Do I NEED sway control??

[THEPILL]

I will tow my Airstream with a 2007 Powerstoke diesel Crew cab 4x4. It has the camper/towing package. But no sway bars. Is this required? Is it a necessity? Noone at the dealer even recommended it.

Here is my T.V.



Shane

[Boondocker]

Yes, you need sway control.

[ZoomZoom]

Another YES!
Greg

[wahoonc]

Sway control, yes WDH not necessarily.

Aaron

[THEPILL]

wdh????

Shane

[Ganaraska]

Sway control on the hitch yes, sway bars on the truck no.

You should add some cushioning to the hitch too before you shake your Airstream to pieces.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

wdh????

Shane

Shane.

WDH ?

Weight distrubting hitch.

Sway control?

Absolutely.

DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT.

What it does is give you an added degree of safety, for you and whoever may be in your truck.

Don't ever think, that a loss of control can't happen to you, just because you have a big truck. A Peterbilt would be safe for no sway control.

The investment for a sway control, is very small, when you consider the cost of the trailer, the cost of the truck, and the lives that depend on you when your towing the trailer with them as passengers.

Your question, is of the "UTMOST" in serious.

Andy

[Jammer]

{Crossposted with Ganaraska}

Wait a sec. Sway bars are different from a sway control hitch.

Sway bars are torsion rods that connect the left and right suspension of the truck, usually for the front wheels.

A sway control hitch is something that reduces the incidence of trailer oscillation at the hitch in the yaw axis, traditionally through friction damping, though recent hitches use springs (Reese dual cam) or changes in the yaw point geometry (Pullrite, Hensley, Propride).

Now what is it we were talking about?

[THEPILL]

Originally Posted by Jammer

{Crossposted with Ganaraska}

Wait a sec. Sway bars are different from a sway control hitch.

Sway bars are torsion rods that connect the left and right suspension of the truck, usually for the front wheels.

A sway control hitch is something that reduces the incidence of trailer oscillation at the hitch in the yaw axis, traditionally through friction damping, though recent hitches use springs (Reese dual cam) or changes in the yaw point geometry (Pullrite, Hensley, Propride).

Now what is it we were talking about?

Sway Control hitch.

So I need one, right? Anyone tow without one?

My Airstream is 26'...well, 25'11".

Shane

[Jammer]

Yup. You need one.

[fotochop]

Big trailer go flip-flip boom-boom on highway without sway control on hitch...

Big truck may decide to follow suit... ouch-ouch..

Big expensive new trailer, btw... ;-) get 'em

[Jammer]

Rick I think a creative soul such as yourself should be able recast that sentiment as a Haiku.

[fotochop]

big trailer make flip

lacking sway control on hitch

airstream no like ditch

[moosetags]

We pull our 25FB (7400#) with a 2500 3/4 ton Suburban. We have towed our Aistream over 50,000 miles in the last three years. We would not consider towing our Airstream without a high quality sway control/weight distribution hitch system.

Brian

[THEPILL]

Something like this?

Reese Dual Cam HP Sway Control - RVWholesalers.com RV Parts

Shane

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by moosetags

We pull our 25FB (7400#) with a 2500 3/4 ton Suburban. We have towed our Aistream over 50,000 miles in the last three years. We would not consider towing our Airstream without a high quality sway control/weight distribution hitch system.

Brian

Smart? Well maybe.

Wise? Hell yes, super big time.

Atta way Brian.

Unfortunately, some differ with you and I.

Someday, maybe, families will also know what "should be done", and refuse to ride if not done.

Life is so very precious. Why do some kick it to the curb, to save a few bucks? Beats me, and always has.

Andy

[CanoeStream]

Your Airstream weighs a major part of the weight of your tow vehicle. Your truck has only one axle doing the steering. An RV without sway control might want to veer out of alignment during a sudden emergency maneuver for instance. There's no way your one steering axle is going to overcome that. Best to buy yourself better odds by keeping the truck & Airstream lined up like they're one long school bus...

Or at least that was my experience in how it felt on a gravel road when a big roadhog logging truck appeared over a rise. The ditch and forest 4' from the road edge were not an option. I made a move into the soft gravel right at the margin of the road. The sideways inertia was too much for the conditions. Ice cream in the freezer banged the freezer door open. I was freaked for a second and then noticed how both truck axles and both trailer axles continued to work as one unit. There was a bit of swing to the rig but they stayed tied together in a straight line and I steered right through it. And this problem occurred at 20mph or less... The birch and fir were too close for anything less than good antisway gear. Reese HP Dual Cam. At the very least....

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by fotochop

big trailer make flip

lacking sway control on hitch

airstream no like ditch

Very nice. I approve.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by THEPILL

Shane

Your original title was "Do I need sway control".

Not really. I have never seen a sway control on a human.

But for your rig? Absolutely!! Bet your boots. Seriously.

Ah, a little humor this time of night.

Andy

[bryanl]

No you do not need sway control. You also don't need scare stories, FUD mongering and all the rest that seems to go along with sway inhibition device advocacy.

What should guide you is your driving experience.

Sway control will not prevent accidents and may or may not provide a handling edge when you need it. If you find that you are not comfortable with how your rig handles going down the road and you get buffeted around by other vehicles on the road and you can't feel comfortable at highway speeds, sway control may help improve handling.

read the stories given above carefully and critically and you'll note that the problems described weren't matters of sway control. A sway control device is a damper like a shock absorber. It does not prevent rotations around the hitch and won't compensate for improper driver response (a major cause of sway problems is understeer and poor driver response to trailer perturbations).

A long wheelbase, short overhang, and proper suspension and tires should receive first attention in handling improvement efforts.

There is a lot of heated discussion on this topic causing a lot of smoke and very little clarity. The fact is that only a very small segment of the TT population uses effective sway devices yet the crash rate for TT's is not sufficient to make much of an impact on insurance rates. The implications of those facts should be clear to those who have an open mind and can think things through.