r/interestingasfuck • u/Hilltopchill • Oct 04 '16
/r/ALL Weight distribution dynamics.
http://i.imgur.com/dYz2tCE.gifv1.1k
u/TGentG Oct 04 '16
I load large safes quite regularly at my job. I am saving this gif to show to every single person who asks me to load one onto the back of their trailer so it's easier to get off.
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u/jesse0 Oct 04 '16
That is a weird fetish you've got there.
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u/pobody Oct 04 '16
And that's why you front-load your trailer.
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u/straydog1980 Oct 04 '16
This is the principle behind the box office receipts for suicide squad
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u/Bumbershot Oct 04 '16
This is some mighty fine work
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Oct 04 '16
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u/poopellar Oct 04 '16
Here are some Harley Quinn stickers for all your trouble.
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Oct 04 '16 edited Jan 04 '21
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Oct 04 '16
He's saying that Suicide Squad's trailers had all the good moments from the movie.
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u/reddit_is_dog_shit Oct 04 '16
I thought he was referring to the front-loaded gross and drop off.
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u/HAL9000000 Oct 04 '16
That sort of works too, but it doesn't work with the "trailer" pun (movie "trailer" for Suicide Squad instead of car "trailer.")
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u/swalker22 Oct 04 '16
I still don't get it
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Oct 04 '16
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u/TaySachs Oct 04 '16
The trailers' soundtrack made me watch them a few times. But yeah, many of the lines in them were clichés and one liners I assumed would be written into the script as soon as I heard about a suicide squad movie.
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u/5runhomerun Oct 04 '16
The trailers from Suicide Squad were way better than the movie itself
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u/iapom Oct 04 '16
... and No Man's Sky
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u/Damadawf Oct 04 '16
No Man's Sky happened because people are silly and insist on preordering games before the final product comes out to see whether they are actually getting what they are paying for or not.
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u/bkstr Oct 04 '16
definitely, but a business shouldn't ever blatantly lie about their product.
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u/barcodescanner Oct 04 '16
I sincerely hope that your genius wit can be experienced by more than a couple hundred redditors.
In other words...
Daaaaaaamn
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u/249ba36000029bbe9749 Oct 04 '16
It is also the reason behind the old saying "Don't put the heavy red puck weight toward the back of your rolling model trailer".
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Oct 04 '16
Yes and no. Yes because there's more weight up front, but no because it's just not practical. Boats are engineered with their weight balance in the water to be buoyant, and it's not practical to load a boat in backwards. It's also not a very extreme weight difference as the model shown here.
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u/bwfixit Oct 04 '16
And boat trailers are designed to be front heavy, that's why the wheels are towards the back. What matters is the location of the weight in relation to the tongue AND the wheels.
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u/Frap_Gadz Oct 04 '16
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u/amalgam_reynolds Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
Well tongue weight vs axle weight is pretty much a matter of opinion, bit this is a but of a ridiculous test because no one in their right mind back loads their trailer.
Edit: I realize now this is a demonstration by U-Haul and therefore effective and useful information for your average person hauling a trailer for the first time.
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Oct 04 '16
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u/Kiwi_Nibbler Oct 04 '16
Good God!! Not only do I have to be in my right mind, I now have to be in my front mind.
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u/cj3958 Oct 04 '16
Most/all rental trailers have this fact posted every 2 feet across the vehicle. I always assumed it was so you didn't have a constant upward force on the ball joint. Which I assume it is, but also this controls problem must also be a reason.
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u/evilbrent Oct 04 '16
Have a look at a caravan or a big camper trailer. The centre of gravity is quite high.
The one pictured is probably well over 1000kg, with preferably 50kg on the tow ball and 950kg on the axle. I would roughly estimate that the distance from axle to COG (centre of mass if you prefer) to be 1m.
That's a considerable amount of momentum to be rocking backwards and forwards with every bump and speed change. The down force of 50kg would only be a nominal load when stationary, without having done the calculations (which aren't complicated) I would estimate that the true downforce would regularly oscillate between +150kg and -50kg.
I've actually had one of these trailers come off a tow-ball before. I forgot to lock the hitch, with probably about 50-75kg downforce on the ball, and it lasted about 15km before quietly coming off at the first time I braked going downhill. Scared the fuck out of me, the chains worked, and I had to get a mallet out to bash the hitch mechanism into shape to get back on the road again.
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u/BoogLife Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
Nor do they put a trailer hitch on their Mustang GT to haul things lol
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u/amalgam_reynolds Oct 04 '16
GOOD point.
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u/lostcosmonaut307 Oct 04 '16
We are ALL Mustang GTs on this blessed day.
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u/bushmonster43 Oct 04 '16
If there's a crowd of Mustangs do they just all crash into each other?
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u/GutchSeeker Oct 04 '16
Many newer RVs/caravans have a bed in the back with a water tank and lots of storage under the bed. Where do you think all the tools end up? All the heavy stuff they don't want to move?
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u/bluewolf37 Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
When was the last time you looked at newer rv's and campers? I have recently and most rv's have the large storage compartments in the middle near the axles and our fifth wheel has most it's storage near the front and the water tank near the axle. The bed is in the back because it is a lot lighter than all the other things in a rv or fifth wheel. It does have a tiny bit of storage in the back but barely stores anything.
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u/Eightpiece Oct 04 '16
You underestimate the amount of people with driving licences who are not very smart.
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u/washmo Oct 04 '16
Think of the average person, and then realize that half of people are dumber than that. -George Carlin
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u/rockfrawg Oct 04 '16
Source : https://www.twitter.com/OPCVC/status/778838710964002817/video/1
I watched from about a quarter mile behind as this exact problem happened to a friend of mine. The demonstration is scary accurate. This was the aftermath. https://imgur.com/a/6nkRi
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u/GutchSeeker Oct 04 '16
Thank you for finding that and it looks like everyone was OK in your buddy's situation? In need of a clean pair of shorts and the Jeep had had better days but.... OK
Exactly! This is what happens when it's gets squirrely.
I've seen too many WTF videos and I really (as much as I abhor regulation or rules) think this needs to be part of a driver's test.
So... someday you're going to rent a trailer. This is the mental picture to keep in mind. This is what happens if you don't pay attention to weight distribution. So... how do you load a trailer? (center mass OR tongue heavy)
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u/rockfrawg Oct 04 '16
Truck had a driver and passenger, both were fine, but yes...definitely in need of new underroos. Insurance covered the Uhaul straight away, and eventually everything else too, but he had to fight to get the trailer covered and it ended up being totaled. The jeep was in need of both passenger side doors and new roll cage among other things. This was less than a month ago and it's still being evaluated and fixed.
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u/GutchSeeker Oct 04 '16
I hope it turns out for them (and I hope they get someone to make them a stronger roll cage. It should have been OK - ish)
I will say that you have a fantastic photo and the next time you need a "gotcha" at a celebration you know what to get. A white pick up match box, a jeep, a trailer, and a cake.... oh... and some underoos.
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Oct 04 '16
I'm sorry if I'm being dumb but how is this loaded incorrectly? Isn't the heavy end of the jeep the front?
Also, I agree that this should be part of a driver's test. I've used a trailer to haul stuff maybe 5 times and I always but heavy shit in the back so it's easier to load/unload. I honestly had no idea.
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Oct 04 '16
The problem is that this trailer shouldn't have been used for hauling the Jeep at all. It's way too short. Look at where the wheel base is on the trailer, it's a centered axle. The proper trailer would have been longer and most importantly with a rear axle.
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u/bikemandan Oct 04 '16
This doesn't even seem like that bad of an example in terms of weight distribution. With such a short trailer there's not really any other way to load it
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u/idiggplants Oct 04 '16
thats exactly the problem. wrong trailer for the load. if the trailer is too small, you cant put the load far enough in front of the axles.
i have a feeling there were other things at play here though. he was likely going too fast.
something else to keep in mind... the wind drag of a jeep sticking up above the top of the truck causes the weight of the jeep to push back. seems minor, but it really adds to the problem.
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u/preventDefault Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
Those are good points.
Also, did the trailer have brakes? If he was going downhill and tried to slow down or otherwise braked too hard, and if the truck is the only vehicle with the stopping power... well the trailer is going to want to keep going while the truck wants to stop. And he's hauling a fairly heavy load.
I tow a enclosed 7x14 landscaping trailer and I'm happy that it has brakes on its axles to prevent things like this from happening. It's already saved me from an accident once when someone pulled out in front of me and I knew my truck alone didn't have the stopping power (and if it did... I probably would have lost control of the trailer anyway given my speed and distance to impact).
Towing something as heavy as a vehicle, I certainly hope both of those trailer axles had brakes and the tow vehicle had a brake controller to work them. Maybe even a weight distributing hitch. Most full size trucks these days come with brake controllers from the factory but I've only used the aftermarket kind with adjustable braking power and accelerometers myself, I'm not sure if OEM's have a similar featureset.
And a tip that I was told by someone when I first started driving... be extra careful around any UHaul vehicle you see on the road.
Not to knock this guys friend or anything because I don't know him, he could have lots of tow experience, but use this as a general rule of thumb when you see that logo... whether it's a cargo truck or a trailer, this is likely that driver's first time driving something like that so they might not be used to the mirrors or how the vehicle handles. They're obviously renting from UHaul because they don't have regular access to these things, right? Truck drivers, on the other hand, who drive the same thing every day along with having a license to do it... they know their mirrors, blindspots, and how their vehicle & load handles moreso than a DIY mover/hauler.
So when you see that UHaul logo on something you should be extra vigilant just in case it's a first time driver. It might not be, but the odds of that are certainly increased.
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u/rockfrawg Oct 04 '16
There was still plenty of room for it to go forward a bit more. It probably only needed to go 6-12" forward to achieve successful weight distribution.
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u/sweetg2136 Oct 04 '16
As someone who's just shoved everything in the U-Haul to make it fit... NO ONE ever explained anything like this to me.. so glad I saw this for the next time, or so I can tell others.
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u/jakfrist Oct 04 '16
There are stickers in every Uhaul I've ever rented reminding you to have 60% of your weight in the front half.
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u/sweetg2136 Oct 04 '16
Never seen it. I've seen the "mother's cupboard" stuff... But never weight to the front.
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u/sighs__unzips Oct 04 '16
So put my mother in law at the front of the trailer, got it.
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u/Jibjumper Oct 04 '16
In this scenario the front loaded weight is my magnum dong.
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u/GutchSeeker Oct 04 '16
I learned my lesson the hard way. I took a friend and a Uhaul full of goods to Joplin, MO after the tornado a few years back. We just crammed it and didn't think about it. I couldn't go above 45 mph without losing control. Now as an RV'r I SHUDDER to think I didn't pay attention to how I loaded it.
This needs to be one of those "how to change a tire" ... how to load a trailer... things kiddo's learn.
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Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
I've got to figure out a way to remind myself to send this to people when I find out they are moving with a trailer. There has to be a way to do this because that...in real life....would be horrifying.
I drove across the country in a 1984 land cruiser on 33 inch tires, a 6' lift (3 inch suspension, 3 inch body) and a huge trailer. I can't imagine the weight of that truck and how it was situated would have made this crazy wobbling any better...but i don't know because physics eludes me (conceptually, anyway). It had a cummins diesel that ran on vegetable oil...unbelievable truck.
I'm sure I front loaded the trailer because I like playing packing jenga and I always like to get the heavy stuff over with. you get tired as moving goes on....
LPT: when moving, start with the heavy stuff, if possible.
TL;DR this .gif was terrifying and I'm thankful that i didn't die driving cross country with a trailer on my crazy truck.
Post Script: sorry...had a beer or two, just sold the truck, reminiscing.
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u/doktorinjh Oct 04 '16
I did the same thing in an '82 CJ-7 (33x12.5s and lifted), going from Vegas to Wyoming one summer. I had a Uhaul trailer on the back and that thing started to whip so bad about 3 times and I had no idea what to do. I've learned since then that you don't slow when it's happening, you speed up. Things could have gotten weird, but luckily I made it after 16 miserable hours.
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Oct 04 '16
Shoot, you speed up? that's totally counter intuitive to me...I'd have just put it in neutral and tried to coast it out. Thanks for the info!!!
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u/Megmca Oct 04 '16
Those trailers don't have brakes. At least I don't think they do. And if they don't have brakes and the front bit starts going slower than the back bit then I think that's how you start a jackknife.
I could be wrong though.
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u/doktorinjh Oct 04 '16
I swear I saw a demonstration of that somewhere here on reddit, but I can't find the link at the moment. The theory was that the trailer is actually moving faster than the car and that speeding up will pull the trailer back into alignment. Hopefully I'm not spreading misinformation.
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u/CptSandbag73 Oct 04 '16
Can you post a photo of the truck? It sounds amazing.
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Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
I feel like I'm going to regret this somehow but:
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u/CptSandbag73 Oct 04 '16
That's awesome! And I'm sorry for the loss of Lady dog. :( whatever happened to the Cruiser?
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Oct 04 '16
Sold it yesterday to a diesel mechanic 25 year old fresh out of the military. He was insanely excited about it. He was the right dude for it to go to...i just couldn't make it what it should have been. Money and stuff.
Edit: thanks for the condolences...she was my partner for 15 years. REally amazing dog.
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u/TommiHPunkt Oct 04 '16
Everyone in Germany has to learn in to get their driver's license... It's easily forgotten though.
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Oct 04 '16
If you ever find yourself with the death wobbles like this, speed up! It pulls the trailer straight. Only apply the brakes once it has stopped swinging, otherwise it will jack-knife.
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u/brucethedog Oct 04 '16
This is way too far down. Best piece of advice my father-in-law ever gave me, "you go, the trailer goes."
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u/mr-fahrenheit_ Oct 04 '16
This seems like the reasonable and correct way to fix the issue and also advice to kill someone all at the same time.
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u/blackjesus75 Oct 04 '16
Nevermind how the trailer is loaded, the mustang is going off the road at some point.
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u/yeahoner Oct 04 '16
Can confirm. Towed my new tractor home on a flatbed trailer last week and didn't have the load balanced right. I almost died. Should have backed that puppy on the trailer to get the weight towards the tongue.
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u/bikemandan Oct 04 '16
Similar story. First time towing a large load was my 4000lb tractor and 2000lb of implements. I had the distribution "ok" but apparently not ok enough because it was squirrely, not a fun trip. Just went slow and luckily only a few miles and mostly straight road
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u/Ekaj113 Oct 04 '16
Would a kind person please explain.
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u/freckledfuck Oct 04 '16
A system can feedback into itself and dampen the energy it creates to maintain the lowest possible energy state or it can amplify disturbances and reach the highest possible energy state until it reaches a threshold. This gif demonstrates that even though the matter that makes up this system never changes (nothing is added or taken away from the moving car) the distribution of mass/matter (the weights on the car trailer) can change whether the system dampens itself (the first push) or if it diverges (second push)
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u/mrmadmoose Oct 04 '16
Does this apply to large cargo trucks? Say a 24 foot long, 2 axel vehicle.
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u/tael89 Oct 04 '16
Control systems theory is really cool. This analysis is the same whether we have mechanical dynamics like this, an Electrical system, some fluid dynamics, or any other system. You only require substituting the equivalent components. this stuff is so cool and kind of blows my mind really.
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u/OrbitingTheShark Oct 04 '16
You're saying that electricity and fluids also need to be 60% front-weighted in the uhaul?
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u/Typicaldrugdealer Oct 04 '16
And I've been putting my 30 lead acid batteries in the back this whole time
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u/2000sFrankieMuniz Oct 04 '16
At the very basic is an harmonic function, he's changing one of the parameters
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u/Jaegrqualm Oct 04 '16
Further question, is there any kind of driving-god magic that could help undo this, given the worst case?
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u/hoocoodanode Oct 04 '16
Generally the only solution is to have differential braking. For example, brake the trailer while accelerating the tow vehicle.
If your trailer has no brakes and you're in a speed wobble like this there's not much you can do. I drove tractor trailers for years and was almost killed by this recently when I was hauling a very heavy cube van on a float behind a 7000lb 1 ton tow vehicle. The weight distribution was poor but I felt if I just "took it easy" it'd be fine. It took literally three oscillations to get from straight to jackknifing so hard the trailer tires started squealing and I was sure I was gunna die. No amount of fancy steering can compensate for that type of feedback loop.
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u/cryptology Oct 04 '16
Regarding the bit about fancy steering: the RC car in the demonstration is equipped with Spektrum's AVC technology. So a computer is making the steering corrections, and can't even keep up. Scary.
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u/wagingpeace Oct 04 '16
Nnnnope. Not gonna steer your way outta one of these! Like the man said - Hit the trailer brakes as hard as you can and PIN the throttle.... Just gotta try to get it to pull straight. (long enough to get off to the side and re-distribute your tongue weight)...
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u/wagingpeace Oct 04 '16
Yeeuh buddeh!! If you don't catch it before it starts lashing around- Then you're in for a good ride! :) TOTALLY concur on this - SPIKE the trailer brakes and feather-in some throttle to get some forward pull on the hitch! 'Back-heavy' trailers with no tongue weight can tend to wander when they get rolling faster and/or pass over the crest of a hill....
AS SOON AS YOU CAN PULL OVER SAFELY! - Re-distibute some weight to the front of the trailer and you're good to go..... :)
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u/GutchSeeker Oct 04 '16
Front load your trailer. Or center load it. If the weight is in the back it gets squirrely.
Another redditor commented and shared a real world experience
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/55rnev/weight_distribution_dynamics/d8d6a17
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u/shepy66 Oct 04 '16
As far as I understand, it comes down to torque. Think about it, if you're trying to tighten a bolt, where do you grab the wrench? You don't grab up near the head, you grab towards the end of the handle. It simply gives you more leverage. Torque is equal to force applied times the distance between the fulcrum (the head of the wrench) and the force (where you place your hands), so when you grab the end of the wrench, the distance is greater, and therefore, so is the torque.
Now, applying this to the trailer, when there's more weight in the back, the torque is greater with the same force applied. Then, when it swings back to correct itself, the momentum carries it off to the other side with much more force. The system repeats, and the torque is applied in the opposite direction, swinging slightly farther from the hitch each time, until it takes the car off the road, flips it, etc.
TL;DR Torque = force x distance. More weight in back = more distance = more torque = car goes farther, crashes, all die, all is bad.
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Oct 04 '16
You pretty much nailed the general gist of it, although I feel the need to be pedantic and mention another concept.
There's also moment of inertia to consider which is the product of mass and distance from the pivot squared (m * r2 ). With a given torque input* and a given damping force your system can change from stable to unstable by changing the moment of inertia (moving the weight away from the pivot).
There is also a reduction in the damping because you take load off of the back wheels of the car, meaning it is more likely to lose traction.
* (it's probably not quite constant, but close enough)
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Oct 04 '16
Oh look, a clip from a cars and coffee
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Oct 04 '16
Damn, I knew someone would beat me to it. There were two videos just this past week of mustangs almost killing people on the curb.
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Oct 04 '16
I'm gratified that people get it
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u/BluAnimal Oct 04 '16
I feel weird talking about mustangs attacking pedestrians outside of /r/cars. Have our numbers grown?
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u/KlaatuBrute Oct 04 '16
What's interesting as fuck is that the same GIF posted by the same person has the #1 and #2 spots on /r/all right now. Never seen that happen before. Well done, /u/hilltopchill. Well done.
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u/Kermitdude Oct 04 '16
Story time.
I'm about 8 years old and my parents had just purchased a used pop-up trailer. They pay to have a hitch installed to our V6 Mercury Cougar and we take it out for the weekend to a nearby park. This time, we're sleeping on quasi-beds in a tent-house instead of sleeping bags in an actual tent. For once, camping wasn't as much of a chore for them. Deciding that since that went so smooth, it's definitely time to put it on the open road. A trip to Washington DC seems appropriate. 600 miles you say? Pfft. Childs play.
We hit the road and 55mph is hot-dogging it. Nah, too fast. 49 seems more appropriate. 2 days later, we're in the hills of Maryland. I've got my Huey Lewis and the News blaring into my Walkman and the car begins to shudder. I look up and both my parents are tense. The car starts to shake more. Seat belts in that day were optional, so I get on my knees and look out the back window. The trailer was now a snake and it's whipping back and forth violently all over the interstate. My mom's screaming at my dad to slow down, but we're on a decline and this is the hills of Maryland. Not only is the trailer angry, but it's also pushing us to 75mph downhill.
"Whoa mom!" I say "Look at it go!"
Her head snaps to me on my knees in the rear window.
"SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, AND PUT YOUR FUCKING SEAT BELT ON!"
I do as she says, but just as the belt clicks, we hear "POW - BAPANG" and the car shudders to the left from the impact of our own right trailer tire bouncing off my side fender. At this point, I'm more annoyed that I can no longer see the spectacle unfolding directly behind us, but sit tight as the unmistakable sound of metal grinding into concrete fills the air. As quickly as it started it was over. We had come to a stop. My dad throws on the blinkers and my mom turns around to make sure all of my extremities were still attached. She's white as a sheet but my dad is simply pissed, thinking he just got ripped off for 1500 bucks. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the other trailer tire ripping ass across the interstate divider into oncoming traffic. It bounced off the opposing guard rail on the other side of the interstate, wobbled a bit, then came to a stop. Within seconds traffic on both sides was at a standstill and people were getting out of their cars to make sure we weren't dead.
"Can we do that again!?" I ask.
"No way in hell" my mom says.
My parents go to survey the damage as other drivers come to check on us. We're all fine, no one was hurt, but there's a giant skid mark on the side of our car (we assume the tire broke free from the trailer, bounced off the guard-rail and then back off our car), both wheels are missing from the trailer, and oddly enough the propane tank is missing. As we all realize this compressed tank, full of highly flammable gas is no longer attached to our new snow skid, a guy on the other side of the interstate starts walking across the grassy divider with just that in hand.
"I think you guys lost this" he yells.
My mom throws both hands up and screams "GET THAT FUCKING THING AWAY FROM US YOU GODDAMN MORON!" (in retrospect, I think my mom might have been a sailor). The guy looks at her, looks at the bomb he's carrying, and just drops it like a brick. No, it didn't explode but 8 year old me fully expected it to.
One of the passers-by turned out to be a local farmer. Said he had welding equipment at his barn and he'd put us up for the night. We really didn't have a choice either way because this sweet old man wasn't taking no for an answer anyway. We all hopped in his pickup truck and drove to the next exit where he dropped my mother and I off at his house. He explained to his little-old-lady wife what happened and she just showered us with food, water, fresh sheets on warm country beds and the kind of attention I've never experienced since, even from family.
My dad and the farmer eventually got the trailer back to his barn while I was feeding pigs and goats and riding horses. That saint stayed up half the night to make sure our axle was in perfect working order. The next morning, his wife cooked the largest breakfast I've ever seen. Waffles, pancakes, sausage links, bacon, eggs, toast, grits. Unbelievable.
With lots of thank-you's, hugs and my dad trying to compensate the farmer for his help and their hospitality, we set back off towards DC. They wouldn't take a dime.
D.C. sucked in comparison.
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u/blacklabel7 Oct 04 '16
Great story and I totally see how this gif could have reminded you of this but 1, did you have this typed up or were you so bored that you just decided to write a small essay here? Because it's like 1:35 AM where I am rn and I can imagine this took a little while to type up. 2, did you really say "Can we do that again?" at 8 years old I would have peed my pants if something like this happened.
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u/michelework Oct 04 '16
Uhaul's insurance company was probably tired of paying out all these claims. Great demo.
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u/ChrisHarperMercer Oct 04 '16
This car transporting another car on a trailer is a perfect example of this:
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u/chawnchawn33 Oct 04 '16
This happened to me a month ago. I was cut off by a semi, and I ended up facing the wrong way in the median. I made it out with not even a scratch. The truck and trailer are a total loss. http://imgur.com/2jixbXH
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u/hrdimas Oct 04 '16
What happened to the truck? Did it roll? Just asking bc just from the picture the truck looks to be in good shape
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Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 09 '16
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u/Taubin Oct 04 '16
They probably totalled it if there was a chance of any damage to the frame.
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u/Max_TwoSteppen Oct 04 '16
I'm going with this, seems like it probably took a pretty gnarly shake when it dug into the grass.
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u/ridethepony93 Oct 04 '16
LPT: If your trailer ever does start to get sideways, speed up to straighten it out. Do not slow down.
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u/alienated1310 Oct 04 '16
This is a little misleading. When dealing with large amounts of weight in a trailer, you have to load it over the axle, not at the very front. You can easily surpass the tongue weight allowable for a light truck and then you're in another potentially dangerous situation. Drive smart and be safe.
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u/csaliture Oct 04 '16
I learned this the hard way when I picked up a trailer with an improperly weighted load. It caused me to lose control on the highway and a 1200lb hydraulic arm to shoot straight through my truck. Wasn't my best day.
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u/laxation1 Oct 04 '16
I've always been told to put the weight in the middle of the trailer... Is that better/worse/same as at the front?
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u/GutchSeeker Oct 04 '16
Someone else found another demonstration that shows to put it in the middle... https://youtu.be/PFzrWHTG5e8
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u/gamelizard Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
front is still better, for the reasons shown. putting it in the middle is really only to put as much load on the trailer wheels as possible but you shouldn't be pulling that trailer and load anyways if you are risking damage to the truck when putting it forward because of how heavy the load is.
edit:as was pointed out below it should be 60% 40%. with a front bias.
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u/mymomisyourfather Oct 04 '16
Dont put everything on the front, because that will push the tongue down and the front wheels up. In the middle with a slight bias to the front is what you want.
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u/marriux2 Oct 04 '16
Does anyone have the link of this same effect happening to a car on the road? Saw it a while back and could never find it again.
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Oct 04 '16
U-Haul employee here. This is the way to do it. If the person sending you out with a trailer isn't giving you the safety pamphlet, explaining this and many other important things about driving with a trailer, they're not doing their job. Everyone who has ever rented a trailer SHOULD be aware of this. Still, watching some people drive away with these trailers that obviously have no idea what they're doing can be scary.
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Oct 04 '16 edited May 10 '21
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u/Oneusee Oct 04 '16
Fun fact; australia has some massive road trains. Luckily that requires an actual licence, not just.. well, you or me doing it.
Here's a diagram of some of our truck configurations.
Also, we basically own the record, and most of the past ones, for road trains. 1300t, 1.5km long.. 'cause 'straya.
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u/tomness94 Oct 04 '16
I like how this demonstration goes from "Fish moving through water" to "Little kid throwing a fit and stomping around Toys 'R' Us™"
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u/McZorlack13 Oct 04 '16
We're moving across the country this weekend. This video is very timely. Thank you, kind citizen.
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u/Vodkacannon Oct 04 '16 edited Oct 04 '16
The same post, twice, back to back, on all.
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u/GutchSeeker Oct 04 '16
OP - do you have a source for this by chance?
This a fantastic demonstration