gradient and Sway damping which you can’t do with a high amount of tension on the WDH.

[BayouBiker]

Originally Posted by DCPAS

Wait, you say that WD is bad because of reduced rear traction and your solution to the reduced front traction from no WD is to reduce rear traction with air pressure?

Yeah that is essentially the advice. Rather than restoring front axle cornering ability, set tire pressure so the rear is nearly as poor.

A more sensible approach seems to be to restore front axle cornering stiffness with WD and then use higher rear tire pressure to ensure rear axle cornering remains slightly better than the front. On underloaded vehicles there remains plenty of room to work with and the result is improved steering and handling than with no WD.

[Profxd]

If front axle grip is that severely compromised by the addition of TW alone you have the wrong TV. Stability control of the combination happens at the rear tires, the front is secondary. The WDH only controls the vertical effects of tongue load but does nothing for the lateral/horizontal effects.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, my F-150 came from the factory with load range "C" LT tires. My door sticker says to run 40 lbs air pressure front and rear. [max is 50 lbs.] For my set up the magic number turns out to be: leave the front tires at 40 lbs. and inflate the rear tires to 50 lbs.