Empty single axle trailer fishtail - tire pressure related?

[boggen]

one thing i hate about empty trailers, they bounce and fish tail a little bit, and jerk back and forth, left and right some as well. (more so with hitting bumps)

some of the cheaper latchs for going over the ball. don't have an adjustable latch either, so you end up getting some extra slack a little bit. allowing trailer that much more freedom to run a muck on you...

as long as you load trailer correct and correct tongue weight (when loaded) awe so much easier going down road. everything just drives nicely

 

[bigtiller]

For this reason I had to mount a spare tire to my tongue. Tilt trailers are the worse because the fulcrum point is the axle thus no tongue weight. Tongue weight is crucial. I once stopped along the highway and stole a couple pieces of rip rap from the state to throw on the front of my empty trailer for an on the fly fix.

I did the same thing when paddling a canoe by myself on windy days.

 

[JoeL4330]

I was going to guess that you had upgraded the tow vehicle and the vehicle hitch point was (now) too high, so not enough weight on the hitch (when empty or when load is "misplaced") ...I would guess you should have ~100-200 lbs (there will be a listed max for your setup) bearing on the hitch when vehicle and trailer are on the level. If it's a bumper hitch and "too high", you would have to correct, as some have said, by either moving trailer axle rearward, or loading forward (or use ballast, as you did). If it's a receiver hitch you might look for an insert with more "drop" (on my F350, I need 12" of drop for my light utility trailer !!). And, they do make adjustables...

Also, I would always run max tire psi listed on sidewall