Deadly Trailer Sway.

[mudnut]

Here is a simple demo explaining why trailers/caravans come to grief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd-hUX8memY

[Cuppa]

Almost 30 years ago we were driving our HQ station wagon southward from Tibooburra to Broken Hill. We were towing a heavy timber 7x5 box trailer loaded with a pair of dirt bikes & camping gear. Spare wheel mounted flat on the drawbar. It had never given even the slightes twitch befor, but, literally on the final corner before reaching the bitumen the trailer out of the blue developed a aggressive mind of it's own, suddenly swinging from side to side to the xtent we became passengers in the car with no control whatsoever. Thankfully we ended up off the side of the road with no real harm done, & just sat white & shaken up for a while. On inspection we could see the marks made on both sides of the car where the spare wheel had hit them. With the highish centre of gravity with the bikes strapped on we were probably incredibly lucky the trailer didn't roll. When I see footage like that of the caravan at the beginning of that video I'm always reminded of our experience & the reason wht I've never been interested in owning a large caravan. Tbh, the thought of the number of folk on the road at any one time pulling 'accidents waiting to happen' combined with their once a year towing experience is a pretty scary thought. When driving I always give caravans a wide berth. ....And now I'm towing! Though I'd have to say that the Tvan is exceptionally stable........... but so was our trailer, until the time it wasnt. (& it didn't have an obvious excess of weight behind it's axle).

Drive safe folks

[gaddy]

Also pays to be aware of the "Air Wash" off the front of the truck , wich looks to me to be a factor in this instance ( as well as all the above and speed ) as the car looked to be tracking pretty well until it hit it .

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[threedogs]

A long draw bar will arradicate most wobbles. 1800mm
loaded mine will sit on 140kph [private land] no problems at all

[BigRAWesty]

Seeing so many of these of late.
People loading up to the max, towing with smaller cars and in such a dam hurry..

[threedogs]

It may also be in the way you load it too much on the tow ball lifts the front wheels
and the reverse who's to say try,,, and pack heavy items across the axles