Recent content by adaviel

I've been trying to instrument it, but haven't got anything I can publish yet - not enough resolution in the hitch sensor. I think Darling's work showed the tongue weight effect as unexpected - more mass at the front of the trailer should increase the yaw inertia (bad) and be similar to more...

I weighed everything, and got the following: Tow vehicle unladen, front 1020kg rear 890kg Plus trailer, front 980kg rear 1030kg, trailer 1180kg tongue 90kg. That's within specs, but a bit low on the tongue. I think the previous owner shifted the axle slightly when adding a raise kit, but that's...

Thanks Mike (and everyone). More research needed - I'll try and find a scale to check axle and tongue weights. My memory of those few seconds is a bit fuzzy - I don't think I braked strongly, but maybe a bit, and tried to steer out of it. I didn't know about using the trailer brakes manually, or...

I had a somewhat unnerving experience recently. I had bought a travel trailer (caravan for UK readers) and was towing it home when it started to sway from side to side. The oscillations built up to an extreme amplitude of 90 degrees, limited by the trailer hitting the side of the tow vehicle. I...

Suppose I have two metal spheres, radius 1 metre and 1 cm. I charge the small one to 100V. The self-capacitance of the sphere is 4µϵR, so the charge Q = CV = 4µϵ coulombs Then I touch the two spheres together. I assume charge flows between them so that the voltage equalizes. As charge builds on...