trailer sway mitigation TSM

Don Johnstone wrote on 12/23/2019 1:36 AM:

What is worth remembering is that the cause of the sway is
aerodynamic. Loading, tyre pressure, fiction dampers can only
ensure that the sway is damped out and does not increase. Trailers
with less vertical surface area aft of the wheels suffer less from
snaking than those with equal or greater vertical surface area behind
the wheels. You may not be able to change the aerodynamics of the
trailer but a good friction damper and proper loading will normally
ensure that the snaking is damped.
I have been a passenger in a car towing a Cobra trailer at over
100mph, scared the crap out of me but it was completely stable, but
only when loaded with the glider. Empty it was a different story.

How did you decide aerodynamics was the important factor, and not other factors
like tongue length, tires, etc? That's counterintuitive and, for example, it's at
significant variance with Nelson Funston's paper on towing glider trailers, which
does not include aerodynamic factors.

http://journals.sfu.ca/ts/index.php/...wnload/779/737

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1