What’s Up with Fun Finder Sway?
Last updated March 13, 2005

I have several links to excellent information about sway issues and resolutions on my links page, thus, I’m not going to try to cover every aspect of sway, all the factors that can contribute (there are many), and how to address each one. Rather, I’m going to focus on the experiences I’ve had with sway towing our T-160 and the steps I took to address it, as well as a sway issue I was involved with on a T-189 with another owner.

The design of the single axle Fun Finders, in terms of the axle placement and subsequent resulting tongue weight percentage, means Fun Finder owners need to be very aware and vigilant in addressing sway factors. The biggest, BIGGEST factor in sway is tongue weight, so this is why the Fun Finders are so vulnerable.

My first experience with sway occurred on the tow home from the dealer after our purchase (completely empty trailer) after the dealer installed our new rear skid bars and a second battery in the rear storage compartment. Fortunately, the sway I experienced was a minimally consistent, rather than a violently increasing sway oscillation. At about 55 mph, I could see the wiggle start and at about 65 mph I could sense the wiggle start to affect the van. At 75 mph (the speed limit), I could definitely feel the van being affected by the sway. I backed off to 60 mph, which is a towing speed I like anyway, and continued proceeding to my local certified scale to verify my weights.

From the scale weight readings, I determined that I was running an 8.9% tongue weight ratio (180 tongue weight divided by 2020 total weight equals 8.9%). I knew that my new rear skid bars and second battery in the rear storage compartment were offsetting the balance of the trailer and that I needed to pack as many heavy things in the front of the trailer as I could to move that percentage closer to the standard minimum guideline of 10%.

My second experience with sway occurred on our first camping trip (the very next weekend after our purchase). We ran into a brief shower and coming through a downhill left turn at 60 mph on the wet pavement, our T-160 began the typical, violently increasing sway oscillation. Knowing what to do, I immediately took my foot off the gas pedal and manually applied the trailer brakes. At 45 mph, the sway completely stopped and we continued on to the campground.

The very next week, I took our trailer up to my local garage and tire expert to have the lug nut torque checked as we had put close to 250 miles on the trailer since leaving the dealer. The lug nuts were just a couple pounds shy of the 80 he was checking the torque for, not an unexpected or significant find, but what we discovered was that the psi in the trailer tires was only 35, a very significant find since I knew I always wanted to be running at 50 psi. Another find, although not as significant, but still important, was that the 13” rims were slightly out of balance. A couple of small weights, and they were spinning perfectly.

From that point on, I religiously checked my trailer tire psi before every camping trip (the original 13” Loadstar tires seemed to always lose 5-10 psi easily between camping trips) and lug nut torque. Fortunately, the lug nuts held their 80 pounds of torque without waiver. Another thing I did was to replace the “P” rated tires on our van with “LT” Load C rated tires. I was within the weight ratings of the “P” tires, but the “LT” gave me a stiffer sidewall for the van. Finally, I made it a practice to top off the fresh water and hot water tanks before every trip. The combination of these changes meant I never again experienced any sway towing with our van and the factory standard 13” tires.

When we traded the van for the Suburban, I was pleased that the dealer we purchased from had installed brand new “LT” Load E rated tires on the Burb. If needed, I could fill those puppies up to 80 psi! Actually, after running the numbers, checking a website that gave weight ratings for Load E’s at different psi’s, and talking to my local tire expert and mechanic, I decided to run 45 psi all the way around when not towing and 55 psi all the way around when we do tow.

Another visit to the certified scale with the T-160 hitched to the newly acquired Burb convinced me I needed to address the weight carrying limitations of the factory standard 13” tires. Even after we purchased our T-160 to replace our Coleman popup, I hung on to some old habits of packing a lot of things into the back of van, which was cavernous. With the Burb, which had a significantly smaller cargo space (compared to the van), I needed to pack more stuff in the trailer. Upgrading to 14” rims and tires would not only increase my total tire weight capacity by 800 pounds, but it would also give me extra ground clearance. Double bonus I thought!

What I didn’t anticipate was the difference the 14” tires would provide in keeping the trailer stable and tracking perfectly straight. When I tow, I don’t have the slightest wiggle except for three situations: 1) Towing in 30 mph crosswinds that are gusting to 60 mph, 2) Being closely passed by a maniac speeding semi (doing 85-90 mph while I’m doing 60-65 mph), and 3) Traversing unequal pavement or a bump that causes the trailer to bounce. Even in these occurrences, the wiggle always settles right down to perfect smoothness. Another unexpected bonus was that the 14” tires hardly ever lose any air pressure. As of April, 2004, when I’m writing this, I’ve only added 5 psi on just two occasions, and this covers 15K miles of towing over 8 seasons the last 2 years. They’ve also held their lug nut torque and balance perfectly over that same time frame. I am absolutely sold on 14” rims and Goodyear Marathon ST205/75R14 Load C Tires for the Fun Finders. Fortunately, Shadow Cruiser also saw a difference and with the introduction of the 2003 models of the T-139 and T-160, delivered them with 14” rims and tires as “Forced Options” (I love that term).

Checking my certified scale weights after installing the 14” tires, I find I’m running 8.8% tongue weight in minimal loading (220 tongue weight divided by 2500 total weight equals 8.8%) and 9.3% tongue weight in both typical loading (260 tongue divided by 2800 total equals 9.3%) and maximum loading (280 tongue divided by 3000 total equals 9.3%). I find that there is no difference in towing manners whatsoever between my minimal loading and my typical loading, so now I tow confidently with either minimal water in the tanks when traveling between campgrounds where water is available, or no water in the tanks when we are traveling in the winter and the tanks and lines are winterized (see my “An Option to Traditional Winterizing’).

As a final bonus, our fully max loaded Burb weighs in at 7000, more than double the 3000 of our fully max loaded T-160. With these numbers, even if I ever do happen to encounter sway, there is no chance, NO CHANCE, “The Tail Will Wag The Dog”.

My third experience with sway involves a nice lady I ran into while visiting the new Shadow Cruiser dealer in Loveland, Big Red RV, in the fall of 2003. She had

purchased her T-189FBR out of state and found that it started swaying at 30mph and violently at 50mph on the tow home, even with the Equal-i-zer she had purchased (this experience had her in the mood ready to sell the trailer she had so madly fallen in love with). Cody at Big Red RV had tried adding 350# of steel plates on the tongue (on the advice of folks back at the SC factory) and even then, the sway started at 40mph. A check of the axle alignment showed it was within manufacturer tolerances. Cody had towed a new T-189FBR on his lot without any sway equipment, so he was confused as to why the lady's T-189FBR swayed violently when he towed with the same tow vehicle.

I pointed out what looked to be a visual difference in the axle placement between the two trailers, so Cody and I measured both. There was a 5" difference in axle placements. Her axle was 5" closer to the tongue than Cody's. Hmmm. Cody's T-189FBR was newer, so we scratched our heads as to if SC had found a significant sway variable and moved the axles rearward in newer models to compensate (apparently, from info posted recently on the Yahoo Groups Shadow Cruisers Fun Finders Forum, this was/is indeed the case). It was finally discovered that the tires themselves were out of round. The rims couldn’t be successfully balanced, because the tires were so severely out of round. Once the tires were replaced, the weight plates taken off the tongue, the trailer towed beautifully with the Equal-i-zer. Cody could even tow it without the Equal-i-zer with his big heavy tow vehicle and didn't have sway at highway speeds. The lady was happy.

Fortunately, from posted messages on my Yahoo Groups Forum and on Jim Ross’ Shadow Cruiser Forum, it appears that those that do need sway equipment find that a simple, single friction sway bar does the trick in the vast majority of cases. Only on Ford Explorers, for some reason, do owners need equipment more significant, like the Equal-i-zer. I’m just delighted to be able to tow safely without sway (or WD) equipment in my particular setup. Thankfully, Fun Finders owners will never need a Hensley Arrow!