People have written whole PhD theses on the subject so a mere 70-odd posts is just scratching the surface of its potential, LOL.
Gafferbill said:……I fully understand all the forces at work in a caravan during snaking.
Where we disagree is that you think these forces have no effect on the tow car…. According to you it just proceeds normally with an unstable snaking caravan behind.
Eventually the caravan topples over because the C.O.M moves outside its triangular base.
What actually happens is that the caravan is an unstable balanced trailer.
Poor loading, road ruts, side winds, bow waves from large vehicles can make it more unstable.
Its hitch may try to move in any direction with varying amounts of force whilst being towed.
Vertical forces are cancelled out by the cars suspension with only a pitching effect on the tow car.
Lateral forces are a different matter, these are only cancelled out by the rear tyres of the tow car gripping the road and counteracting these forces.
If the forces are large enough the tyres will loose grip as they revolve.
This will manifest itself as rear wheel steering as the tyres are forced offline.
The further the tyres are forced off line the greater the friction with the road, the lateral force is counteracted and the outfit snaps back into line.
Inertia now causes the process to be repeated in the opposite direction…..a snake develops!
The driver has no means of controlling the direction of the outfit and a roll over may result.
The tail wags the dog!
Stabililizers work by reducing these lateral forces on the hitch and thereby make this loss of grip less likely.
The nose weight and any weight over the rear axle of the tow car also raises the point at which grip is lost.
You are right in that extreme loss of grip only occurs in the final jack-knife stage of a rollover.
What I refer to is the directional grip of a rotating tyre and its ability to resist a lateral force and not move offline.