[Land-speed] Towing a race car

John Burk joyseydevil at comcast.net
Mon Jun 1 16:03:41 MDT 2009


I posted this before . I think this is how trailer sway happens . The 
trailer sways to the right . The sway inertia is in the back of the trailer 
, the trailer tires act as a pivot and the hitch pushes left . The tow 
vehicle rear axle becomes a pivot which pushes right on the front wheels . 
The caster steers the front to the left which adds to the sway . There are 
several ways to reduce the double jack knife effect .

High tongue weight - this moves the sway inertia toward the trailer axle so 
less side force on the hitch .
5th wheel  hitches - the front wheels see zero side load .
Less trailer or tow vehicle overhang , less leverage .
Anything that dampens the pivoting of the hitch , lots of ways to do that .
Less caster on the front wheels .
A hitch like the Hensley that makes the effective hitch pivot point closer 
to the rear axel , lots of ways to do that and allow little tongue weight .







> Need to come up with vehicle to tow 3200 pound race car on open 
> well-built,
> well balanced 4 wheel trailer over the rockies to Wendover.  I have a 
> fairly
> clean good running 1978 Lincoln Mark V with the 460 ci motor.  If I were 
> to
> make it safe for modern gas and add some heavy springs, truck tires,
> electric brake setup (and a stout hitch) is there some reason it still
> wouldn9t do the job that a pickup would?
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