RV FEATURE
When I was in my early 20s, I had just moved into my own home and I was keen on starting my garden. I wanted some railway sleepers to turn into garden beds, and a friend had about 15 of them lying around in his backyard. He said I could have them if I wanted. So I hitched my dad’ s 6x4 trailer to my Dihatsu Feroza and went to collect my treasure. I loaded all 15 of them and started making my way home. That’ s when I experienced something I never had before, and it scared the proverbial out of me.
As I drove at about 80km / h along the Hume Highway, the trailer started swaying violently, and it sent the poor old Feroza swinging in the opposite direction. I had experienced trailer sway, also known as‘ the wobbles’.
There’ s a reason why truckies refer to caravans as‘ wobble boxes’. You’ ve more than likely seen videos of caravans getting the wobbles and rolling over, often with catastrophic results. It happens far too often and, with the ever-increasing popularity of caravanning, barely a week goes by without a new dash-cam video of a caravan rollover appearing on social media. It’ s a major reason why the cost of caravan insurance is rising. But what causes the wobbles, and what can you do about it if it happens to you?
TRAILER TYPES
When it comes to trailers that are towed using an A-frame, there are two types: dog trailers and pig trailers. Dog trailers have a wheel in each corner of the trailer and are most commonly seen in the trucking world, although there have been examples of caravans with this configuration. This design is extremely stable, as you would imagine; however, they don’ t go around corners without the ability to steer the front wheels. This involves a potentially heavy mechanism and a particular skill to reverse, which makes them rare in caravan design.
I don’ t know what was stored in this massive box but it certainly could contribute to trailer sway.
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