tandem trailer dance

OLDFORDNUT · 05-05-2007, 07:21 AM

Well yesterday arvo was a fun trip back from Brisbane to Hervey Bay,A Mate and I borrowed a nice tandem trailer that we have used before with no troubles as its well maintained and well ballanced,picked up My XY ute which has no motor or front panels,for a split second i thought we should put it on trailer backward so more weight is at front,stupid stupid me, when will i learn your first thought is always the right one,well you guessed it,we had one hell of a wild ride scareing the crapper out of us and the other cars that were near,it TOSSED my mates 4x4 F100 from one side to the other across two lanes,now we had at least 350kg's in back of the effy,with my tools,spare,and one clevo engine block,made no diff maybe even added to the huge sway-up we got into.after pulling the car more forward (as far as we could)we set off again got 10kms down road saying its much better now,when it did it again only worse,i really thought we were going into the scrub on the roof,as it pulled the F100 hard to the left at the same time we were going side to side, we crawled home the last 250km's at 70 to 80 kmh ,
so to anyone caught behind big tandem and bright orange F100 last night im sorry.
cheers Nick
p.s. if your tow car does not sit a bit lower in back when trailer is loaded then you have got it wrong.

silicon · 05-05-2007, 08:20 AM

Poorly designed car trailers are very susceptible to this problem. I remember having my XD backwards on a service station rental years ago and having a maximum of 50/60 km/hr before it started rocking.

My brother’s car trailer tows perfectly with cars on backwards or forwards with or without a motor. Generally the trailers from big hire places are better made/designed.

You do need some weight on the rear of the car though; if there is no weight it will be a bad ride.

bob 351 · 05-05-2007, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicholas

Well yesterday arvo was a fun trip back from Brisbane to Hervey Bay,A Mate and I borrowed a nice tandem trailer that we have used before with no troubles as its well maintained and well ballanced,picked up My XY ute which has no motor or front panels,for a split second i thought we should put it on trailer backward so more weight is at front,stupid stupid me, when will i learn your first thought is always the right one,well you guessed it,we had one hell of a wild ride scareing the crapper out of us and the other cars that were near,it TOSSED my mates 4x4 F100 from one side to the other across two lanes,now we had at least 350kg's in back of the effy,with my tools,spare,and one clevo engine block,made no diff maybe even added to the huge sway-up we got into.after pulling the car more forward (as far as we could)we set off again got 10kms down road saying its much better now,when it did it again only worse,i really thought we were going into the scrub on the roof,as it pulled the F100 hard to the left at the same time we were going side to side, we crawled home the last 250km's at 70 to 80 kmh ,
so to anyone caught behind big tandem and bright orange F100 last night im sorry.
cheers Nick
p.s. if your tow car does not sit a bit lower in back when trailer is loaded then you have got it wrong.

it's fun is'nt it

DoreSlamR · 05-05-2007, 11:25 AM

crawling back at 70-80?? how fast were you going when it started to sway?...personally i'd be picking a speed not much faster than 80

FPVTurboTaxi · 05-05-2007, 11:27 AM

yep ... it sure is .. and the more u corect it the worse it gets ..

OLDFORDNUT · 05-05-2007, 11:36 AM

yeah barrell of laughs,doing about 100 when it decided to play up.

LUXO_8 · 05-05-2007, 11:55 AM

loaded right you can tow at 100 no problems...

the old no engine trick........bugger...
the moment she started to pendulum, i woulda pulled the car off and put it on the right way........but then hindsight is a wonderful thing

crusher · 05-05-2007, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoreSlamR

crawling back at 70-80?? how fast were you going when it started to sway?...personally i'd be picking a speed not much faster than 80

My exact thoughts. You probably should have only been doing a max of 85/90 anyway and when it started to sway even a tiny little bit you should have felt it and backed off and done something.

Who cares if people get ****ed off cos your going slower. Better to go a bit slower then to cause an accident. And Ive seen some real dodgy stuff with trailers that could have been real dangerous.

But as long as the XY is ok then its all sweet and something to laugh about while having a few drinks.

jaydee · 05-05-2007, 05:18 PM

Had the same prob once in my brothers car. he had an old LTD (the one with pop up headlights) and we picked up an old panelvan he wanted to do up.
We were in a country town about 200kays from Perth and the trailer swayed dangerously. Too dangerously actually and we'd only got about 20 kay so we dumped it in the bush, we got it for free so what the hell.
That was a hell of a wild ride, no way we were going to make it back without killing some poor bugger coming the other way.

DoreSlamR · 05-05-2007, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaydee

Had the same prob once in my brothers car. he had an old LTD (the one with pop up headlights) and we picked up an old panelvan he wanted to do up.
We were in a country town about 200kays from Perth and the trailer swayed dangerously. Too dangerously actually and we'd only got about 20 kay so we dumped it in the bush, we got it for free so what the hell.
That was a hell of a wild ride, no way we were going to make it back without killing some poor bugger coming the other way.

Is that panel van the one that got strung up in the tree near bunbury?

GT 0909 · 05-05-2007, 07:50 PM

Had that happen to me many years ago. One XR Fairmont on a tandem trailer being towed by an XA ute - trailer started whipping at around 80k's, then quickly spun us around in a 180 across the Hume Hwy, just missing an 18 wheeler. Whew!! Turned out that the RH front spindle on the trailer was bent (old damage so I found out later), causing the violent reaction. Lucky we didn't flip the whole rig. Gotta love those rental trailers....

MO · 05-05-2007, 08:59 PM

HHHhhhmmmm...

jaydee · 05-05-2007, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoreSlamR

Is that panel van the one that got strung up in the tree near bunbury?

I'd like to say yes and know someone made use of it, but no it was just out of Narrogin.

HOON69 · 05-05-2007, 09:20 PM

want a prefect disaster story read up about the guy on streetcommodores and his experience with car trailor

300k medical bills sold his house refinanced etc had to rebuild his XPIGGY mobile etc

all from towing a car trailor his VN bunout car with a EF falcon

should quadruplite check the vehicle and you towing device and trailor before going on long trips as they are the mosat dangerous ones.

glad you made it home ;)

Syncro · 05-05-2007, 10:27 PM

I found that by rocking the steering wheel (in opposite direction to sway) while backing off helped to counteract the swaying

[Tonko] · 05-05-2007, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syncro

I found that by rocking the steering wheel (in opposite direction to sway) while backing off helped to counteract the swaying

And what happens when you get out of sync? it doubles the sway.. just slow down or load it properly next time...

normxb · 06-05-2007, 02:18 AM

Had the same happen to me once with the FC (racecar) on the Highway at St.Mary's (NSW) coming back from Silverdale Hillclimb doing less than 80 k's , I had the spare wheels , jack and tools in the boot and back seat of the FC . Then I remembered what dear old Dad told me " Don't touch the footbrake , it makes it sway more .... just pull the hand brake on slowly " . Over-ride brakes on the trailer helps it pull up straight . Worked a treat , loaded the excess in the back of the XD wagon (where they should have been in the first place) and cruised home .

When we did stop there was a timely reminder right along side us , St.Mary's Cemetary ..

:

OLDFORDNUT · 06-05-2007, 07:48 AM

i can tell you accelerating did not pull it out of death throws like all motoring experts tell us,so maybe the handbrake trick might of worked,i hope i dont find out ,as i never want to test the theory out,lol

kyro_02 · 06-05-2007, 09:28 AM

i had same problem towing an NC fairlane with an EF (and hired tandem) .. could only go no more than 80kmh .. NC was facing forward

also what normxb said don't touch the foot brakes he he.. well it helped for me anyway

NudgE^SIKBRO · 06-05-2007, 09:57 PM

i personally am extremely fussy when it comes to putting cars on trailers... it doesnt matter about engine being or not in car ALWAYS put a Front engine car on a trailer FACE FIRST and have the car set centre on trailer, Take a step back and have a look at the angle of the rear of the tow car you always want the front of the car being towed slightly forward on the trailerbut only SLIGHTLY theres nothing worse than those people out there who run the car right up the front of the trailer so the **** of the tow car is draging along the road or vice verser. The rear end of the Tow car should sit between 1 and 2 inches LOWER with the loaded trailer attached. Ive towed tandems with cars half way accross the state behind cars with superlow suspension etc and never had a problem stickin to these simple rules

Cheers Dan

OLDFORDNUT · 06-05-2007, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NudgE^SIKBRO

i personally am extremely fussy when it comes to putting cars on trailers... it doesnt matter about engine being or not in car ALWAYS put a Front engine car on a trailer FACE FIRST and have the car set centre on trailer, Take a step back and have a look at the angle of the rear of the tow car you always want the front of the car being towed slightly forward on the trailerbut only SLIGHTLY theres nothing worse than those people out there who run the car right up the front of the trailer so the **** of the tow car is draging along the road or vice verser. The rear end of the Tow car should sit between 1 and 2 inches LOWER with the loaded trailer attached. Ive towed tandems with cars half way accross the state behind cars with superlow suspension etc and never had a problem stickin to these simple rules

Cheers Dan

sorry mate you are wrong about that, we had the front tyres hard against front rail with chains front and rear and mates 4x4 F100 sat exactly the same as trailer was neutral weighted (ie.it was lifted the extra inch onto towbar by me with no effort)as xy ute without motor was at least a 150kg heavier in the tray area, the only way your theory would work in this situation was if the trailer was a few feet longer,the reason it made us get speed wobble was no weight on back of f100 at drawbar and extremely bad road that is the Bruce Hiway as both occasions happened when we hit ruts left by trucks which made the trailer bounce lifting the back of the f100 which in turn makes the trailer try and pass the tow car

[Tonko] · 06-05-2007, 11:46 PM

I dont know if this is the right way of doing it, but it works for us...

NudgE^SIKBRO · 07-05-2007, 07:50 AM

castek · 07-05-2007, 08:01 AM

we towed an XW ute from ballarat to melbourne on a hire tandem. we (dad and i) were worried because the last time we had a tandem we were fishying across the westgate. But we had no problems. sat on 90k's the whole way. car was driven on forwards.
I think the lower the car sits on the trailer the better. lower COG

OLDFORDNUT · 19-11-2010, 11:21 AM

seems its all being discussed again,do a search fella's there is threads with good advice all over Ford Forums

grey_esp · 19-11-2010, 06:00 PM

This doesnt just apply to cars guys, when towing anything single axle, tandem axle trailer, furniture trailer, caravan etc, always should have a decent amount of weight on the drawbar. if the bum of the tow car isnt down you havent done it right (unless its like the above cruiser with heavy duty springs). I go with as much weight on the back of the cars as i can but without affecting the steering (lifting the front too much). That fairlane looks spot on.

Sway normally only happens going down hill where the weight of the trailer starts to push the car. Couple of good tips are to try and keep the trailer in the wheel ruts, this helps keep it in line.
I agree with not using the breaks just try to decelerate with the engine and slowly. Another thing is if your at the bottom of a hill, by the time you get hlaf way up the other side it should stop the swaying, as the car starts to pull the trailer again it will come good. Then you can pull over and reload it properly.

Scott · 19-11-2010, 06:32 PM

A sway should have happened to anyone who tows a car trailer... if you haven't driven through it you can't appreciate that moment of terror when you think "oh F&^k".

It's only happened to me once or twice... my wife was driving once. Towing a tandem with a Pursuit on it with a 5.0ltr EF Fairmont. She had the power on hand to pull it straight (which did work very well for us I might add) and she had to sort it out several times on our 30km trip. When we got home she had aching shoulders and arms from being tense the whole 30 min trip lol.

Anywho, pull your towed car up enough to sink the backside of the tow vehicle an inch or two and see how she travels - if it isn't right, either travel at a safe speed or stop and sort it out.

Ahhh the terror

tankclare · 19-11-2010, 06:35 PM

I borrow a trailer from just up the road and its awesome to tow with.. I make sure to load the car so it makes the trailer sit reasonably level. I can usually sit on 100 no probs.. Even got up to 120 overtaking one car before I noticed the speed and slowed down. Not encouraging speeding but when the trailer is empty I can overtake cars no problems and very rarely be overtaken lol.

Have only ever had the wobbles bad once going down a massive hill and the brakes heated up like a mofo. The brakes were almost non effective and i slowly coasted it to a stop. Scariest thing ever. Safe to safe the car now has some heavy duty slotted rotors and decent pads lol.