Why you shouldn't tow a mobile home with your TJ

When I was looking for a Jeep, I compared the cost to a new Fiesta. The new fiesta was $4000 less than the 2006 Jeep in price and KBB value, but the insurance cost was more than twice as high for the fiesta. Same coverage and limits. Didn’t make sense to me
 
Which makes me wonder why the liability insurance on my tj
Driver survival and liability are 2 independent factors. The accidents for those 370Z driver fatalities were almost all single vehicle, off the road crashes. Not much liability involved when you crash into a forest.
 
the insurance cost was more than twice as high for the fiesta. Same coverage and limits.
Same. I almost bought a pickup but the Wrangler was 30% less, same value, same coverage but in BC, where company trucks with a tidy tank rule. Just the deer strikes add 30% to the pickup insurance rates.

That said, I definitely prefer a TJ towing a trailer to a pickup.

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It takes 5 minutes to drop the trailer, store the ladders, trade doors and head for the beach.

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Same. I almost bought a pickup but the Wrangler was 30% less, same value, same coverage but in BC, where company trucks with a tidy tank rule. Just the deer strikes add 30% to the pickup insurance rates.

That said, I definitely prefer a TJ towing a trailer to a pickup.

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It takes 5 minutes to drop the trailer, store the ladders, trade doors and head for the beach.

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Incredibly, I have gone from owning at least 3 vehicles at a time, sometimes 6, to just 1. A TJ which does it all. DD, work, vacation, overlander. I honestly prefer the TJ without doors on a summer run from Canada to Denver, CO over ANY other vehicle.

I went to Salem, OR last April, in May I would have left the doors at home.

Must admit tho, If we had bought an acreage with a pole shed, barn and 3 car garage, I'd own 20..... Jeeps. Maybe a Mustang too.
 
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TJ's are impressive in so many ways but towing prowess is not one of them. Lol

Even while towing within spec....the short wheelbase TJ should have an anti sway weight distribution hitch.....especially in traffic where others are effected.
 
Exactly. I have read many posts from guys who bought the flexible Elasti Girl Power Wagon, instead of the W2500, and they are pissed because it is rated to tow less...........

I’m eventually planning to build a trailer for my TJ. This is going to have a major impact on my suspension choices.

First, if I choose a softer suspension like the Savvy or Metalcloak, I’m going to add air lift airbag springs inside all four coils to increase the spring stiffness and offset the tongue weight induced sag. 2nd, I’ll probably keep the OE sway bars, or run an Antirock on a stiff setting. 3rd I’ll use adjustable shocks like the Rancho 9000s or the fox remote reservoir adjustables. That way I can crank the suspension really stiff for when I want to haul arse with a trailer. Even still the trailer will be 2200 lbs or less.
 
TJ's are impressive in so many ways but towing prowess is not one of them. Lol

Even while towing within spec....the short wheelbase TJ should have an anti sway weight distribution hitch.....especially in traffic where others are effected.

And this brings up an important point about stabilizers:
(This is not directed at you or anyone in particular)

The sway control bar only adds roughly 5 mph to the critical speed of the car-trailer per the study I posted.

It should absolutely be used, but it cannot be relied upon as a single solution.

A very good comparison can be made to the steering dampers everyone argues about on here. A steering damper is not a “cure” for death wobble, but it can reduce the number of situations in which DW occurs.

Both steering dampers and sway control bars are intended to do one thing: dampen unwanted oscillatory motion. They do not eliminate it. But they absolutely do make a difference, and should be used. But neither a steering damper nor a trailer stabilizer bar can dampen the divergent instability in their respective systems.
 
Modeling of both death wobble and oscillatory trailer sway requires the use of differential equations. People spend their entire lives studying this stuff. And I have seen models that involve as many as 20+ variables for trailer sway. Hence why there never is a single answer on how to cure either problem.

Have you ever hit a bump in your Jeep but had the steering wheel shimmy and return to rest? That steering shimmy is an example of an underdamped system, that allows the shimmy, but eventually returns the system to stability.

If you hit the bump and develop full blown death wobble, then that is an example of a negatively damped system. Even though there was only one single input, the system resonates and the energy builds into a very violent oscillatory action.

If you hit the bump and your steering wheel jerks to the side and eventually returns, that is an overdamped system. That is the preferred operating mode if bump steer is unavoidable.

Trailer-car systems are exactly the same way. Consider the following system:
You are pulling a trailer with your Jeep at a constant speed on a flat highway. A semi flys by you and the wind pushes the trailer sideways.

In the ideal case, the system is overdamped, and you simply correct the path of your Jeep and trailer by changing the position of the steering wheel. This typically occurs at low speeds.

In the less than ideal case, the system is underdamped. In this case, the trailer sways back and forth, and the operator keeps the Jeep pointed straight. Eventually the trailer sway fades away on its own. This typically occurs at higher speeds, near the critical speed.

In the worst case, the system is negatively damped. In this case, the trailer sway begins from the impulse of the blast of wind, but then grows so large you get exactly what happened in the video. This occurs when the driver has exceeded the critical speed. The only hope the driver has is to use the trailer brake controller to engage the trailer brakes and induce tension on the coupler. If he or she does not do this or doesn’t have a brake controller, the oscillation grows until the vehicle jacknifes, leaves the road, or flips.

If the driver happens to be doing exactly the critical speed, the trailer would oscillate at the same intensity forever until the driver alters the system by slowing down or braking the trailer.

All the methods of reducing trailer sway have the effect of increasing the critical speed. On a really poorly set up system, trailer speed could be as low as 45 mph. On a really well set up system, it could be 150 mph+. On most on-road combinations it is usually between 70-120 mph. U Haul imposes a limit of 55 mph on all their trailers because they assume the average renter is too stupid to set it up correctly.



Divergent (non-oscillatory) trailer/steering action such as jackknifing or bump steer can be reduced to conventional math, and are easier to study.
 
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TJs are rated for 2000 pounds. LJs are rated 3500 pounds. Most of the comments are bullshit. I have over a million miles driving commercial trucks. And I only drove for a few years. I tow 2000 pounds daily with my TJR, about 10,000 miles a year. In the mountains. No load leveler, no sway control. 10,000 miles year round. ZERO issues. IF you have a problem towing within the rated limitations of your vehicle..... DO NOT TOW !!!!
 
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Watch this video for a good demonstration of trailer stability:


Notice they are altering the tongue weight. This has the effect of severely lowering the critical speed, showing the violent oscillation you see in the video.

The study I linked before does a similar test full scale. They also tested a lot of other factors as well
 
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TJs are rated for 2000 pounds. LJs are rated 3500 pounds. Most of the comments are bullshit. I have over a million miles driving commercial trucks. And I only drove for a few years. I tow 2000 pounds daily with my TJR, about 10,000 miles a year. In the mountains. No load leveler, no sway control. 10,000 miles year round. ZERO issues. IF you have a problem towing within the rated limitations of your vehicle..... DO NOT TOW !!!!
Then that means that your system is set up properly if you do not have issues. You don’t have to have every single accessory in the same way you don’t have to have a steering stabilizer. However, the more you use, the higher the critical speed gets. Once the critical speed is well above the maximum speed you tow, then there isn’t much point in additional work.

The biggest issues are having a properly built trailer and proper loading. It’s amazing how many people don’t know how to load a trailer. With as much towing as you do you probably know exactly how to set up your system to avoid the video.
 
IF you have death wobble, you have an engineering problem. A steering damper only masks the problem. If you have death wobble you need to FIX the problem. Not pretend it does not exist.

That’s my point regarding the trailer sway bar. It is not a cure for trailer sway. It should be used, yes, it helps a bit, yes, but it cannot be a “fix” for an improperly set up trailer-car system.
 
Brilliant !! ............... we do have a world full of idiots.
They stamp it on the fenders. Look at them and you see it printed backwards so it can be read in the tow vehicle mirrors.

Unfortunately the very people that need to heed the message are the ones that blow by you doing 90 with a back-heavy trailer and end up on the local news.

I wish they would invent a governor that would engage the trailer brakes whenever the trailer exceeded 75 mph
 
The biggest issues are having a properly built trailer and proper loading.
Exactly.

My wifes new Subaru actually chimes in and states "the traffic is moving" ... is that not retarded? You no longer have watch the traffic, go ahead and text.... the car will tell you to go..... hopefully you look up first. Either you love driving or you should take a freaking bus.
 
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Oboy,
Guess we're coming from different perspectives.
I have to respect those with varying opinions, experiences.

Rving has been a life style for many years and put my families safety and those around me at the forefront of my concerns.

I know first hand how to to properly set up an anti sway hitch, break controller and towing well within the towing specifications of tow vehicle.

The last thing I want speeding past me is a TJ pulling more than a wheelbarrow.....keep them on the back roads. Lol

If you understand dynamics, short wheelbase vehicles are simply inadequate unless your aware of the limitations.