Camco Eaz-Lift Adjustable Sway Control, Right-Mount (48380)

If you tow a travel trailer, you already know the feeling. A semi passes on the interstate, or a crosswind catches the side of the box, and the trailer starts to wag behind you. The Camco Eaz-Lift 48380 is the add-on that calms that down. It's an adjustable friction sway control, and its whole job is to fight the side-to-side motion that makes a long tow feel nervous.

Here's how it works. The unit uses a double friction disc brake design. A zinc-plated slide bar runs between a ball on your trailer tongue and a ball on the hitch head, and a pair of friction pads clamp down on that bar as the trailer tries to swing. That resistance bleeds off the sway before it builds into a real problem. You set the amount of friction with the crank handle, and you can back it all the way off when you don't want it working.

This one is the right-mounted version, so it rides on the passenger side of the coupler. It's an add-on to a weight-distribution setup, not a replacement for one. Think of it this way. Your weight-distribution hitch handles the up-and-down load and keeps the truck and trailer level. The sway control handles the left-and-right. Run them together and a big single-axle trailer feels a lot more planted at highway speed.

Install is straightforward for anyone comfortable with a wrench and a drill. The ball tongue plate mounts to the A-frame of the trailer tongue with the included self-tapping screws, and the chrome tongue ball threads onto it. The slide bar drops onto that ball and onto a matching ball at the hitch, held by spring clips. Camco includes the slide bar, crank handle, spring clips, friction plate, ball tongue plate, self-tapping screws, and the chrome tongue ball, so the kit has the sway arm, the ball, the ball plate, and the hardware in one box. You supply the wrenches and about a half hour.

The on/off feature is the part people end up loving. You're not wrenching parts on and off at every stop. You reach down, back the handle off, make your low-speed move, then snug it again once you're rolling. The double friction pads give you constant, even resistance instead of a grab-and-release feel, so the trailer settles smoothly rather than jerking straight. Once you find the friction setting that suits your rig and your usual roads, you'll mostly leave it there.

A few habits make it last. Set the friction snug for open highway running, then loosen or switch it off before you back into a site or crank a tight turn, since a friction control fights the trailer at low speed and can bind. Same goes for wet or icy roads, where you want the trailer free to track. It's a good idea to recheck the plate hardware after your first long trip and then now and again through the season, because road vibration works on any bolted joint over time. And since the whole unit pops off with the socket and spring connectors, you can pull it for storage or when you're not towing.

Who's this for? Anyone running a bumper-pull travel trailer that pushes around in the wind or gets shoved by passing traffic. It's especially worth it on taller, lighter trailers that catch a lot of air. What it isn't: it's not a weight-distribution hitch on its own, and it's not a dual-cam integrated system. It's a simple, proven friction control that adds a real margin of stability for not a lot of money, and it's the passenger-side unit, so pair it with a driver-side control if you want friction on both sides of the coupler.

Eaz-Lift has been Camco's towing line for a long time, and this sway control is about as time-tested as they come. Bolt it on, dial in the friction, and the next time a truck blows past you'll feel the difference in how little the trailer cares.