Trailer questions

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Oh hell, I once hit a construction gap hard enough that the trailer came up and filled my rearview mirror.  It got the truck behind me to quit tailgating, at any rate   This was with the car and trailer so loaded down that the reciever hitch was almost touching the ground at times.

  

 

I have never experienced the trailer being squirrely, ever.  The worst thing was driving down a steep, corner-filled road with it behind a Miata (or maybe it was my RX-7?) and I found that it will tip up on one wheel before it slides.   Oops.   If anything, towing a loaded trailer behind the Miata made it MORE stable, like a drogue chute.

 

It's possible that being behind a truck WAS the problem, if the trailer was being towed nose-high.  That'd cause air to collect under the trailer at speed and make it do weird things.  Being behind a car, they tow great when nose-down or even level, and there's not much airflow under a car anyway.

Fun post... 

In the same post you say they are never squirrely, then give accounts of one leaping off the ground or tipping on one wheel!

Perhaps you'd prefer the word adventurous!?! 😂😂

Some ball mounts are able to be used either direction (drop or raise) but some are built to be drop only and not properly supported in the rise position.  Make sure it says "3 inch drop or 2 inch rise" or something similar.  

4x8 trailers can be tricky. Tricky to tow and tricky to load. This is doubly true when they are loaded heavy. Mine has a 3500-pound axle under it and is frequently loaded heavy. I've been towing mine for close to 40 years and I still get it loaded wrong at times. 

If your trailer has 4.80 x 12 tires it's probably only rated for 2000 pounds. Your Vue may only be rated for 1500 pounds depending on the engine it came with. 

Make sure you get the tongue weight correct. 10%-15% is ideal for a bumper pull. At 1500 pounds you need a minimum of 150 pounds of tongue weight. Failure to do so will result in a very unstable rig. Error on the side of too much. While too much tongue weight can make for an uncomfortable ride due to jerking, it will not cause you to end up in a pile on the side of the road. 

The mini-ex weighs about 2300 pounds. Notice the boom is sitting on the tongue. That's to get enough weight on the tongue.

Thank you Toyman!  The rest of you folks study this and do the math on your application.

I hauled the Batvan to Gainnesville and somewhere near the Fla-Georgia line, I went 3 mph faster and the tail started wagging the dog.  Scary, scary stuff.  I should have put the ramps at the front of the trailer or bought bags of sand bags a Home Depot, coulda, shoulds, woulda doesn't help when you're paddling as hard as you can and all you see is swamp on either side.

I did finally get it under control, no mishaps, but when I looked in the mirror two tractor trailers had blocked both lanes to keep cars back or from getting hit with debris.

Whew....

SV reX said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Oh hell, I once hit a construction gap hard enough that the trailer came up and filled my rearview mirror.  It got the truck behind me to quit tailgating, at any rate   This was with the car and trailer so loaded down that the reciever hitch was almost touching the ground at times.

  

 

I have never experienced the trailer being squirrely, ever.  The worst thing was driving down a steep, corner-filled road with it behind a Miata (or maybe it was my RX-7?) and I found that it will tip up on one wheel before it slides.   Oops.   If anything, towing a loaded trailer behind the Miata made it MORE stable, like a drogue chute.

 

It's possible that being behind a truck WAS the problem, if the trailer was being towed nose-high.  That'd cause air to collect under the trailer at speed and make it do weird things.  Being behind a car, they tow great when nose-down or even level, and there's not much airflow under a car anyway.

Fun post... 

In the same post you say they are never squirrely, then give accounts of one leaping off the ground or tipping on one wheel!

Perhaps you'd prefer the word adventurous!?! 😂😂

At no point was it squirrelly, even when the trailer got airborne at 75mph, or going down a curvy road at well over the speed advisory