Lived & Learned... watch the tongue weight!

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I am not convinced it (sway control) is needed unless something is not loaded or built right. )</font>

It would depend on the trailer and the vehicle towing it, of course, but for travel trailers I'd sure not want to be without the sway control unless it was a relatively light weight trailer behind a dual wheeled truck. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I can understand, in theory at least, how rain could affect the friction type, but never knew of it to make any difference. The way they're designed shouldn't let the friction surfaces get wet, or at least not very wet. The only problem I ever heard of with the friction type was that if it should be adjusted too tight, you might not be able to turn on a slick surface such as ice. That was never a problem for me since I never towed mine on ice. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Of course, you don't see people using the same kind of tow vehicles now that you saw 30-35 years ago. The friends who had the dual cam type were towing a 21' travel trailer with a '66 Mercury station wagon and later with a '73 Olds station wagon. I towed my travel trailers with a '71 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup, a '70 Olds 88 sedan, and a '72 Chrysler Town & Country station wagon. My parents towed theirs back and forth from the Texas coast in the winter to Alaska in the summer with a '66 Buick and later a '79 Olds sedan. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Gator6x4]

I have never had an incident towing a trailer but have had several scares by others towing trailers. One time on I-95 in Florida traveling at 80 mph I was passed by a nut pulling a 27-30 travel trailer with a car with the trailer attached to the car bumper. Another time I was coming down a mountain and was passed by a nut in a F150 towing a very long horse trailer loaded with horses. By the grace of god was several hundred feet behind a nut on a very high bridge when the trailer attached to the rear step bumper on a chevrolet came loose. Talk about the pucker factor. I am constantly shocked by what I see drivers trying to tow, and what they are towing with on our highways.

 

[N80]

I'm not an experienced tower but I've towed a few heavy loads on various trailers with my F150, that does have the towing package. The only problem I ever had was when I bought my LX6 mower. I was pulling it ona heavy 15' skid steer trailer that I'd used to tow my tractor with no problems.

But, the dealer put the mower, which only weighs about 700 pounds on the back of the trailer, behind the wheels. At aboout 60 mph it started fishtailing all over the place. Drop down to 55 and it was fine. So it sounds like distribution of the load must be a big issue even when you're talking as little as 700 pounds.