
Sway controls use a friction type device to prevent the trailer from easily swaying from side to side. This allows the tow vehicle to ride more level and have more control because the proper weight will be on the steering tires. Weight distribution systems distribute a portion of the trailer’s tongue weight from the back of the tow vehicle to the front. Related 12 Tips for Towing Your Trailer Properly How Do Weight Distribution Systems and Sway Control Bars Help? Make sure you don’t exceed the GVWR or GAWR and test after adding propane or water you plan to use during travel. Check the weight of your loaded RV at a local scale and move gear around as needed.Take into account things like slide-outs and appliances, and make sure you compensate by putting heavier items on the opposite side while packing. A good rule of thumb is 60 percent to the front, 40 percent to the back.

Move heavier items to the front if needed. Distribute the weight in your RV evenly from front to back and side to side. If it’s very windy, it may not be a good day to travel. There are a few simple, practical things you can do to reduce the risk of sway. Weight distribution and sway prevention systems make for a safer and smoother ride. Even a small amount of sway can be exhausting for a driver, forcing constant steering adjustments. The most common causes of sway are gusts of wind, drafts from passing semi-trucks, turns on curvy roads, and imbalanced loads in the trailer. Feeling your travel trailer sway from a gust of wind is scary, but there are products and strategies that can help reduce sway and keep your RV aligned. Pump it past 2500 lbs and you will hear the air escaping from the pressure relief valve.When it comes to RVing, sway is best saved for the hammock. Max pressure on the hydraulics is around 3000 lbs, but the max reset pressure is set to 2500 lbs, so you will never reach that maximum. Our system has been tested from -40☏ to 150☏. The air fittings and hoses are DOT approved and used on over the road trucks. The cylinder is the same used on construction equipment. With metal on metal contact, there is no o-ring to degrade over time causing pressure loss. The needle valve is also used in aerospace.

The zero-leak check valve used to maintain pressure on landing gear on commercial aircraft is the same we’ve used to hold pressure and maintain proper weight distribution. Some of the hydraulic components you find on commercial airliners, for instance. It's also a closed loop system which prevents contamination. We designed this hydraulic system specifically for this application, from the pump cartridge, needle valve, pressure relief valve and pressure gauge. This hydraulic system is what you see on tractors and heavy construction equipment. The amount of force required to overcome these devices is low, for instance On a 25-foot trailer, this equates to 3-5 feet, which means your trailer will be significantly outside your lane before it has a chance to be helpful. Some brands don’t load until the angle of the trailer is 2-4 degrees or more. We learned that all brands provide some level of sway control, but that it takes very little force to overcome them.

We then took readings of the hitch’s resistance to sway, or the force necessary to overcome the friction sway control components of each brand of hitch. We set up a truck and trailer in a warehouse and used air castors under the tires to eliminate the ground friction. We conducted an experiment with the top WD hitches on the market. We studied all of them 2-point, 4-point, adaptive, self-adjusting, self-centering and all the buzz words the industry had invented. Over the years that we were developing our weight distribution hitch, we studied sway control in an attempt to design the best system. The continuum has as much, or more friction sway control built into it as the leading brands, although we prefer the term ‘sway prevention.’ Because our bars are always ‘loaded,’ our friction sway prevention is immediate and continuous (hence, the name Continuum.) This ‘loading’ or ‘stiffness’ can help with handling, but in our opinion, sway control components do little to stop sway once it starts.
