Larry_Loo

Tipper stated:
"In other words was the tongue weight of one placed on the rear bumper of the other?   This in my experience with TM sensitivity to extra weight placed at the trailer ends to be anunstable setup and, in hindsight, foolish."


I believe that Tipper hit the nail on the head. No travel trailers, even our very stable TMs, are designed to have the tongue weight of another trailer placed on a rear bumper. In the case of two TMs being towed in tandem fashion, this would mean that the middle one would have 350 to 400 pounds loaded at its extreme rear. This would make for a very, very unstable towing condition, one that increases the risk of swaying and jack knifing. It's no wonder this accident occurred.  The trailers probably jackknifed when hit just at the right time with wind gusts that were in harmonic rhythm with their swaying. The trucker might have escaped an accident if the first trailer in line had been a very heavy one - with a heavy tongue weight on his towing vehicle. TMs, however, are lightweight trailers. The first trailer in line had its weight forward overbalanced by an equal or greater load at its rear. This shifted its center of gravity to the rear of its axle(s), an extremely dangerous condition.

Even though we should always respect gusty and windy conditions when towing our TMs, I believe that TMs are very stable trailers when we're towing them under normal conditions - with weight forward on their hitches. I'm certainly not a towing expert, but, after approx. 8,000 miles of towing our TM last summer without a hint of swaying, I can vouch for its stability.