7 Trailer Sway Controls Designed for High-Wind Conditions

We’ve all been there. You’re cruising down I-80 through Wyoming, and a sudden crosswind slams into the side of your travel trailer, making the whole rig shudder. Your knuckles turn white on the steering wheel as you feel that sickening wiggle from behind—the beginning of trailer sway. In high-wind conditions, a simple drive can become a high-stakes battle, but the right equipment turns that stress into confidence.

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How Sway Control Hitches Counteract High Winds

Imagine your trailer is a kite tail and the wind wants to make it fly. Sway happens when a lateral force—like a gust of wind or a passing semi-truck—pushes the side of your trailer, causing it to pivot on the hitch ball. Without intervention, this pivot can amplify into a dangerous, uncontrollable oscillation.

Sway control hitches are designed to stop this before it starts. They work in two primary ways. The most common method is friction damping, where the hitch creates resistance to slow and absorb the side-to-side movement, much like shock absorbers on your truck. The second, more advanced method is pivot point projection, which uses clever geometry to create a virtual pivot point further forward, making it physically impossible for the trailer to sway in the first place.

Think of it as the difference between grabbing a wiggling dog by the collar versus holding its shoulders steady. Both can work, but one prevents the wiggle from ever starting. Your choice depends on your trailer size, where you travel, and your tolerance for a white-knuckle driving experience.

ProPride 3P: The Gold Standard for Sway Elimination

If you plan to tow a large trailer through the notoriously windy Great Plains or down coastal highways, the ProPride 3P is the ultimate peace-of-mind investment. It uses an advanced form of pivot point projection, effectively locking your trailer to your tow vehicle as if they were one solid unit. The design eliminates the possibility of sway, rather than just damping it after it begins.

This isn’t just about reducing sway; it’s about removing it from the equation entirely. Drivers report that even the "bow wave" from a passing 18-wheeler, a common cause of sway, becomes a non-event. The trailer simply tracks perfectly straight behind the truck, giving you an incredible sense of stability and control in conditions that would be terrifying with a lesser hitch.

The tradeoff is significant, and it comes down to two things: cost and complexity. The ProPride is one of the most expensive hitches on the market, and its initial installation is more involved than a standard hitch. However, for full-time RVers or those who refuse to let high winds dictate their travel days, the price is often seen as a worthy investment in safety and stress-free towing.

Hensley Arrow: The Original Pivot Point Projection

Before the ProPride, there was the Hensley Arrow, the hitch that pioneered the pivot point projection technology. It operates on the same fundamental principle, using a trapezoidal linkage system to project the pivot point forward, near the rear axle of the tow vehicle. This ingenious design has been proving its worth on the road for decades.

Like its successor, the Hensley Arrow is designed to make trailer sway a physical impossibility. It provides that same "locked-in" feeling, where the trailer and truck move as a single entity. For anyone who has experienced severe trailer sway, the confidence this hitch inspires in gusty conditions is a complete game-changer, allowing you to relax and enjoy the drive.

The decision between a Hensley and a ProPride often comes down to brand preference and subtle design differences. Both are heavy, expensive, and incredibly effective. The Hensley has a legacy and a proven track record that many towers trust implicitly, making it a top-tier choice for eliminating sway in the most demanding wind conditions.

Equal-i-zer 4-Point for Integrated Sway Damping

Picture yourself on a two-lane road in the mountains, where wind gusts whip unpredictably through the valleys. The Equal-i-zer 4-Point hitch is a fantastic workhorse for these situations. It gets its name from its four points of steel-on-steel friction, which are integrated directly into the weight distribution system.

This design is brilliantly simple and robust. The rigid brackets on the trailer frame and the L-brackets on the hitch head are constantly working to resist side-to-side movement. Every time the wind pushes your trailer, these four points create friction to dampen the motion and keep you tracking straight. There are no separate add-on friction bars to deal with; it’s all one cohesive unit.

The Equal-i-zer is known for its strength and reliability. It’s a very popular choice for a reason—it offers a massive improvement in sway control over basic hitches at a more accessible price than the pivot-point systems. The main tradeoff is that it can be a bit noisier than other systems due to the metal-on-metal contact, but for many, that’s a small price to pay for its powerful and consistent performance in crosswinds.

Blue Ox SwayPro: Consistent Load Distribution

The Blue Ox SwayPro takes a different approach to friction-based sway control. Its defining feature is the set of tapered spring bars that are designed to flex. This flex allows them to maintain constant pressure on the L-brackets, ensuring that sway control is active and consistent even as you drive over uneven terrain.

This system shines on long highway stretches where you might encounter rolling hills and variable wind gusts. The spring bars work in concert with the rotating latches to both distribute weight and dampen sway in a smooth, quiet motion. Many users find the SwayPro easier and cleaner to hook up than other systems, which is a real plus at the start and end of a long travel day.

While it’s a friction-based damping system, not an elimination system, the SwayPro is exceptionally effective. It provides a stable, comfortable towing experience and is known for its quiet operation. It strikes an excellent balance between high-wind performance, user-friendliness, and a smooth ride, making it a top contender for a wide range of trailer and truck combinations.

Curt TruTrack with Active Sway Control Technology

The Curt TruTrack is a modern take on integrated sway control, designed for the weekend warrior who wants reliable performance without a complex setup. It combines weight distribution with what Curt calls "active sway control." This system uses spring-loaded ball bearings inside the hitch head that snap into place against the spring bar brackets.

Think of these components as being spring-loaded to always want to stay in a straight line. When wind pushes the trailer, the system provides immediate and continuous resistance to force the trailer back into alignment. It’s a proactive design that works to self-center the trailer from the moment a sway event begins.

This integrated approach means you get powerful sway control that is always engaged and doesn’t require any extra setup steps. The TruTrack offers a significant step up from basic friction sway bars, providing confident handling in moderate to high winds. It’s a strong, mid-range option that balances advanced features with practical usability for a variety of campers.

Andersen No-Sway: A Unique Ball-and-Cone System

For those towing small to mid-sized trailers, especially with half-ton trucks, the Andersen No-Sway system is a revolutionary departure from traditional designs. It’s incredibly lightweight, exceptionally quiet, and remarkably simple. The system uses a tapered hitch ball that fits into a cone lined with a brake-pad-like material on the coupler.

This ball-and-cone connection is the heart of the system. As the trailer tries to sway, the motion is immediately dampened by the friction within this joint. Tensioned chains running from the trailer A-frame provide both weight distribution and the necessary pressure on the cone. The result is a smooth, stable, and virtually silent towing experience.

The biggest advantages of the Andersen are its light weight and simplicity. There are no heavy spring bars to lift, and hooking up is fast and clean. While its effectiveness on extremely large and heavy trailers in hurricane-force winds might be debated, for a huge segment of the RV community, it provides more than enough sway control for confident travel in windy conditions, all in a user-friendly package.

Reese Strait-Line: Dual Cam High-Performance

The Reese Strait-Line is a classic, time-tested system known for its brute-force effectiveness against the wind. This hitch utilizes a dual-cam design, which is a proactive way to fight sway. The ends of the spring bars sit in a curved, cammed channel on either side of the A-frame.

When you’re driving straight, the bars are settled in the bottom of the cam. If wind pushes the trailer sideways, the bars have to ride up the sloped side of the cam. This action creates immense pressure that actively forces the trailer back into alignment with the tow vehicle. It’s not just resisting sway; it’s aggressively correcting it.

This high-performance system is a fantastic choice for heavier trailers that present a lot of surface area to the wind. It has a reputation for being one of the best cam-based designs on the market. The tradeoffs can be a more involved initial setup to get the cams perfectly aligned and the potential for some noise during tight turns. But when a 30-mph crosswind is trying to push you into the next lane, the power of the Strait-Line system is incredibly reassuring.

Ultimately, the perfect hitch isn’t about having the most expensive or complex piece of gear. It’s about matching the tool to your rig, your destinations, and your comfort level. The goal is to get out there and explore with confidence, not to sit at home waiting for a perfectly calm day. Choose the system that gives you the peace of mind to enjoy the journey, because the best adventures are often just on the other side of a windy pass.