When I got my utility trailer in '79, its axle was slightly too far forward
and even slightly
cocked/misaligned." (BTW, its cargo bed is the cargo bed from about a '38
Ford pickup.) 'Had it loaded with construction debris en route to local
dump; 'had 3 big laborers with me in seat in middle of the tow van. As I
got to about 55 mph on the highway, the trailer started whipping back of the
van from side to side. I yelled, "Everybody in the back - NOW!"
Unbelievable how fast those three big guys dove onto the floor in the back
of the van. The extra weight in the back of the van and my slowing down
quickly brought things back under control. 'Few months later, I put new
axle, springs, wheels, etc., on the trailer. I probably measure a dozen
times before I did the welding. Trailer's been very stable since; 'can
easily drive it 70 mph on the interstate with my 87 300D without any adverse
effect.
Wilton
----- Original Message -----
From: "Randy Bennell" <rbenn...@bennell.ca>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Trailer loading - was: Shipping A Vehicle vs. Fly
AndDrive
I truly doubt that. Most front drive cars are front heavy to begin with. I
think you could have put the 500# of bricks in the back of the little wagon
and driven wherever you wanted to go. In order to get the trailer dancing
there had to be something more wrong. Either the weight was too far back or
there was something wrong with the trailer that induced a wobble.
Randy
On 18/01/2012 3:11 PM, WILTON wrote:
That's my thought, too; too much weight on the tongue could dangerously
unload steering (front) of the tow vehicle.
Wilton
----- Original Message ----- From: "Fmiser" <fmi...@gmail.com>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 3:58 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Trailer loading - was: Shipping A Vehicle vs. Fly And
Drive
Dan Penoff wrote:
I loaded probably 400-500 pounds of bricks into a little UHaul
trailer and hooked it up to my 1991 Ford Escort wagon.
Thinking that it was best to have the load in the front of the
trailer, I stacked the bricks up against the front wall ahead
of the axle.
I got out on I-43 and started to drive, accelerating up to the
speed limit.
The trailer started whipping around like a crazed cat,
ultimately taking hold of the car and spinning it around in a
complete circle at least once before I ended up on the median
facing in the opposite direction on the same side of the road
I had been on.
Was there so much weight on the hitch that the car's steer
axle was unloaded? If not, there was still a lot of mass far
back on the car, and it has inerta!
The key to trailer stability is to have at least 10% of the
mass in front of the ground pivot point. (wheels)
If you happen to be driving in a perfecly straight line with
zero forces on either side (impossible in the real world) then
the mass distribution won't matter.
With more mass behind the pivot than in front, the mass
imbalance means that any side-to-side intertia will apply a
force to the tow vehicle that aggravates the situation. That
is, if the car turns to the left the trailer pushes the back
of the car to the right, so now the trailer is not following
directly and has to shift to the left. When it does, the
trailer then pushes the back of the car to the right and again
the trailer is out of line and has to swing back. It's a
positive feedback situation.
The solution is more mass in front of the ground pivot. But
too much weight on the hitch imbalances steering and braking
for the tow vehicle. To sovle that, a weight distributing
hitch assembly allows the pivotal mass and the ground weight
to _not_ be the same. Thus the ground weight is shifted to
the trailer and steer and away from the drive axle. An axle
scale would show not enough weight on the hitch. But because
the _mass_ is correctly distributed, the resulting in steering
and braking balance is correct. Or at least much closer.
-- Philip
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_______________________________________
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For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
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