CLUTCH WEAR

[Fraseb01]

Hi All,
I have towed many times before but my question to all you long time caravaners is,do you guys / girls feel you replace the clutch more often than the average life span of a clutch?

I have the use off 2 vehicles for towing so was planning spreading the workload between them.

Wife's xc 60 d4 awd auto and my t5 t30 camper manual .

I would guess both would be costly replacements when these need a new clutch fitted.

Cheers.

👍👍👍

 

[Parksy]

The XC 60 awd Auto doesn't have a clutch if it has automatic transmission.
I tow using a car with a/t and it gives no trouble.
Anecdotal evidence from this and other caravan forums suggests that reversing with a caravan causes clutch wear.
If you use a motor mover to reverse the caravan, excessive clutch wear shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[Fraseb01]

Thank you for your info , yes i am in the process of pricing a mover , think this would be a good investment .👍

 

[JezzerB]

I'd agree wholeheartedly with Parksy; reversing into a spot can take a toll on the clutch-had a tow bar on my MR2 for windsurfing and was asked to reverse a trailer carrying a shed, into a spot -repeated manoevring made the clutch smell-mind it was on the same one when I sold it at 160k miles so it didn't do long term damage other than extra wear i presume-from then on I have taken care and use the motor mover

 

[otherclive]

Is the Volvo an auto with torque converter if so there’s no clutch and that gearbox is bomb proof. I had a 2010 xc70 auto and that had a torque converter gearbox so never any worries about wear. Some cars have dual synchro boxes such as Volkswagen group DSG and Ford Powershift. They use clutches which automatically work with the gear selector so in effect are automated “manual”. gearboxes. Early versions did have some problems but later ones seem pretty trouble free. I had a 2014 Superb AWD DSG and no complaints. Although recognising that it had clutches tendEd to move the caravan on its mover and avoided crawling in stop start traffic.

 

[Tuningdrew]

Don’t understand why reversing onto a pitch should wear the clutch excessively unless you gun the engine and slip the clutch. Modern engines, especially diesels are quite happy manoeuvering at idle revs unless you’ve got your outfit hopelessly out of shape and are trying to push it back almost at right angles.

 

[JezzerB]

Yes agreed-it's the clutch slip that does the damage.

 

[RogerL]

I've only ever replaced the clutch in one car, a high miler used for rallying long before I started caravanning - many of the others were kept to 100,000 miles with a couple going well over - in recent years I've moved to automatics.

My son, who still drives like a boy racer, got 100,000 miles out of his Vectra-C before the clutch went, he uses too much torque all time time but won't be told!

 

[Jcloughie]

Don’t understand why reversing onto a pitch should wear the clutch excessively unless you gun the engine and slip the clutch. Modern engines, especially diesels are quite happy manoeuvering at idle revs unless you’ve got your outfit hopelessly out of shape and are trying to push it back almost at right angles.

I agree that there appears to be no logic in clutches suffering more in reverse. Nevertheless. That nasty clutch smell happens to many when reversing a caravan.

John

 

[otherclive]

I agree that there appears to be no logic in clutches suffering more in reverse. Nevertheless. That nasty clutch smell happens to many when reversing a caravan.

John

Could it be that reverse gear can be a higher ratio than first? Whilst reversing the outfit onto a pitch there are more small adjustments and movements than when pulling forward to reposition and line it up. So driver slips the clutch more.

 

[Jcloughie]

Could it be that reverse gear can be a higher ratio than first? Whilst reversing the outfit onto a pitch there are more small adjustments and movements than when pulling forward to reposition and line it up. So driver slips the clutch more.

Could be, plus neither the van or the car was designed with reversing as the primary direction of travel. 😀

John

 

[bertieboy1]

Don’t understand why reversing onto a pitch should wear the clutch excessively unless you gun the engine and slip the clutch. Modern engines, especially diesels are quite happy manoeuvering at idle revs unless you’ve got your outfit hopelessly out of shape and are trying to push it back almost at right angles.

Hi Tuning drew,
I'm with you on this one - never ever had a clutch problem in 30 years of towing forward and reverse

 

[Tuningdrew]

Could it be that reverse gear can be a higher ratio than first? Whilst reversing the outfit onto a pitch there are more small adjustments and movements than when pulling forward to reposition and line it up. So driver slips the clutch more.

Reverse is usually lower than 1st.

 

[Beachball]

I have a 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan 4Motion DSG no problems with reversing but i love my mover never own one until 2019 i find using that to put van into storage and then connecting up to the car .great

 

[Raywood]

I have only ever had to replace one clutch on a Ford, but that was at over 60,000 miles so it might have been old age anyway. In general I do reverse onto pitches unless they present particular problems. Modern clutches do seem to last longer.

 

[DaveA1]

Get an Auto revers in tick over.