new trailer

[madjan]

we picked up our elkmont monday at texasrv in cleburne.. after a thorough walk thru.. btw we went with the wd hitch.. its not as difficult as i'd imagined. we stayed the night at cleburne state park.. tried out all the new gizmos and gadgets... had a wonderful time but who knew there were so many accessories!!! hahaha after setting up the trailer we headed to camping world.. yeppers.. lots of accessories!! it was in the 40's monday night but we stayed plenty warm.. i checked outside the trailer for noise level.. our tv was up pretty loud.. i couldn't hear it at all outside the trailer.

our toyota fj pulls the trailer very well.. even against a 35 mph wind coming home yesterday.. the last 90 or so of 308 miles.. at an average of 60-:cool:65 mph..

only bad thing was that my breakcontroller wouldn't work.. it would only show 0.0 meaning to me that it wasn't sending any voltage. i'll be working on that before our first trip to the mountains.. but.. the fj having disk breaks front and back didn't seem over taxed to stop the trailer.. and we were on flat land all the way home..

also.. we hauled the trailer on I20.. no problems.. but we did get passed alot!

[Bill]

only bad thing was that my breakcontroller wouldn't work.. it would only show 0.0 meaning to me that it wasn't sending any voltage.
Hoo, boy. I would be plenty scared towing with no trailer brakes. And if I had to do it, I would not come anywhere near 65 mph. Since the trailer weighs about as much as the tow vehicle (or more), it will take at least twice as long to stop in an emergency situation. And with the tow vehicle braking hard, it would be quite possible for the trailer to come around and pass the tow vehicle in a hard stop, especially if the road is wet or sandy or limited in traction in any way. Not a good idea.

What kind of brake controller do you have? You need to get it looked at ASAP, since I think you are right - a readout of 0.0 means no brakes.

Bill

[mtnguy]

madjan, what type of WDH are you using ?? With a conventional trailer and a fairly short wheelbase vehicle like that on a FJ, that should probably be a WDH with integrated sway control like the Equalizer or Reese Straight Line. Sway control has not been talked about much on this forum in the past because the fold-down Trailmanors don't need them, but on a conventional upright like the Elkmont, that is a whole nudder ball game.

[Wavery]

madjan, what type of WDH are you using ?? With a conventional trailer and a fairly short wheelbase vehicle like that on a an FJ, that should probably be a WDH with integrated sway control like the Equalizer or Reese Straight Line. Sway control has not been talked about much on this forum in the past because the fold-down Trailmanors don't need them, but on a conventional upright like the Elkmont, that is a whole nudder ball game.

You're being a bit facetious:p....... 105" WB is very short. I'm not sure that I would tow an Elkmont with or without a WDH....... but that's just me. Just be aware that these guys are right about being very cautious with the tail wagging the dog.

[OneMoBear]

Ok, I didn't really want to toss this out here :p . How many ridiculous things can one be expected to expose . . .

All was well with our trailer brakes until the tow cable was damaged (you can't make me say more about that) coming back to the river from San Diego. We spliced it (extremely well if I do say so myself) and replaced the fuse in the truck. Once again, all was well. We drove to Sedona, happy campers. We woke up in the morning and the truck and trailer weren't talking. Read, you have to be kidding me. Anyway, we had one more night before we were home. We figured we survived the trip home after we picked up the trailer in this same situation . . . ignorance is in fact bliss.

We really didn't have time for those reindeer games at this point. From Sedona we spent the night in Moab and then home to Denver. I'll let you do the geography from there. The brakes did honor us with their presence at Mexican Hat and that made us very happy. Other than that, nothing. I'm still yapping so obviously this trip was survivable :p .

I'm not suggesting it and we'll get it figured out. I'm just saying . . .

Malinda

[Wavery]

Ok, I didn't really want to toss this out here :p . How many ridiculous things can one be expected to expose . . .

All was well with our trailer brakes until the tow cable was damaged (you can't make me say more about that) coming back to the river from San Diego. We spliced it (extremely well if I do say so myself) and replaced the fuse in the truck. Once again, all was well. We drove to Sedona, happy campers. We woke up in the morning and the truck and trailer weren't talking. Read, you have to be kidding me. Anyway, we had one more night before we were home. We figured we survived the trip home after we picked up the trailer in this same situation . . . ignorance is in fact bliss.

We really didn't have time for those reindeer games at this point. From Sedona we spent the night in Moab and then home to Denver. I'll let you do the geography from there. The brakes did honor us with their presence at Mexican Hat and that made us very happy. Other than that, nothing. I'm still yapping so obviously this trip was survivable :p .

I'm not suggesting it and we'll get it figured out. I'm just saying . . .

Malinda
This is exactly why I always say, "Make sure that you have trailer brakes but don't count on them working 100% of the time". It's important to have a vehicle that is capable of stopping your load without trailer brakes. They can fail you at the worst time. Thankfully yours didn't fail you in the middle of a 5 mile long 8% grade. That could have been ugly for some people. Your TV may have been OK but a marginal one could have been in real trouble.

We've had our electric brakes fail due to bad magnets, defective brake controller and twice (on 2 different campers) due to the wire getting cut from the axle squashing it (last time was 2 weeks ago). I've never had them fail me at a bad time though. It was usually on the way to a local beach or something.

[Pat Sullivan]

Congrats! Glad you had fun and were safe.

We are picking up our Elkmont tomorrow in Portland. We had them put on Pro-Eagle WDH, sway bar and electric tongue jack. Also had a Valley Journey HD 52740 brake controller put on my Eurovan. We are hoping the Eurovan will do OK, it's rated 4400. We had them service the transmission today to get as prepared as possible.

[mtnguy]

We are picking up our Elkmont tomorrow in Portland. We had them put on Pro-Eagle WDH, sway bar and electric tongue jack. Also had a Valley Journey HD 52740 brake controller put on my Eurovan. We are hoping the Eurovan will do OK, it's rated 4400. We had them service the transmission today to get as prepared as possible.

It looks like the Pro-Eagle WDH does not have integrated sway control. You probably need a friction bar (or 2) added to help with sway.

I don't think the Valley Journey HD is an inertia brake controller. It looks like it is a time-delay. A Valley Odyssey or Tekonsha Prodigy might be better choices for trailer braking.

I am not familiar with the Eurovan, but it looks like a rather small vehicle with a short wheelbase.......not really conducive to towing a conventional travel trailer.

[Bill]

Not to add to the complication, but the Valley Journey is a time-delay controller. You might read the brake controller tutorial in our Technical Library. It is at

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2830

Bill

[madjan]

actually the elkmont weighs bout half what the fj weighs.. monday i took the entire rig to the brake controller installer.. they switched out units and it went to working.. now about sway.. is that what happens when a semi passes you on the freeway?

[Wavery]

actually the elkmont weighs bout half what the fj weighs.. monday i took the entire rig to the brake controller installer.. they switched out units and it went to working.. now about sway.. is that what happens when a semi passes you on the freeway?
That's part of it. More serious sway will result on almost any travel trailer, if you put on enough speed. The trick is to know how much is too much. For some 50MPH is too much and they must have a sway control device. For others, 75MPH may be too much and sway can be controlled by keeping the speed down.

As vehicle speed increases, the air pressure under the trailer increases and causes lift. That is why it is very important to be sure that the trailer tows level. A front high trailer will experience more lift than a front low trailer. Lift will cause the most serious type of sway condition.

Another contributer to sway is wind. A side wind can cause sway in most trailers. More on some than on others but a light TT like the Elkmont might be more vulnerable than a heavier trailer.

Shorter WB tow vehicles tend to experience sway sooner than long WB vehicles. The big problem there is, it can get out of control real quick and can actually flip a shorter WB TV.

[mtnguy]

Sway is the uncontrolled side to side movement of the trailer trying to take the tow vehicle with it. Worst case, it would start and escalate back and forth until the setup jack knifes....not a good situation. Sway can happen to any setup, but is more likely with a long trailer and a short wheelbase tow vehicle. This could be bad in a panic stop for any trailer towing setup, but especially bad with a long trailer and a short wheelbase vehicle...... the trailer is trying to push the tow vehicle.......the tail wagging the dog. A sway system stiffens up the connection between the 2 so that the side to side escalation would be more difficult to happen. You can feel the trailer push the tow vehicle in cross winds, and also when a semi speeds by. The bow wave of a semi will push the back of the trailer away from it, but the tongue of the trailer moves toward that lane.....that is what you hear of being sucked into that lane. Even under perfect conditions, a little steering adjustment is usually needed to correct that.

Here is a good primer for Equalizer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-cXboNbCis

I use the Reese Straight Line with my 29 foot trailer.

Oops, Wayne posted while I was composing, but we are saying the same things.

[madjan]

thanks for the info! very interesting .. if a little scarey.. we didn't experience any sway cept when trucks passed us.. our rig is set up very level tho.. so maybe that is helping. the trailer sales place put the wd hitch on for us but told us that single axle trailers don't require sway contol.. hahaha.. now i'm not so sure..hahaha.. but anyway we didn't experience any problems and we were pulling fully empty in a fairly heavy wind.. quartering at us from behind some.. quartering into us some.. and full out in our face the rest of the way..
btw.. i think the fj has 105.9 inch wheelbase.. lol.. every inch helps?? we're gonna pull it to the lake next week.. i'll pay more attention and keep my speed down too.

i really like my new lakehouse/mountaincabin/hunting shack trailer!!! :)

[Wavery]

thanks for the info! very interesting .. if a little scarey.. we didn't experience any sway cept when trucks passed us.. our rig is set up very level tho.. so maybe that is helping. the trailer sales place put the wd hitch on for us but told us that single axle trailers don't require sway contol.. hahaha.. now i'm not so sure..hahaha.. but anyway we didn't experience any problems and we were pulling fully empty in a fairly heavy wind.. quartering at us from behind some.. quartering into us some.. and full out in our face the rest of the way..
btw.. i think the fj has 105.9 inch wheelbase.. lol.. every inch helps?? we're gonna pull it to the lake next week.. i'll pay more attention and keep my speed down too.

i really like my new lakehouse/mountaincabin/ trailer!!! :)

If you didn't have sway under those conditions, you should be OK. Just know that if you should happen to get sway at some time, just apply the brake lever on your brake controller to regain control, then slow down to keep control. Hitting the brakes on the TV may not be the best solution but it's better than nothing. Just don't slam on the TV brakes when swaying.

I was following a friend one time driving near Palm Springs in 40MPH wind gusts. His trailer started swaying so bad that it got the trailer and TV up on 2 wheels. Had he slammed on the brakes, it would have been all over. He tapped the brakes and brought the rig to a stop (to change underwear, I think :p). He tightened up his sway controller and all was well. He was pulling a 30' TT, with a Nissan Armada. It had a WDH and sway controller.

[madjan]

i think i'll just slow down..i don't want any "stories" like that. :)

[brulaz]

I was surprised how well the Elkmont handles in high winds. Travelling around 60mph, we had 30mph gusts off Lake Erie that were noticeable but not usually disturbing or dangerous. No loss of control, no swerving back and forth. The Elkmont tracks very well; if it gets nudged off track, it comes right back.

And we have no sway control, just a weight distribution hitch. But our wheelbase is 140.5" so maybe that helps.

But twice a semi passed during heavy gusting, and for some reason, I think when it blocked the wind, we would sort of get sucked closer to the semi ... both the Elkmont and the Tacoma. That was a bit unnerving, so after the first incident I was always on the look out for semi's passing during high gusts and made sure both hands were on the wheel.

So it was tiring, and we're considering adding a couple of friction sway controllers to our WDH. But, I'm not really sure if sway control would have helped much.

[Wavery]

And we have no sway control, just a weight distribution hitch. But our wheelbase is 140.5" so maybe that helps.

.

Your 140.5" WB would be much more resistant to swaying than a 105.9" or even a 106" WB :p

I wouldn't even think about risking towing a full size TT of any sort, with a short WB and no sway control device. It just takes one time for it to get away from you....... If you already have a WDH, a sway control costs very little and isn't that much more of a hassle to deal with......but that's just me...;)

[madjan]

i'm wondering if the lack of sway has anything to do with the weight of the fj.. its 4700 pounds without gas.. how heavy is your tacoma brulaz?

[brulaz]

Dry or curb weight is ~4150# Add a 180# cap for 4330#

GVWR is 5450#, so it really is just bit more than a half-ton pickup.

With the two of us (300#), 2 kayaks (120#), 2 bicycles (60#), tools (20#), lawn chairs (20#), misc. junk (?#) and the Elkmont (400#?), we're definitely close to the GVWR.

[madjan]

where did you get the 60# bicycles? are they mountain bikes?

[Wavery]

Dry or curb weight is ~4150# Add a 180# cap for 4330#

GVWR is 5450#, so it really is just bit more than a half-ton pickup.

With the two of us (300#), 2 kayaks (120#), 2 bicycles (60#), tools (20#), lawn chairs (20#), misc. junk (?#) and the Elkmont (400#?), we're definitely close to the GVWR.

It's that "Misc junk:eek:" that will get you every time. As I've stated before, on the way to your next camp-out, stop at the scales.........;)

[brulaz]

Well, ahem, that was actually a guesstimate.
But now you've done it. I've just weighed them and the kayaks.
The bikes are only 23# ea, so ~46# total, and the kayaks (heavy plastic) are 55# ea, so 110# total. So now I can add 24# to the misc. Junk category.