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c26 trailer sway??

Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2016 1:04 pm
by sotaboat
We recently picked up a c26 with a spartan trailer. The 2.5 hr trip home was un-nerving to say the least. Though the trailer was "road ready" per the owner... there may have been a discrepancy between road and highway.....the lights didn't work, the brakes didn't work and I'm gathering from the squirliness of her on the way home and reading other posts that she may not be far enough forward on the trailer (not that I had a choice at the time).

The old hydraulic system was shot so I'm converting to electric, fixed up the bad bearing seals, new LED lighting but what I'm really curious about is stopping the trailer sway. Im pulling with a ford super crew f150 which pulls it no problem and really didn't have much of an issue stopping it with out the trailer brakes but though I am now proficient at coaxing 7,000lbs out of a sway I don't care to play Russian roulette. I plan to take a trip to the fabrication shop after the 4th to make the adjustments to move the boat forward. Looks like its about the 24th toe rail slot from the stern to the center of the axles now but the boat doesn't sit level the bow is down in relation to the stern, moving it forward on the roller trailer should bring the bow up and level it out, move some weight forward for more tongue weight and hopefully stop some of the sway.

My question to any of the 26 owners out there that trailer is 1. do you have any trailer sway and 2. is anyone running a distribution hitch which would require a tongue adapter or running any anti sway devices such as a friction bar?

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 4:38 am
by C22Bob
Sounds like the tongue weight is too low. A general rule of thumb is that the tongue weight should be appx 10% of the total trailer weight. Moving the boat forward is definitely a step in the right direction. With my C22 I aim for around 300 lbs at the tongue

Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:32 am
by Reality
yes, definately sounds like insufficient tongue weight. If you cant move the boat forward move the axles back. Small increments of 1 inch at time.

sway

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2016 5:16 pm
by sotaboat
we trailered the boat another 3 hours to our cabin, this time we loaded the v berth with all our gear and that seemed to help so tongue weight is definitely the issue. unfortunately the upright post is welded in place not allowing us to move the boat forward so I am in talks with the fabrication shop to build a new tongue with a movable winch post that has steps and a mount for an electric winch for stepping our mast (push button remote control seems so much nicer when stepping short handed.)

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 5:10 pm
by Snowdog2
A weight distribution hitch can help a lot as well.