Sway Bar Advice

[raceman3]

When the dealer delivered the trailer he installed the weight distribution hitch but no sway bar (honestly i thought it performed both functions).    That being said I towed about 1.5 hours at Turnpike speeds in heavy truck traffic to my storage facility and really didn't notice any sway at all, was I just lucky?.  28' trailer and Expedition TV.  I see most of the posts recommend the Reese setup which I'll look into before my next tow but I was rather suprised at how stable the rig was

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

You don't always need an anti sway bar - that's why it is optional on the hitch. That said, it is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it!

A properly balanced trailer with an adequate tow vehicle won't sway. The main requirement is enough weight on the tongue (hitch) to keep the thing point in the same direction the tow vehicle is headed. Sounds like yours was set up right.

 

[Carl L]

As Gary said, under normal conditions a properly set up TT is stable.   What the sway control does is damp the oscillations in abnormal conditions -- that is it makes emergency handling far easier.   Tho I am not a fan of friction bar setups, they are still better than nothing and may well give you an edge when you really need an edge.

 

[Sean Woodruff]

When the dealer delivered the trailer he installed the weight distribution hitch but no sway bar (honestly i thought it performed both functions).    That being said I towed about 1.5 hours at Turnpike speeds in heavy truck traffic to my storage facility and really didn't notice any sway at all, was I just lucky?.  28' trailer and Expedition TV.  I see most of the posts recommend the Reese setup which I'll look into before my next tow but I was rather suprised at how stable the rig was

There are a lot of variables that make for stable towing.  As mentioned, the tow vehicle and trailer design are two of them.  The hitch set-up, tow speed, roads, traffic, tires on both vehicles, and trailer loading are some of the others.

The problem with a stable set-up is that it can quickly become unstable when ANY ONE of these variables are changed.  And, if you look at the list, you don't always have control over IF they will change or not.

Also, towing stability can lead to a false sense of security.  If I have had the conversation once, I've had it 100 times.  I am told that, "I towed for 30 years and never had a problem then it all just got away from me."  Training yourself for 30 years to tow without a problem doesn't lend itself to towing safely when there is a problem.

I'll admit, I'm a bit biased about towing.  I have talked about it every day of my life for over 10 years and studied all of the factors and how they compound when they go wrong.  That said, it certainly doesn't hurt to have sway control.