Manley Marty
South Carolina
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Now that I've purchased a used sway control. How much tension is necessary and can I put too much?
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eric james
Sioux Falls, SD
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Joined: 07/21/2004
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Turn the handle as much as you can. Back it off to run parallel to the bar's black body. This effectively turns it on.
There's a little bolt on the bottom that adjusts the tension. Leave it at current setting and see how it works.
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old guy
Oregon (pronounced Or e gun)
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just be sure you only hand tighten, do not use any cheater bars
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Terryallan
Foothills NC
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eric james wrote:Turn the handle as much as you can. Back it off to run parallel to the bar's black body. This effectively turns it on.
There's a little bolt on the bottom that adjusts the tension. Leave it at current setting and see how it works.
Yep. Bottom out the bolt/ tight as it will go. that is on. Anything less is off.
Terry & Shay
Coachman Apex 288BH.
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Cedarhill
Deep South
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I would not take the advice of either of the previous posters who recommended fully tightening the bar handle until you are absolutely sure that the friction bar was previously adjusted properly. My anti-sway bar was originally adjusted in such a way that fully tightening the handle would have locked the sliding friction surface. The result would have been a bent or broken bar or perhaps a broken mount at the first sharp turn. I think it is more prudent to start out with less pressure on the friction surface and increase the friction only as much as is needed to suppress sway. Then adjust the bottom nut so that tightening the handle all the way will only apply that much friction.
I wouldn't assume the bar is already adjusted!
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epusher
Michigan
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Yes, you can put too much. Only when backing up though. Beyond that tighten it to your hearts content. If you are using torque amping on it you are going to far (it has a handle of determined length). Just remember you don't need anti-sway backing up. And, you don't need much if your trailer and tow vehicle are matched.
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camperdave
northern, California
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Aren't you also supposed to loosen it a bit when towing in the rain?
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Terryallan
Foothills NC
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camperdave wrote:Aren't you also supposed to loosen it a bit when towing in the rain?
Actually according to the instructions. you are to remove it in the rain. Why? because it could cause the TV not to respond to the steering wheel in a turn, and you could lose control. That's why it is NOT an antisway bar. but a sway control bar. you are also to remove it when you back up. Not because it is too tight. but because you could either bottom it out, and break it, or the ball mount, or you could pull it too far out, and bend the bar, or disengage it all together, IF you jack the Trailer too tight one way or the other.
Also IF you were to read the instructions. You would see that it does indeed say to bottom out the threads on the on / off handel. They are actually preset from the factory. Only after the pads have warn, Should you ever need to adjust it. I know. the next question is. How do they know how much sway each trailer will have, so they can set it correctly. That's easy too. Each trailer should have NO SWAY period. that's not what a sway control bar is for. fix the sway, BEFORE you put on sway control.
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Terryallan
Foothills NC
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Cedarhill wrote:I would not take the advice of either of the previous posters who recommended fully tightening the bar handle until you are absolutely sure that the friction bar was previously adjusted properly. My anti-sway bar was originally adjusted in such a way that fully tightening the handle would have locked the sliding friction surface. The result would have been a bent or broken bar or perhaps a broken mount at the first sharp turn. I think it is more prudent to start out with less pressure on the friction surface and increase the friction only as much as is needed to suppress sway. Then adjust the bottom nut so that tightening the handle all the way will only apply that much friction.
I wouldn't assume the bar is already adjusted!
How do you know when you have surpressed the sway? that would infer that you have sway. If you have sway with out the bar. you have a serious problem. You should have no sway. NEVER us a sway control bar to correct a swaying trailer. Fix the sway problem, then add sway control..
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Cedarhill
Deep South
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Terryallan wrote:Cedarhill wrote:I would not take the advice of either of the previous posters who recommended fully tightening the bar handle until you are absolutely sure that the friction bar was previously adjusted properly. My anti-sway bar was originally adjusted in such a way that fully tightening the handle would have locked the sliding friction surface. The result would have been a bent or broken bar or perhaps a broken mount at the first sharp turn. I think it is more prudent to start out with less pressure on the friction surface and increase the friction only as much as is needed to suppress sway. Then adjust the bottom nut so that tightening the handle all the way will only apply that much friction.
I wouldn't assume the bar is already adjusted!
How do you know when you have surpressed the sway? that would infer that you have sway. If you have sway with out the bar. you have a serious problem. You should have no sway. NEVER us a sway control bar to correct a swaying trailer. Fix the sway problem, then add sway control..
All I can tell you is how I adjusted my sway suppression and you can tell me if you know of a better way. I adjusted the bar to what I thought was a good starting point and then took a ride on a nearby interstate highway with fast and heavy truck traffic. I drove a little slower than the trucks to try to induce the maximum sway. After a while, I decided my starting adjustment wasn't quite enough so I increased the braking force about a quarter turn. That turned out to be just right. It has been that way ever since.
You are talking as if modest trailer sway that settles out is highly dangerous. That is just not true. It is more annoying than it is dangerous. I have experienced an episode where trailer sway really got out of control. It happened while attempting to slow down on a steep hill with a boat in tow and no trailer brakes of any kind. In that case, the sway got worse with no outside forces (like a truck passing or strong gust of wind) acting on the trailer to cause it to sway. If I hadn't been very experienced pulling heavy trailers, I would have lost it for sure. That kind of instability is not what I am talking about. If someone has that level of inherent instability, then a puny sway control bar isn't going to be enough no matter how it is adjusted.
Your post doesn't make any sense to me. For one thing, you are implying it is impossible to safely adjust the sway control on your trailer. You are implying that it should be adjusted prior to usage and then left there. That is just plain silly (or paranoid). The second thing you are saying is to fix the sway problem before you add the sway bar. If I don't have any sway to start with then I don't even need sway bars. In fact, I do occasionally pull my trailer without using the sway bars if I know I will not be in a situation conducive to sway.
If you use your manual trailer brake control and tow vehicle throttle skillfully, you can suppress a pretty bad sway condition to get out of trouble but you should not continuously operate that way.
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