Jack-knifed caravan

[taff52]

Hi we had the misfortune of having our caravan stolen on Friday evening from a cassoa gold site in Weldon Northants. The police saw the caravan and gave chase through Leicestershire and in to Warwickshire. The caravan jack-knifed and is now in the recovery site in Fillongley garage.
has anybody had a caravan jack-knifed and what damage can it cause? We haven't seen the caravan yet
Many thanks

 

[Hutch]

Taff, What a time for this to happen, The Numptys that stole it, why, any caravan moving is going to be stopped by police, and why run, your not going to out run them.
Anyway I would think that if it has Jacknifed the Frame has twisted and it would be a write off, only an Insurance survey, would tell.

 

[Raywood]

Sorry to hear of the problem but as Hutch says the thief must be an idiot as any police car will stop a caravan being towed and frankly you cannot outrun any car when towing.
As for the damage after a jack knife it can be almost anything. If it was not too serious then there might be only minor damage, but a twisted chassis is very possible if it stayed upright. In many cases they overturn along with the tow car. Like all accidents the outcome is largely unpredictable.
Just keep your fingers crossed.

 

[JezzerB]

Poor poor you;it could be totally fine or tyres damaged, alloy wheel damage , A frame /draw bar damage, damage if the front of the caravan hit the towing vehicle and as above chassis damage. Sadly you'll just have to wait and make sure they inspect it properly and you do too inc measurements for twists etc. A long time ago i slid my car sideways in to a kerb in ice-quite slow and damaged, so the ins company said, the alloy wheel suspension strut bent and that was that. When i got the fixed car back it drove terribly-brakes vibrated steering pulled etc etc. The discs were bent where they had touched the alloy wheel as it bent and the hub was damaged too-took me a heck of a job and an engineers report to get it sorted satifactorily and was still a bit out of pocket. Don't trust them to do a thorough job, double check them!

 

[Gafferbill]

........assuming the caravan remained upright on it's wheels then the obvious damage will be to the bodywork at one of the front corners depending on which way it jacknifed.
The body work at that corner will foul the tow vehicle and the damage will be dependent on the force of the impact .
Damage to the towbar or chassis is unlikely as the crumpling of the bodywork minimises the forces on these components.
Any other damage will be caused if the caravan impacted other vehicles, roadside buildings, kerbs or any other obstruction.