Power Cable

[Val & Frank]

Is it safe to use a reel to stow the power cable ?? I was looking at the garden hose reel and thought, I could adapt it quite easily to take the vans hook up cable. Just concerned that if it is only a short run, the cable left on the reel could get hot !!!

2nd Question. Is it worthwhile to buy a jockey wheel that has a pneumatic tyre ?? with a built in nose weight gauge ? Going to the NEC later in the month and just thinking about what extras to buy .

Thanks

Val & Frank

 

[MikeP]

Q1 - you have answered it already. You should never leave a hookup cable wound onto any sort of reel or drum. You need to leave any excess under the van in loose loops.

Q2 - a pneumatic jockey will help with moving the caravan, but will also reduce your ground clearance. This should only be a problem when boarding/leaving ferries or on certain driveways. We always take our jockey off for ferries anyway.

A built in noseweight gauge sounds a bit gimmicky. Once you know where everything goes and you've sorted the noseweight once, then you don't really need to check it very often. In order to achieve a totally accurate measurement the van must be perfectly level, and the hitch head must be at towball height.

I've said this before (and Lutz agreed with me) - if you can lift the hitch with one hand it's too light. If you can lift it for a couple of seconds with both hands, then that's about 50-60kg. If you rupture something, it's around 100kg.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I have two cable (one twice as long as the other) both on reels.

The longer and heavier one rests on the ground for winding up and the shorter one is inside an old mains extension reel box.

Both are fully unwound in use

The Alko jockey wheel/nose weight gauge does not have pneumatic tyre and it weighs a considerable amount.

BPW do one that is lighter and may have a pneumatic tyre but memory fades me on that one.

Both are considerably more expensive than a pneumatic tyred jockey wheel and seperate nose weight gauge.

 

[Earlybird]

Frank if you go to AL KO web site it will give you a better idea william

 

[Val & Frank]

Thanks Guys. Will check the lifting method if i get big balls I will set the H&SE onto you ----))))

Val & Frank

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Frank

QI as with other respondants always fully unwind the power cable.

Q2 - There are two inaccuracies with using the jockey wheel as a nose weight guage:.

Firstly, the nose weight is the resultant force of mass and distance from the point of contact the main wheels have with the road. The jockey wheel positiion is different to the hitch, and thus there will be a difference in the force at the jockey wheel compared to the real load at the hitch.

Secondly, The jockey wheel has some mass which will be fully supported by the tow hicth when wound up in driving conditions, but when stationary and taking a measurement some of the jockey wheel will become the support system for the measument device and that part will be ommitted form the measurments taken.

I acknowledge that these differences may only be in the order of 5Kg or so but if you are that close to the limit then 5Kg will be significant.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I would have thought that the calibration on the nose weight jockey wheel should allow for the relative position of the jockey wheel to the coupling head.

Note should not does !!

Only Alko could have come up with such a very heavy jockey wheel when many posters (inc me) have a problem with already heavy noseweight.