JezzerB has got away with an outfit that should be inherantly unstable
Interesting assertion, would you like to detail why that particular unit should be inherently unstable?
JezzerB has got away with an outfit that should be inherantly unstable
You obviously haven't read what I have written-in this post-rain follows us-we drove up to Ben Nevis in hurricane Brian-we had no choice and other than slowing to 50 on motorways that had gaps in hedgerows in the hurricane I should add, and even then we had never a wobble or worrying moment-but am cautious and sensible. The awning-well that was a different matter. We stupidly put it up thinking the worst was over and had to take it down at 2 in the morning before it took itself down. The car had no issues stopping-the caravan has brakes that work in conjunction with the car slowing as is stated above, and stopping distances didn't feel much worse than unladen; while I tried to avoid it you always get some muppet who requires you to take avoiding action/emergency stop etc. The car and caravan as a unit handled brilliantly and I never experienced a waver and I use my mirrors a lot! Never had a brown trouser moment. These are facts from experience and not based on rumour or false information and I am not exaggerating in any way-in fact the opposite perhaps. The lighter Avondale was ok but it never felt quite so planted and nor did it pull so well -the car always felt like it was working harder somehow which is odd. Maybe the aerodynamics of the caravan are more important than I first thought? We always had the Duster in 4wd mode and the diff lock came in very handy on some wet sites!The very thought of towing at 100%+ , in the wet , emergency stop required,aaaarghhh. Will I stop in time. Will the tail be wagging the dog? Brown trousers! Heart in mouth!
Sorry Jezzer your methodology doesn’t suit me, in fact it scares me. Your choice. But this is a public Forum and imo we must think carefully what implications our suggestions may have for those new to our game.
At the Woosie fest, at Pickering, the New king was presented with a set of bathroom scales, for his use to check his caravans nose weight, they were promptly broken, after a session of Buckfast wine, and crackers.If I thought there was going to be a 'how to load yourcaravan'. display at a woosie fest I would turn up myself to be educated there's bound to be an expert there,
Jezzer B, I do have to say that that you did get away with it. The ratio is simply far too high to take a risk on. As the prof says a stable towing outfit relies on a number of variables as well as the weight ratio, and what looks on paper as a good combination can be flawed, and a bad looking combination can work. There can be no doubt your ratio s were far too high and the outfit should have been unstable.
In its favour your tow car is regarded as excellent within its limits and the design is good. What you have is the rear wheels very close to the rear of the car so that the distance from the back axle to the towball is very short. This is excellent for stability which would certainly have helped.
I cannot now remember what you were towing, but I accept it was small and seems to be quite heavy for its length. Caravan weight is a bit of a double edged sword. Higher weights do mean that the caravan is less affected by side winds, but against this if it is caught there is more weight for the car to control, and I do wonder if the car would have struggled had you had a real problem.
Shorter caravan do also have a smaller flat side than larger ones, and again catch the wind less, with near 6 meters of body length ours possibly needs more weight to control it as it is far more susceptible to side winds.
I can accept that your outfit might have towed well, but it has to have been the exception to the rule, and is not any basis for advising others to ignore the weight ratio. Give that caravan to most cars of the weight of yours and you would have a seriously unstable outfit, which could be extremely dangerous. The problem is that you cannot be sure of the stability before you buy an outfit so you need to be careful.
But there’s getting it wrong and there’s getting it wrong. Your example is stupidity in the extreme. Not so long ago there was a video of a Shogun loosing it doing similar high speed antics.My point is that that outfit should not have worked and I am still not convinced that if you had the start of a serious problem then that car was heavy enough to get you out of it.
I have seen someone lose it ahead of me, and believe me it was frightening for us, never mind the driver, he did have a very heavy estate which helped, but I suspect he stopped at the next services to change his trousers. Basically we were traveling at about 60 and he came past at what must have been 70 plus. He was passing two lorries ahead of us when he must have been caught by a cross wind or the bow wave of the lorry. He was swerving across all three lanes of the motorway and how he got it under control I will never know but it showed me the dangers of getting it wrong.
My point is that that outfit should not have worked
Has the test to gain the "+E" to the standard B driving license not got any theoretical element re towing weights and their relevance to caravans?
I would like to see people who have felt their outfit unstable, post their combos-be interesting to hear from anyone and we could look at why-weight, aerodynamics overhangs etc?