UPDATE: We’re still working on our TT fishtailing mystery/issue. After we’d had it transported back to our nearby city to another RV repair facility (& still no answers), the Lance Camper Corp. then had it transported out to their factory in California.
The trailer frame manufacturer, BAL/Norco, had their reps inspect the frame completely. The TT was empty. They said that everything checked out OK. They said that there was no indication that the frame components had been deflected or bent beyond their design limitations. They test-towed it on various road and at varied speeds with an SUV, a ½-ton Chevy Suburban, a factory supplied hitch, no equalizer system, and no sway bar. Their conclusion was that “the trailer is in proper towing condition and it has no apparent defect.” We’ve also had our Expedition checked over several times, and it’s fine.
To further unravel our mystery and - hopefully be able to hit the road (Oops, shouldn’t continue to use that expression after our fishtailing scare!) - I mean, resume travel with our TT - we need to see how it functions when it is NOT EMPTY, with contents aboard. Therefore, we plan to drive our Expedition out to the Lance factory later his month, about 600 miles from our home. We’ll be sure to post those Updated Results after it has all been figured out (and we hope to resume travel with it).
To gain more info, we also posted our issue on the Lance Camper Owners’ Forum. None of those TT owners had experienced such fishtailing problems. Their comments centered around the same issues as in this Forum, and suggestions were largely about weight distribution, tires/wheels, and tongue weight imbalance.
In analyzing it, we think certain issues are all answered as OK and did NOT cause our fishtailing incidents: axles, alignment, tires/tire pressure, speed (65 mph at time), road conditions (normal), weather (clear).
Based on your (VERY HELPFUL) posts (and the Lance Trailer posts) these seem to be THE MAJOR ISSUES we will need to be analyzing on our Factory trip and from this point on:
SETUP, HITCHES, TONGUE WEIGHT, WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION/POSITION OF CONTENTS IN TT, WDS (Hitch #2, the WDS, was TOO heavy - we need one rated to about 800 lbs max.) The hitch should be straight for towing, level from front to back, but we should see some “squat” on the rear of our Expy. If there is somewhere to weigh our TT at the Lance factory, we will weigh our loaded TT. (We plan to do that before any future trips. We’ve located the commercial Truck Weighing Station nearest our home.)
WHEN WE GO TO THE LANCE CAMPER FACTORY:
WHEELS/SPINDLES: We had a question about the TT Wheels/Spindles, so we plan to have them take off the wheels and check the Spindles and the bearings.
SET UP: We expect to set up the trailer with our simple hitch and our sway bar. We’ll make sure that we are doing it correctly. (We can’t use our new WDS, since it is too heavy (1,000 - 1,400 lbs), but we will take it with us for them to analyze it at the factory.)
CONTENTS/CARGO: We won’t be able to take the contents of our TT with us to the factory, but we plan to do the next best thing. We’re weighing the bins and items we had with us to try to replicate their weight. The cheapest, easiest way for us to replicate that weight seems to be to buy - near the factory - bags of water softener salt (20, 25, 40 lb bags) and position them in the compartments the way we had our cargo.
TONGUE WEIGHT: The biggest issue most likely to have caused our fishtailing seems to be the trailer tongue weight. We’ve now bought our own Sherline Trailer Tongue Weight Scale. (We’ll remember -10 to 15 % of trailer weight.) (Thanks for that advice and info!!) Thanks to your posts, we decided it was absolutely essential for us to always have a scale with us if we hope to continue trailering safely. We’ll take it with us to the factory, too.
We’ll update you after our trip. Any other thoughts? We always welcome your help, advice, comments. And, again, we thank you all!
