On 12/26/2019 8:42 AM, wrote:
On Thursday, December 26, 2019 at 9:19:35 AM UTC-6, Mike N. wrote:
Wow, great examples of the tail wagging the dog.

On a less scientific note, and maybe more to the point of simple common
sense, I have trailered my glider in a tube style trailer using a V6
Toyota Rav 4 from California to Utah going over the Sierra Nevada's and
it was an easy comfortable trip. To mitigate trailer sway issues I simply
noted the speed at which trailer sway started when doing simple lane
changes or getting passed by a large vehicle, and set myself a top speed
limit of roughly 7 to 10 mph below that. Problem solved.

Thanks! A good practical solution!

This (now-lengthy) thread has (IMHO) numerous
sensible/informative/potentially-useful informative bits, and I'm not actually
clear why I'm (only-now) moved to chime in, but...

Slowing down is obviously (not?) the most-immediately-direct thing Joe Driver
can do...'simple common sense' indeed.

Perhaps like many readers, years'-worth (decades, sigh...) of trailering all
manner of gliders/trailers behind a short-wheelbase, 2600-lb car, yielded
bouts of empirical evidence (for all my above assertions), which - for the
record - were gained mostly throughout the intermountain west,
accident-free...interspersed with incidents of (never-per-trailer-repeated)
alarm, pulling variously-problematic examples. One of the worst was a
heavy-tongued (required 3 people to lift onto the towball), twin-axle,
'standard' open Schweizer trailer bearing a 2-32 in the 'standard'
back-end-loading, wing-root/fuselage-facing forward orientation. Slowing
*always* worked/works (in reductio ad absurdum vein, it's hard to become
unstable when motionless...duh).

My worst instability memory involves back-seat riding in a 4-seat 1980-ish
Honda Civic (the little, squarish-backed version) towing a Komet-enclosed AS-W
19) on 2-lane, flat, roads from McCook (NE) to Boulder (CO), just purchased by
2 buddies in the front seats. Joe Driver thought it humorous to play around on
both sides of the boundary defining violent towing-combo-instability. Talk
about 'playing on the freeway'. I never again allowed him to play Joe
Trailer-Driver with me...

Bob W.