Inside a holiday towing disaster ... and how you can prevent one

Published: Dec. 14, 2020, 2:02 a.m.

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It\\u2019s never good when your trailer overtakes your vehicle. As I understand it, death was narrowly averted. So, on the cusp of this holiday season, I want to make sure this does not happen to you.   

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Here\\u2019s six preventative towing tips.  Number one: Minimise the mass of the trailer relative to the vehicle towing it. When it comes to trailers and safety, smaller is definitely better, and it terrifies me the people who e-mail me direct and say, basically, that they want to tow three tonnes with the smallest vehicle possible, because it\\u2019s also their daily driver.  That\\u2019s nuts. If you want to tow a heavy trailer, get a heavy vehicle. This is the fundamental stability solution. Personally I think it\\u2019s fairly insane to tow a trailer heavier than the kerb mass of the vehicle towing it.   Number two: get the trailer and the vehicle set up right, with five to 10 per cent of the loaded mass of the trailer as the static towball download. That\\u2019s ideal for stability. Measure the weights - do not guess, or read them off a spec sheet. Visit a weighbridge and do this right.  Number three, drive conservatively. That means, knock 10 or 15 kays off how you\\u2019d normally drive (conservatively). It can feel quite OK towing heavy at 100 - but it can also come unglued very rapidly, as you\\u2019ve seen. Just change your mindset here, and for Christ\\u2019s sake, let faster vehicles past at every opportunity. There\\u2019s no need to ramp up the tension on an already struggling road system.  Number four: Leave some \\u2018acceleration juice\\u2019 in the tank. Meaning: one of the reasons the driver of this ill-fated towing assignment crashed out is that if you drive a trailer and it starts to get the death wobbles, the best move is: accelerate gently and don\\u2019t try counter-steering. (Because acceleration reduces amplitude, and counter-steering often causes the amplitude of the subsequent swing to increase - and you only get about four swings until it\\u2019s all over, at speed, right?)  Number five: Get some driver training. This trains you to look as far down the road as possible, which is generally where you want the vehicle and the trailer to go, in that order. Under pressure, you generally steer where you\\u2019re looking and it\\u2019s less likely you\\u2019ll over-compensate with the steering.  Finally - number six: If you\\u2019re upgrading the vehicle, get one with a \\u2018trailer anti-sway\\u2019 algorithm built into the electronic stability control system. Computers are generally better at this than most/all drivers. Not only do they detect the problem and intervene sooner, but they also intervene better, by cutting power when it\\u2019s needed and applying the brakes to individual wheels to generate the yaw response needed to cure the problem.  The best cure here is prevention. Just don\\u2019t get in this situation. Tow a conservative trailer and drive conservatively.

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