Electronic sway control

[AwesomeDad]

Just curious who is turning it off when towing. I was reading thru some posts on my camper board and a lot over there are turning it off when they tow. I would think that defeats the purpose of having it...

JJ

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[Jefe1018]

Yes disabling a feature defeats having it, ha!

Curious, what is their reasoning for it?

 

[AwesomeDad]

Yes disabling a feature defeats having it, ha!

Curious, what is their reasoning for it?

It wasn't a gladiator, but a few did it because they had more sway with their setup with it on than off.

 

[Jefe1018]

It wasn't a gladiator, but a few did it because they had more sway with their setup with it on than off.

I suppose that would make sense? But something else might be off and likely is.

For example motor trend said the diesel gladiator was borderline dangerous when towing, then it was debunked by many as the most likely culprit being badly distributed weight on a trailer already near the max rated tow number.

In 6 months of towing over 3,000 miles in a JT I can tell you I haven’t had an excessive sway due to this feature and would have never thought to disable it.

 

[AwesomeDad]

I suppose that would make sense? But something else might be off and likely is.

For example motor trend said the diesel gladiator was borderline dangerous when towing, then it was debunked by many as the most likely culprit being badly distributed weight on a trailer already near the max rated tow number.

In 6 months of towing over 3,000 miles in a JT I can tell you I haven’t had an excessive sway due to this feature and would have never thought to disable it.

Ive been looking, because my last trip a couple times a got a bit of sway, its a single axel weighing in at 3500lbs. Im looking at adjustments and speed may have been a factor, soon as it started I let of the go pedal and it went away....

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Single axle trailers will be more prone to sway............ not enough tongue weight is also a factor. (too much tongue weight can make things squirrely, too)
Many states have a 65 mph limit when towing (but like Iowa, it's not posted)
I have never experienced sway.

Sometimes when you see things like people disabling something because they blamed it for a problem, the problem was their lack of understanding of how things work.
How a trailer's weight is distributed, high or low, front to back, whatever.

 

[AwesomeDad]

Single axle trailers will be more prone to sway............ not enough tongue weight is also a factor. (too much tongue weight can make things squirrely, too)
Many states have a 65 mph limit when towing (but like Iowa, it's not posted)
I have never experienced sway.

Sometimes when you see things like people disabling something because they blamed it for a problem, the problem was their lack of understanding of how things work.
How a trailer's weight is distributed, high or low, front to back, whatever.

Im gonna make some adjustments, Unfortunately I don't believe the dealer did a proper set up, I know they do a lot of campers and vehicles but they just eyeballed it for the hitch height, and kept saying how amazed they were that the Jeep never even squatted under load....

JJ

 

[Labswine]

The only time I experienced any significant sway was when I was coming back from NC on I-95.

Couldn't figure out why because I wasn't being passed by any tractor-trailers or anything of significant size to induce it, and it wasn't windy.

What I finally discovered was that it was my position in the right lane. Truck traffic had induced some (for lack of a better term) 'sag' in the road or basically mild 'ruts'.

What was happening was that my Gladiator was in one position in the lane but my trailer wanted to follow the 'ruts' and kept swaying into them. Once I adjusted my lane position to more closely follow the 'ruts' it went away.

 

[AwesomeDad]

The only time I experienced any significant sway was when I was coming back from NC on I-95.

Couldn't figure out why because I wasn't being passed by any tractor-trailers or anything of significant size to induce it, and it wasn't windy.

What I finally discovered was that it was my position in the right lane. Truck traffic had induced some (for lack of a better term) 'sag' in the road or basically mild 'ruts'.

What was happening was that my Gladiator was in one position in the lane but my trailer wanted to follow the 'ruts' and kept swaying into them. Once I adjusted my lane position to more closely follow the 'ruts' it went away.

After l looked at my set up I believe the ball height is 2 inches to high. I am gonna drop it and see If that alleviates the issue.

JJ

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Im gonna make some adjustments, Unfortunately I don't believe the dealer did a proper set up, I know they do a lot of campers and vehicles but they just eyeballed it for the hitch height, and kept saying how amazed they were that the Jeep never even squatted under load....

JJ

I've bought campers from dealers - and am appalled at how they did things. I think they hire someone to just hook things up and get them out the door. I was really pissed when I saw they had used those blue scotchlocks to hook up the truck's trailer connector to the real lighting - and there sat a correct FoMoCo pigtail in the glove box that was plug-n-play. I had to re-adjust the hitch myself, they had it way too tight. (my F250 was the heavy-duty version, heavy-duty springs, overload springs on the rear, the larger brakes and front hubs)

I think they were used to connecting things to minvans or something. They sell campers but know very little about towing or setting things up - at least around here.

What I finally discovered was that it was my position in the right lane. Truck traffic had induced some (for lack of a better term) 'sag' in the road or basically mild 'ruts'.

What was happening was that my Gladiator was in one position in the lane but my trailer wanted to follow the 'ruts' and kept swaying into them. Once I adjusted my lane position to more closely follow the 'ruts' it went away.

That's interesting - I'll have to keep that in mind as there are some blacktop roads around where there's a lot of heavy truck traffic and you want to keep your wheels out of those areas in a heavy rain............
Interesting.

 

[DavidBT]

I don't remember the post that I read on here, but someone mentioned turning off sway control due to the trucks computer trying to correct any movement of the trailer while in tow.

 

[Jaxmax]

Awesome Dad, high hitch can cause more sway, also be aware if you are ever in the position of having the trailer start to violently sway back and forth, pushing the trailer brake controller button or lever will hit only the trailer brakes and not the vehicle snapping you back into line. You said speed might be an issue, when towing take your time things can happen quick and speed kills gas mileage and can ruin your day.

 

[AwesomeDad]

Awesome Dad, high hitch can cause more sway, also be aware if you are ever in the position of having the trailer start to violently sway back and forth, pushing the trailer brake controller button or lever will hit only the trailer brakes and not the vehicle snapping you back into line. You said speed might be an issue, when towing take your time things can happen quick and speed kills gas mileage and can ruin your day.

It ended up being the height, the dealer had it sitting 2 inches to high. I dropped it down and tows just fine now....

JJ

 

[ygrignon]

So far I’ve had the electronic sway control light turn on 2 or 3 times in the ~4000 miles of towing my twin axle 5000# Airstream. This was after I got the WDH setup fixed as mine also had the ball height 2” too high from the dealer. The gladiator did it’s job quite effectively in eliminating the sway.

 

[SargeDiesel]

Just curious who is turning it off when towing. I was reading thru some posts on my camper board and a lot over there are turning it off when they tow. I would think that defeats the purpose of having it...

JJ

I know this is a little dated... but I was recently looking at my window sticker and noticed the "electronic trailer sway control "

And then I ran across this thread.

Is this function automatic ? Where is the "button" or where is it in the instrument cluster ? How are you enabling/disabling it ?

Thanks
@Jefe1018 ? Ideas ?

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