Rumble-Trailer

[impalator]

Hi everybody,

I have a question regarding my trailer-hitch and the ball-mount adaptor...

Whenever I drive with a trailer, I get loud "clonks" and "rumbles" of the ball-mount piece "juggling" inside the hitch receiver... Especially evident when cornering or when "negotiating" speed bumps, parking lot entrance curbs etc.

I thought about inserting some kind of wedge (sheet metal or something) but maybe there is an expert trick on how to deal with this.

I had a F250 a long time ago and when trailering with that truck, I never got any clonks or rumbles....

Any suggestions or ideas?

Thanks!

Cheers, Chris

[TardisDeli]

Dude does your trailer have surge brake? If so check your brake resovoir for brake fluid if so the actuator will clunk like crazy. If no brakes and you have the normal hitch it is adjustable for slack.

[Green1]

check your trailer ballance, sounds like you may not have enough tongue weight (trailers should be slightly front heavy)

[Firesong]

I know what your saying.
The receiver for your hitch leaves a little give for
the hitch / bike carrier (etc) that inserts into it.

I haven't seen anything to help with trailers. You
can get something to help with attachments like bike
carriers and such since the weight isn't as great as
a trailer. It's a square that slides over the inserted
receiver attachment. There is a screw/bolt/thingee
that screws down onto the receiver thus binding it
and reducing the movement. It works sorta...
I think I got mine at MEC or at a bike store that sold
receiver bike carriers. $20.. mostly works.

What you can do if you want and have the tools is
drill a second hole into the receiver and thread it.
That way you can screw a bolt into the receiver binding
it, cutting the slack down. (Or some derivative of that)

Firesong

[fmande]

In Australia we have two size tow balls.The older balls were smaller than the current size we use today.

I don't know about Canada though.

If take a photo of your set up it might help answer you questions.

Just a thought.

regards fmande

[impalator]

I guess I'll have to leave the outboard motor off the transom when towing the boat... the motor makes it too "back-heavy" - it must be that I have too little front weight on the trailer... And no, my trailer doesn't have any brake-set-up...

I'll be running a U-Haul trailer over the weekend.. we'll see how that goes...

Thanks for the input...

Cheers,
Chris

[mararmeisto]

X2 with the weight-on-the-tongue comments. If your load is too far back, it can leave too little weight on the tongue and you'll get that chattering and clunking. If you put too much weight forward, you get a bouncing trailer - you know the one you fear to be behind on the highway 'cause it looks like it's going to skip into the next lane and then back to yours before it detaches itself?

Ball size must be correct as well. 2" is the standard size; 2" and five-sixteenths is for really big trailers (2 tonnes and over, I think); and 1" and seven-eighths are for the little tow-it-behind-your-four-cylinder-town car. If you've got the wrong size ball and cup it'll slop about and make a bunch of noise, and it could pop free (that's when you really need the chains).

And finally, if you have a hitch receiver, it may be sloppy as well. It's supposed to be a standard size opening, but sometimes standard is a little bigger. Try gluing a piece of rubber along the one side that shows the greatest gap. Don't use a bolt-and-nut assembly to snug-down the hitch receiver: it'll deform the hitch receiver (which will make inserting and removing the hitch receiver difficult), and if you don't use a high enough grade of bolt, you'll shear the bolt and lose the trailer (very unsettling for the guy behind you).

[Green1]

I guess I'll have to leave the outboard motor off the transom when towing the boat... the motor makes it too "back-heavy" - it must be that I have too little front weight on the trailer... And no, my trailer doesn't have any brake-set-up...

When I still had my boat it all depended on how I loaded the boat, sliding the boat slightly forward or back on the trailer made a huge difference to tongue weight, you may be able to work with that to balance things out...
otherwise, take the outboard off and use it as balast sitting at whatever point in the trailer is appropriate.

[Luna-Sea]

Uh Yup,
The tongue weight has to be greater I believe,
as you well know, most of the Delica's (L300)weight
is up front and this makes the back end naturally (unloaded)
way lighter.
There has been two incidents known,one that I actually saw
of poorly loaded trailers flipping the Deliz over!
It was an awful sight! I think in both cases it was a shifting of the load
towards the back mixed with some bumps in the road and some wind.

Basically you want 60%of the load forward of the trailer axle.
There is mention in the links below of the tongue weight
being 10-15% of the overall trailer weight.
Those weight distributing hitches work great,but might be overkill for your application.

Just something to keep in mind.
It just sucked rusty hitch balls seeing that Van on its roof.

This may be useful
http://newcarbuyingguide.com/index.php/ ... event=view
http://www.etrailer.com/faq-trailertowtips.aspx
http://boatingsailing.suite101.com/arti ... owing_tips

This one is quite thorough,it is trying to sell a product
http://www.sherline.com/lmbook.htm

Some vids
http://vimeo.com/720035
this next one is long ,but the accents are amusing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZMqOzdJA4

Also it does sound like your ball might be loose or to small,
(insert joke here ) the parts are pretty cheap to replace if there is too much slop or are mismatched.

Right ON!

[mararmeisto]

Regardless of whether the Delica is loaded/empty/front-heavy or otherwise, if you've got rumbley-trailer issues, it's a trailer issue. Proper loading of your trailer is necessary for safe towing. The trick with a boat trailer is the boat itself - kinda like folding a map, it's never loaded the same way twice. The motor-off-the-transom-and-in-the-bottom is a good way to adjust the weight.

A good way to 'judge' the tongue weight is pick it up by hand. If you use a wheeljack, don't crank the trailer all the way up, and when you go to put the trailer on the ball, pick up the tongue that last couple of inches: it should be bit of a grunt to pick it up. As the other poster mentioned, tongue weight should be about 10% or trailer-with-load weight.

[loki]

You can feel free to try negative tongue weight on your trailer.

I can't remember the name at the moment but didn't one of the regulars here have a trailer loaded back heavy by mistake (negative tongue weight) on his L300 and ended up rolling it?

[Green1]

You can feel free to try negative tongue weight on your trailer.

I can't remember the name at the moment but didn't one of the regulars here have a trailer loaded back heavy by mistake (negative tongue weight) on his L300 and ended up rolling it?

I don't remember who it was either, but it would have been 2 years ago, sometime around July...
they aren't the only one either.

[mararmeisto]

All of this where-is-the-weight-in-my-Delica-centred talk aside, loading your trailer is important (and the original topic of this thread): in order to avoid 'rumble trailer' be sure to load some of your weight forward on the tongue.

[FalcoColumbarius]

All of this where-is-the-weight-in-my-Delica-centred talk aside, loading your trailer is important (and the original topic of this thread): in order to avoid 'rumble trailer' be sure to load some of your weight forward on the tongue.

For those who are interested, the "All of this where-is-the-weight-in-my-Delica-centred talk" has been moved to the "Last Word Cafe".

Falco.