Ron & Brenda’s Great Adventure

Chapter 3.2

Okay, this isn’t specifically about a road trip, but more about the information that supports the trips; thus Chapter 3.2 which is the logical successor to Chapter 3.1, which is also a background building information offering. There is actually a Library of Congress type of logic to the numbering system!

FYI, we will be taking a trip in May to Coos Bay Oregon, and I will be writing about that using chapter number 4 as the logical successor to Chapter 2. Chapter 4 because, as you can see, Chapter 3 is already taken.

So anyway, I wanted to fill the vacuum created by my lack of blog posts by talking about some of the mechanical/technical stuff that’s associated with schleping a large travel trailer around. Stuff I never knew before, but learned as we have been RVing.

In an earlier chapter, I briefly spoke about the different types of RVs available, and I’m sure you remember I told you that we opted to buy a 30 foot travel trailer; the type that hooks on to a ball hitch located at the rear bumper of my truck. I thought you might be interested in learning about how it all works, and how one avoids some of the inherent perils that accompany this activity.

The photo below shows the back of the truck as it is positioned ready to hook on to the trailer. On the right is the back truck bumper with the ball hitch sticking out. You have all seen these things on trucks and cars, and have even had the pleasurable experience of smacking your shin into the hitch. In the photo, the ball of the hitch is positioned just below the trailer tongue/hitch receiver that fits over the ball. At the moment, the trailer is raised slightly higher than the ball, allowing me to place the ball under the trailer hitch.

On a side note, this is always one of the most frustrating and tedious parts of hooking up, because while sitting behind the wheel of the truck, one can’t actually see the ball and the hitch to get them placed perfectly. Usually it requires another person to direct the driver: “back up just a little; No, no, too much. Forward a bit! Too much, and move it to the right just a touch. No, I meant the left!” And so on. You get the idea.

But my truck – and many like them – is equipped with a backup camera, which in my opinion is the greatest invention of all time, aside from modern cataract surgery. (See Chapter X). The backup camera is located on the top center of the truck tailgate, and gives me a perfect view of the ball hitch and everything behind it. A large screen in the dashboard of the truck allows me to see exactly where the ball is in relation to the trailer hitch so I can maneuver the truck to place the ball in the right spot. Occassionaly I’m able to back up to place the ball exactly under the hitch, but often I need to climb out of the truck to see what minor adjustments are required. But for the most part, positioning the truck is very quick and easy.

With the ball located directly under the hitch, I then lower the hitch onto the ball by retracting the tongue jack. That’s the silver tube thingy under the trailer frame. I then engage the locking mechanism that locks the hitch onto the ball. It’s designed so the trailer hitch rotates over the ball when I make a turn, and the ball is greased to make it easier to do.

Next is the anti-sway bar. There are two sorta’ major concerns when towing a trailer: 1) is the fact that it’s almost impossible to drive in a perfectly straight line. There’s always some sort of force that tries to mess with the track of the vehicles. It could be the routine adjustments to the steering that we make when driving; something that’s barely noticable when driving our car or truck, and there’s always a slight weaving in the traffic lane as we drive. Passing trucks cause your vehicle to move slightly, and swerving to avoid a pothole are also things that tend to move your vehicle off track. Most of the time, these actions don’t pose a problem, but when towing a trailer, these small movements are magnified. The tow vehicle – my truck – moves to the side, and the trailer follows. Correcting the truck movement will pull the trailer in the opposite direction, building the movement until eventually the trailer begins to whip back and forth, possibly dragging the truck off the road

The second concern when towing a trailer is proper distribution of the weight generated by the trailer resting on the back of the truck. Without a trailer attached to the truck, the truck will sit fairly flat on the road surface, with an equal amount of weight being supported by the front and the rear tires. But connecting the trailer to the truck changes this dynamic. My trailer weighs about 9,000 pounds fully loaded, and the trailer axles are placed just behind the center of the trailer so that about 10% of the trailer’s weight is resting on the hitch. That’s about 900 pounds for those of you who are mathematically challenged! This extra weight on the back of the truck will cause the truck to sit lower in the back and higher in the front, with less weight on the front wheels, and the front wheels – the wheels that steer the truck – can’t properly control the truck if there isn’t enough weight on them.

There are several ways to deal with this problem: one is to install air bags over the rear axles that, when inflated with air, will lift the back end of the truck, thus placing more weight over the front wheels. Another method is using the anti-sway/weight distribution bar, as depicted in the photos.

There are two “L” shaped bars, one on each side, with the short leg having a notch near the end. The short end is inserted into a hole on one side of the ball hitch assembly, and the notch locks it in place. This end of the bar is greased to allow the bar to rotate inside the hitch when making turns. The long end of the bar is flattened, and it fits over the “L” shaped brackets that are bolted to the trailer tongue. In order to place the bar over the bracket, I must crank the trailer tongue higher than usual. At the correct height, I’m able to easily slip the bar over the bracket and hold it in place with a removable stop that keeps the bar from sliding off the bracket. That’s the small silver thing. With both bars resting on their brackets, and secured in place, I can then lower the trailer fully onto the truck ball hitch, raising the tongue jack into its storage position. With the weight of the trailer on the truck hitch ball, the two anti-sway/weight distribution bars actually lift the rear of the truck, placing more weight over the front wheels. That’s the weight distribution component; just like the air bags that I mentioned earlier.

The second component – anti-sway – is accomplished because the bars are now under a certain amount of spring tension. It’s the bars that are lifting the rear of the truck, and the weight of the truck is, naturally, pressing down on the bars that are in turn pressing down on the brackets that are attached to the trailer tongue. The bars are designed to flex, not break, hopefully, and this action causes friction between the bars and the brackets that support them whenever the truck and trailer turn in relation to each other. Think about the movement that I referenced earlier, like when the truck swerves. When this happens, the truck and trailer are no longer traveling in a straight line, and there is a slight bending with the hitch/ball acting as the pivot point. When this happens, the effect is for the bar support brackets to move in relation to the bars, with the bars sliding over the brackets. Because the bars are under spring tension on the brackets, there is a certain amount of friction – steel rubbing on steel – and this slows or prevents the buildup of the sway that would occur without the dampening effect.

The end result is a relatively stable ride without having the truck/trailer combination swerving all over the road.