Hi bama, I was referring to your setup in regard to the hitch height, as well on a tandem you should have the towing height when it is all said and done around an inch or two high in the front compared to the rear on that long of a trailer, tends to reduce sway that way as well. When you are nose down by nature it tends to reduce the tongue weight, your setup looks decent the only thing I would do is raise the hitch height, not by cranking on the bars but by the head adjustment bolts. BTW what did you think of the prodigy?
yeah looks like it was kinda tight,dont worry that much about sway,it it seems to be getting loose on you DONT back off the gas and apply a little trailer brake this will pull it back in behing you the n back out of it SLOWLY until you figure out whats going on,its going to sway from time to time youll learn that,I dont see the pin setup I was talkin about on your setup.......relax,being to tense is about your worst enemy
Meatball, thanks for the benefit of your experience and encouragement. I'm going to run the spring bar tension a little looser next time and I think I'll be a lot let tense after a few more miles on the road - I was puckered up pretty tight on this first trip. This fits with what A Rodder says in his post below - raising the front of the trailer a little should also reduce the spring bar tension and should result in a better tow. A Rodder, I think your advice is excellent and fits in with what Meatball is saying. I can easily raise the front of the trailer about an inch by moving the ball mount to the next higher holes on the shank. I was going by the instructional video on etrailer and bought the deepest drop shank they had because my measurement of trailer tongue height showed that the total drop on the ball mount had to be pretty low because the ass end of the AV is fairly high. The good thing about this shank is that I can go up several times if necessary because it is now at the bottom set of holes. I would be hurting if I had to go lower, but am good to go higher. The hole spacing is about an 11/4", as I remember without looking at the specs. I will go up one hole and still have some adjustment available by being able the tilt the ball mount at the next higher holes. Hope this makes sense the way I am explaining it, but I'm sure its right. This will raise the front of the trailer and should take some pressure off the spring bars. I can see that this whole deal is like learning something in a classroom but then applying in in the real world and having to make some adjustments. Everything I know about trailering before this first trip was from the 'net and I can see was only a starting point to be refined by my experience and that offered by experienced towers. I bought the Prodigy because it got good reviews from the guys on the Avalanche board and several on the Hokey Ass board as well. I like it OK, but it is the first one I have ever tried and I may not know any better because I have no basis for comparison - another example of book leaning from the 'net. More real world experience may change that.
The Jalopy Journal
