Detatched Caravan----Accident

[Parksy]

Travelling up the A380 from Paignton to Torquay on Kings Ash Hill (very steep) today at about 9-45am a land rover Discovery and I believe a
(Lunar) Delta twin axle van were seperated, the van rolling back down the hill and coming to a halt wedged against a bank.
Believe there were no injuries just shook up occupants of the discovery, but obviously some ones pride and joy will proberbly be no longer.
Cant work out what happened and dont want to speculate, but one question comes to mind;
Was it too steep for the brakaway cable to hold the van (if it was fitted/connected)

 

[Lutz]

Depending how fast the outfit was going when the separation of the coupling itself occurred, even if the breakaway cable did its job and applied the brakes, the caravan won't come to a full stop suddenly but could slither along on its own for up to a hundred yards. After all, once the cable has applied the brakes it will generally rip or the clip will open, thus allowing complete separation.

 

[ProfJohnL]

First and foremost let me say that I am very pleased that no one was hurt, and yes it must be a pretty disturbing event. I also hoe there is little damage to the caravan.

Now clearly we do not have all the facts, but it is my experience that unless the tow ball broke, or there was excessive wear of either the caravan hitch or the cars tow ball, separation is almost always down to the hitch not being properly coupled and locked down at the beginning of the journey.

But I did come across one customer about 15 years ago who was most adamant the coupling was properly made, and it was only after seeing a motorway services CCTV, where some youths were running wild at a caravan area, and they were recorded milling around several hitches whilst their owners were in the services and my customer was one of them and it seems likely they may have unlatched the hitch.

Remember it is the drivers responsibility to ensure the outfit is road worthy so always check your hitch, jockey wheel and brake/brakeaway before setting off even after a short break.

 

[ProfAlGoogle]

"the caravan won't come to a full stop suddenly"

If the outfit is travelling uphill and the caravan becomes detached for what ever reason, surely forward motion will will cease, and at that point the caravan will come to a full stop, before rolling back down the hill, but this should not happen as the brakes are now applied on all four wheels, that is if the cable has been correctly secured before commencement of the journey and the brakes are correctly adjusted.

 

[mullsy1]

Great piece of advice Prof.Also,just imagine if the van had ended up on its side,how far would it travel down a hill that steep.

 

[Philspadders]

caravan brakes are not as effective going backwards as they are going forwards. Its possible the brakes simply could not hold the weight of the van.

 

[Parksy]

I'm glad that no one was hurt in the incident.
Every time that I hitch up I always wind the jockey wheel back down to the ground to check that the back of the car starts to lift before winding the jockey wheel up and into the A frame fairing.

It can look as though a hitch has engaged and the handle will have gone down when in fact the hitch is merely sitting on top of the towball and not locked properly, the quick and simple lift test eliminates this possibility entirely.

Obviously we don't know what happened and the caravan owners have my sympathy but if the driver had failed to hitch up correctly and failed to satisfy themselves that there was no chance of the caravan coming adrift then they might not have attached the breakaway cable properly either.
The correct attachment for a breakaway cable can be seen Here

 

[Gagakev]

I always do the same as you Parksy, just wind the J/W down to slightly lift the tow vehicle.
Good advice.
If it wasnt connected properly in the first place and with the nearest site approx 1 mile away I'm surprised it did'nt happen earlier.
That is if they left a site and not closer from home

 

[littlebasher]

My two cents...

Possibly an Alko stabiliser but not an Alko compatible towball?

 

[Parksy]

As we see all too often on motorways, a properly hitched caravan which snakes or overturns would overturn the towing vehicle or force it to change direction despite the driver's best efforts so unless there was a mechanical failure such as a broken or loose hitch or towbar / towball it appears that the caravan was moving along with the towing vehicle until the hill altered the situation.
Let's hope that the guy who owns the caravan was insured and is able to get his caravan put right soon.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Every time that I hitch up I always wind the jockey wheel back down to the ground to check that the back of the car starts to lift before winding the jockey wheel up and into the A frame fairing.

Ditto, always do the same.

Well mostly but have forgot one or two times

 

[forestgump]

if you loop the brake away cable around the tow bull it 2 can come off i have seen this as a van comes un hitched and the brake away follows the hitch off the tow ball.

 

[Lutz]

"the caravan won't come to a full stop suddenly"

If the outfit is travelling uphill and the caravan becomes detached for what ever reason, surely forward motion will will cease, and at that point the caravan will come to a full stop, before rolling back down the hill, but this should not happen as the brakes are now applied on all four wheels, that is if the cable has been correctly secured before commencement of the journey and the brakes are correctly adjusted.

Yes, forward motion will cease at some point, but that could be quite some distance beyond the point where separation occurred. Even if the cable had been correctly secured it will only apply the caravan's brakes, but it will not prevent complete separation. A breakaway cable is not strong enough to hold car and caravan together if they decide to go in different directions, especially a big caravan, like in this case.

 

[ProfJohnL]

They are called breakaway cables, beacasue their function is to pull the brake lever on in the even of the hitch seperating from the tow car, they are designed to be strong enough to activate the brakes, but to also weak enough to break so the trailer is not still being pulled in a dangerous limply attched state.

 

[Parksy]

I don't think that anyone has tried to imply that a breakaway cable does anything other than apply the caravan brakes in the event of unplanned separation from the towing vehicle. As the photograph shows, the caravan brakes have failed to operate either because of poor adjustment or because the breakaway cable hasn't operated the brakes when the caravan became detached.
I once saw a person on a campsite drive off without the hitch being fully engaged but they had attached the breakaway cable and the 12n.
The brakes were applied on the caravan almost immediately and all that happened was that the A frame dropped to the ground because the jockey wheel had been wound up. Apart from a few scratches to the A frame fairing the only damage done was to the pride of the caravan owner when his wife berated him in front of us

 

[Dustydog]

I always do the same as Parksy and LB. Only takes seconds but proves a good coupling.
On the Al-ko hitch we always watch for the two "greens", and make sure the hitch lever is fully raised before lowering onto the towball.
Once lowered the hitch lever will fall into place resulting in a "green".
Perhaps this was a stolen caravan with the thief using a makeshift coupling?

 

[Allen774]

This has happend to me,though without the devastating results as seen on the photograph,I was leaving a site after a great weekend with some friends,I like many caravaners have a set routine prior to departure,but this time I allowed myself to be distracted with general chatter.I was moving of the field which had undulations(thankfully) when the caravan detached itself from the car with a bang,the caravan stopped dead,the snatch cable doing its job.The only injury was to my pride due to very severe embarassment.
I never allow myself to be distracted while hitching anymore.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

this time I allowed myself to be distracted with general chatter.

I think most of us have been there. I posted in another thread of being distracted and forgetting to connect the breakaway cable.
Isn't it strange how some people, despite being pitched next to you for a week and not bothering to speak, suddenly decide they would like to chat as you are packing up to leave.
It usually starts with 'you're off then' followed by 'have you got far to travel'

 

[HenryB1]

I was distracted whislt removing the Alko hitch lock on the first outing of the season on my last van. With the lock removed I connected up to the car, got the green button on the hitch, connected brake away cable and power cables and raised the jockey wheel. Checked all around again and proceeded to pull off site. Large bang, the van disconnected and collapsed onto the ground. Fortunately I was still on grass so no damage caused apart from from my pride and a broken brake away cable. When I checked to find out the cause I discovered I had failed to remove the small plastic Alko ball fitted in the hitch when the hitch lock was used. This ball caused the green indicator to appear on the hitch when I lowered the hitch onto the ball, indicating a safe connection to the car when it was not. Moral of the story, don't rely on the green indicator when hitched confirm it by winding the jokey wheel down a bit and watch for the back of the car start to rise.

 

[Lutz]

As the photograph shows, the caravan brakes have failed to operate either because of poor adjustment or because the breakaway cable hasn't operated the brakes when the caravan became detached.

I don't think that one can assume that the brakes failed to operate. If the outfit was going fast enough, the caravan could easily have gone up the embankment and back down before coming to rest, even if the brakes were working.

 

[ProfAlGoogle]

"Even if the cable had been correctly secured it will only apply the caravan's brakes, but it will not prevent complete separation. A breakaway cable is not strong enough to hold car and caravan together "

Not wishing to be offencive but it seems that in the above statement Lutz you are contradicting yourself, as the original poster implies the land rover discovery and twin axle caravan were travelling UP a steep hill when the van became detached, at the point of separation the breakaway cable should have been deployed, the hand brake would then have assumed the vertical position and the brakes on all four wheels should have been hard on, thats the whole idea of having the cable in the first place, to prevent the caravan rolling back down the hill.

 

[Gagakev]

Not much of a report, but you may want to take a look

http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Runaway-caravan-rolls-busy-hill/article-3367186-detail/article.html