sota wrote:
if you get excessive sag, you'll need to either upgrade your springs to carry the weight, go with helper springs on the shocks (monroe), or a set of air bags. I can only speak to the first, as that's what I did.
based on your posts, is this a real-world problem? As in, are you actually experiencing trailer sway? Or are you still in the theoretical phase of your towing experiment. I'm not versed in boats, but I would think they'd be fairly balanced by design, to keep them from sitting funny in the water. That would leave how the boat sits on your trailer; if there's more boat aft of the axles than fore, you're going to have a problem. If that's the case, can you add ballast to the front of the boat or trailer?
When I first started towing a car with my jeep, I spent a bit of time working out the best position of the car on the trailer, in relation to all the extra goodies I was carrying, both on the trailer and in the back of the jeep. Moving the car only an inch fore or aft caused a noticeable change in trailer performance and characteristics.
Hi, thanks for your thoughts! Upgrading springs is certainly an option, however how is your ride without a trailer? Not too rough? I am contemplating set of air bags as those offer adjustment.
Yes, mine is a real world problem! I have towed my boat for about 100 miles and was unable to exceed 45mph or so, due to trailer sway starting to develop if I go any faster. Adding ballast is not an option as the boat is already marginally heavy. This is not very well designed boat-trailer combination and it is a known deficiency (I just happen to love the boat too much
). The only effective way of changing the weight distribution is to shift the position of the trailer axles andf it has been done by others with success. However this will require the modification of the brake lines of the trailer surge brakes. and it is quite a bit of a job.
Reason I was asking my original question: having 15% of the trailer 5000lb weight on the tongue may eliminate sway but will make it too much of a load for the Jeep rear end. Having close to 10% on the tongue may reduce the load on the Jeep, but may not fully eliminate the sway. In the former case I anticipate the need to strengthen the rear suspension, in the latter to install weight distribution hitch with sway control.
Hence I would really appreciate a feedback from someone who had experience towing comparable load.
Thanks!
Alex