Allstate Trailers and Wheel Wobble

[cdennisg]

Somehow I ended up here and read through this thread. I have owned a few single wheel trailers of different makes, and what I found cured the wobble was to use much lower air pressure in the tire. When all else is set up properly, but you have to tow the trailer empty, lower that pressure down to 20 PSI, maybe even 15. It adds just enough drag to keep the caster pulled straight, and will also keep it from bouncing so much.

I do the same with my small cargo trailer (two wheels, 1500# capacity). When towing it empty, or lightly loaded, the tires have 20 PSI. Rides smooth as silk. If I have the tires at 50 PSI when empty, the trailer bounces and bangs down the road. When I have to drive any distance with the empty trailer, but I will be loading it up (firewood, for example) I bring my portable air tank to top off the tires for the trip home.

I learned this after dragging an empty tow dolly about 1200 miles, all the while the thing was wagging back and forth, and causing the tow vehicle to do the same. A trucker saw me at a gas station (he had seen me on the highway earlier) and recommend lowering the tire pressure from whatever they were, to about 15 PSI. Worked like a charm. That was around 1996.
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nothing

[Abscate]

Well known by boat trailering people in the 2000-5000 pound range.

An empty trailer at full inflation will ride awfully
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.ssS!

[oprn]

My first reaction to this tire wobble was - why not put a Beetle steering dampener on that thing but then I realized that the wheel has to swivel 360* in order that you can back the trailer up. That won't work.

I don't know what the swivel part looks like... is there any chance that it is two flat plates? It looks like there is...

If so could a disc of friction material be sandwiched between and the center bolt tightened to induce a drag that resists the swiveling action? Lots of farm machinery has such a "slip clutch" in drive mechanisms to let things slip at a preset torque in order to prevent breakage should something jam the works. Just preset these so that it tends to want to hold the last known position and resists the free back and forth action but not so much as to prevent it from turning right around when backing up.

These trailer wheels are the same as the tailwheel on a conventional geared aircraft. Those all have an extreme castor angle so I get the fact that lowering the hitch improves the tracking. Lengthening the arms that hold the wheel or bending them back would do the same thing.
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