Dancing MBT question

[pookie]

I have a towing question for you guys. When I tow my MBT it walks from side to side. It happens if with an empty trailer and I am on the interstate at or driving above 55mph and hit a bump, or change lanes. Then it just sort of dances from side to side. The only way I have found to get it to stop dancing is to tap the brakes, or slow coast until it stops. Then I can accelerate again and all is fine. So far this happens when it is empty. I’m picking up a load of free firewood today so I’m going to see if it repeats this dance when full.

I thought at first it might be the short wheelbase of my Jeep (TJ) causing the issue, but I towed it with a Grand Cherokee and it did it again. If I stay under 55mph I don’t seem to have any issues, even when going over bumps and such.

Any thoughts as to what might be causing this, and/or what I might do to correct it? Besides not drive over 55mph?

 

[shogun]

If this is a mild wandering that doesnt affect the tow vehicles stability dont worry about it. Pretty common.

However, if the tow vehicle is being destabilized by it then worry. Failure mode for insufficient (read negative) tongue loading is both vehicle and trailer whipsawing back and forth until it diverges completely and both uncontrollably depart. This can be speed dependent and if cought before complete loss of control you can keep it just under the speed at which it becomes unstable. Correct solution to this problem is increase tongue weight, but this doesnt sound like your situation.

 

[Aspen Trails Trailers]

I would say it is definitely tongue weight. The lack of it. Or the tongue is above level. Or not enough air in the tires.. With weight dispersed evenly in the trailer it could spell disaster. It is a problem, that needs to be addressed as the more weight you carry the worse it will get.

Get a bag or two of sand and place them in the front of the trailer prior to loading the firewood. 50-100 pounds. Then tow it. If it ends the problem, you can fix it several ways, always load towards the front and keep the majority of the weight there, move the axle back, extend the tongue. Be sure the connection point is at least level. Trailers tend to tow better when the tongue is 2 inches lower than the rear.

I would not ignore it for any reason.

Bob

 

[pookie]

Or not enough air in the tires..

Bingo. This was it. After I picked up the first load of wood the tires looked really low. I stopped at the nearest gas station and they took a boat load of air.

After that the next issue was the trailer was a little overloaded and the tire was rubbing on the fender. I had to reposition most of the load and put a big stack of the wood in my Jeep. Made it home and got that one unloaded and went for round two. Air in tires and a lighter load made it easy as pie. Here are a couple pics, the one in the trailer is the second load. As you can see there were some rather large logs in the first load.

 

[Mark Harley]

Very clean trailer!

 

[Aspen Trails Trailers]

Nice trailer man, and a working one. Glad it was so simple. Have fun!!

Bob