hi, I am new to caravaning, I am towing with a Golf Estate 130 diesel which as solo car is fab' I am told that I have a kerb weight of 1514 so 85% = 1287. My caravan is a new Bailey ranger 460/4 which has a MTPLM of 1184 so in theory all should be well. When we collected the caravan we had a pitching backwards and forward's motion, as I have read somewhere on the forums, when a caravan is empty it is pos. We have now put some kit in the caravan but I am still getting a sort of bouncing movement, particularly when going up an incline. I have been told many things inc, light nose weight, not enough weight in the car. I will be using it solo a lot of the time. Any other ideas would be very helpful, thanks.
pitching
- Thread starter chriswarren
- Start date
Increased tendancy to pitch when going uphill figures because noseweight is reduced when facing uphill and noseweight has a significant effect on pitching (proportionately even more so when the caravan is unladen). For that reason, always make sure you keep the noseweight as high as the specs allow.
Hi Chris. I also tow with a Golf TDI130 estate (there do not seem to be many of us who do,) which I find to be excellent both solo and towing.
I tow an Elddis Vogue Tornado MTPLM 1150 Kg, so similar weight to yours. I use a Bulldog 'blade' type stabiliser and always set the noseweight to 75Kg, which is the max. for the car. If I get any 'pitching' it is only very slight and occurs between my home and the caravan's lodgings without the stabiliser attached, and on a very undulating road.
Once you get set up correctly I am sure you will be pleased with the Golf as a tow car as well as solo - and you will be able to surprise a few 4x4 drivers on the long uphill drags (oops I should not have mentioned that on this forum, sorry!!)
Enjoy your hols.
Trevor M
I tow an Elddis Vogue Tornado MTPLM 1150 Kg, so similar weight to yours. I use a Bulldog 'blade' type stabiliser and always set the noseweight to 75Kg, which is the max. for the car. If I get any 'pitching' it is only very slight and occurs between my home and the caravan's lodgings without the stabiliser attached, and on a very undulating road.
Once you get set up correctly I am sure you will be pleased with the Golf as a tow car as well as solo - and you will be able to surprise a few 4x4 drivers on the long uphill drags (oops I should not have mentioned that on this forum, sorry!!)
Enjoy your hols.
Trevor M
Good on ya Chris and Trevor.
I would guess that your nose weight of the van is a bit light. Firstly by moving the load to get 75Kgs is your first job. Then as Trevor has found, fitting a blade type stabiliser will help to iorn out the rocking.
It's refreshing to hear of people using tow cars other than what might be called the norm. Any car will tow reasonably well within it's capacity. I tow with a 1998 Laguna estate (2 Litre 8 valve) and that has no pitfalls for me.
As for Trevors last quipe all I'll say is, It ain't what you got it's the way that you drive it that counts. Know what I mean! He, he.
Happy caravanning.
I would guess that your nose weight of the van is a bit light. Firstly by moving the load to get 75Kgs is your first job. Then as Trevor has found, fitting a blade type stabiliser will help to iorn out the rocking.
It's refreshing to hear of people using tow cars other than what might be called the norm. Any car will tow reasonably well within it's capacity. I tow with a 1998 Laguna estate (2 Litre 8 valve) and that has no pitfalls for me.
As for Trevors last quipe all I'll say is, It ain't what you got it's the way that you drive it that counts. Know what I mean! He, he.
Happy caravanning.
Hi all
many thanks for your coments and thoughts, I am still working on it, have checked the nose weight and got it to 75Kg, using bathroom scales and flat piece of wood to spread the load under the jockey wheel. I am using a ALKO 3004 stabiliser.
Nice to know I am not alone with a golf estate, thanks Trevor, I have a question though, do you increase the rear tyres to 3.2 bar? I found this to be hard and the pitch worse and now using 2.5 bar.
many thanks for your coments and thoughts, I am still working on it, have checked the nose weight and got it to 75Kg, using bathroom scales and flat piece of wood to spread the load under the jockey wheel. I am using a ALKO 3004 stabiliser.
Nice to know I am not alone with a golf estate, thanks Trevor, I have a question though, do you increase the rear tyres to 3.2 bar? I found this to be hard and the pitch worse and now using 2.5 bar.
Hi Chris, this will be my third attempt at getting a response to you. I believe there have been problems with the forum - at least it has not been allowing me to post messages for some reason. Anyway, here goes and I hope it gets on this time!
I set my tyre pressures towards the maximum as stated inside the fuel filler cover, with the exception that I leave the rears at 3.0Bar. This is because the 3.2Bar indicated is actually above the maximum rating for the (original equipment) Continental tyres. This seems to work well for me.
I would be interested in your final solution to your pitching problem, and what you think of the Golf towing when you have it sorted.
Enjoy your hols.
Trevor M
I set my tyre pressures towards the maximum as stated inside the fuel filler cover, with the exception that I leave the rears at 3.0Bar. This is because the 3.2Bar indicated is actually above the maximum rating for the (original equipment) Continental tyres. This seems to work well for me.
I would be interested in your final solution to your pitching problem, and what you think of the Golf towing when you have it sorted.
Enjoy your hols.
Trevor M
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