Wagging the Dog - Lada Niva SUV Ends Up in a Ditch After Losing Control of the Trailer

And it’s not as simple as it may seem. If you’re under the impression that taking a wider trajectory through turns is the most difficult part, that means you’ve never had to back up yet. That’s like learning to drive all over again. And also which is right and which is left.

But equally serious problems can arise even when driving in a straight line at a constant speed. “That’s witchery,” you’ll say, “I shall burn you alive,” but like so many others before me, I’d be dying a fiery death only because of physics.

The swinging movement of the trailer can be initiated by the most minute stimuli. We’re not talking the wings of a butterfly here, but you get the idea. One short but sudden move of the steering wheel and we’re on.

The trailer moves left, you pull the wheel to the right to maintain the trajectory of the car but, by doing so, you’re only building the thing’s momentum. So it comes back to the right with even more conviction, which prompts a turn of the steering wheel in the opposite direction. And so on, and so on, until there is absolutely nothing you can do anymore.

Of course, it all depends on the mass of the trailer in relation to the mass of the vehicle pulling it. If the difference is greatly in favor of the latter, then you’re pretty much safe. The trailer can still swing from side to side, but it’s easier to keep under control and it will never have enough force to alter the vehicle’s trajectory.

If, like in this video below, the difference is more negligible, then, on the one hand, you’re probably doing something illegal, and on the other, you’re in a world of trouble. Just click the “play” button for a very quick and eloquent visualization of this short and very incomplete introduction to the art of driving a vehicle with a trailer hitched to its back.