Probably the most important piece of information in the unfinished 'Designing Trailers' series is that all traliers become unstable at some speed. The plan is to design a trailer with a speed of unstability higher than it would be towed. There is no information as to how to calculate this or even what factors contribute to a trailer being unstable. Hints, but nothing specific.
So, when in doubt, slow down.
I have not seen that happen. I personally feel that good chains will minimize damage and risk to life. I know people who disagree and pull large enclosed trailers weighing several tons with flimsy chains or no chains. Their theory is that in the event of it coming loose the trailer will somehow move away from the tow vehicle rather than cause it to go out of control. To me that is sorta like not using your seat belt so you will be ejected from the car in a wreck.
Don Young
Thanks to both of you... I always use chains, though I have been skeptical of their usefulness... Most of my towing is about towing a heavy 21 foot 3,500 lbs boat.
i
Then..there are wierd trailers. Mine..about a 1800lb capacity..is a tilt. Wheels are at least 1' too far forwards. It gets REALLY squirrly if I put something heavy..or even not so heavy on the ass end. Loading it..takes some serious thinking before ever lifting a piece of the load into it.
Gunner
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences."
- Proverbs 22:3
On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 03:52:35 +0000 (UTC), with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus22711 quickly quoth:
Consider it an insurance policy. If the tongue comes off the ball, the chains keep if from digging in and catapulting into something. They give you a chance to stop the mass before it becomes a weapon (of mass destruction?) If it flips and goes over the divider, hitting 3 cars while 27 more run into them, you's in a heap o' trouble, boy.
Properly connected, the chains keep the tongue off the ground.
RoyJ wrote in news:PbK_g.10832$Lv3.1285 @newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:
The GOOD THING about "Rush Hour" is that speeds are low.
At that particular stretch, it [then] was 2 lanes in each direction with a tall guardrailed fence between the two directions.
It also includes an overpass over a surface street. This helped to slow the trailer since the disconnection happened right at the bottom of the overpass.
All I had to do was to go slightly slower than the trailer to avoid it.
I have an old motorcycle mag here that documents the trip across Canada by a man and woman on a Motorcycle towing a pretty big BOAT. Outboard motor BOAT. The roads in Canada were mostly dirt back then so they had no choice. They made it all the way to Alaska with that rig from somewhere near Ottawa.
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