towing caravans

Hi jomah

The tug-o-war effect. If in a slide, the heavier object will win. In my case, it will be the tow vehicle, and the driver can exert some control over it.

Accidents do happen, and caravan roll overs are not uncommon.

Motherhen

All the above, it is just a much better balance if the Tower is heavier the the towee??

having said that the toyota Landcruiser and the Nissan patrol are both rated to tow up to 3.5 tonnes and they only weigh around 2.5 or so.

The rules for towing in all states now say that if the manufacturer doesn't state the towing capacity then it is 1.5 times the unladen weight of the tow vehicle.

At the start of our 5 years on the road the 27ft Viscount caravan weighed 4ton.

Towing with a Landcruiser made travelling hazardous at times and I eventually brought the weight down to 2.5ton discarding anything that was not necessary. This made the weights about even and I was much happier. When I came to the end of the wanderings I swore I would never tow a van again.....still, I now tow a trailer....lol


Cheers

jomah
Have a read in this link, you will many answers to your queries

Compliance Plates and Trailer Weights

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This is a non technical woman response.

We tow our 16ft older van with a mazda table top. Most of the heavy items including the annex and poles go on the truck . We don't carry water in the tank and even the groceries go on the truck. The van has a few cooking pots , cups & plates & a few clothes. It's easy when you can put everything on the truck but I guess when you have a sedan or 4x4 you can't fit as much bulky stuff inside.

I used to work on Cranes - and as a result i would often tow around a cherry picker , as would the other guys i worked with. One of the guys had a tow vehicle that weighed less than the cherry picker.

One afternoon on the M4 freeway the tire on the cherry picker went down - he was traveling at 80 KMH (i believe him when he said he was - he used to drive like an old woman even without a load on) anyway - as a result the trailer 'BUM steered" him all over the m4 - ran him into the concrete barrier near a bridge - cherry picker over turned and was written off - the cherry picker was about 2 tonnes and he was in a triton ute which is about 1300 Kg ???

I had a Ford AU ute - and even then i would still feel this thing worm down the road especially down a hill. so do you need the tow vehicle to be heavier .... HELL YEH , if you value saftey then the answer is yes every time. As a poster above stated - it really is a tug of war situation

Boc

In 99% of caravan accidents it's the driver or poor setup of the combination that has contributed to the accident, not the weight of the van/trailer whatever.

Most tow capacities for cars/4x4s/trucks are far greater than the weight of the tow vehicle.

A prime excample is a semi, most prime movers are 1/4 the weight of the loaded trailer!!!!!

If you setup your car,4x4 trailer combination properly, then you won't have any problems, also learn how to tow properly.

There are heaps of things designed to help make towing a van/trailer easier and safer.

Baz.

Interesting replies from everyone and the consensus of them being as I expected. IAfter 18 months on the road however I would guestimate that at least half of the vans I pass on the highway are being towed by vehicles lighter then the vans themselves so we are all pretty careful and capable drivers or we are just damned lucky. My own van outweighs the tow vehicle by about 300g and has to date given me no scarey moments. I feel the braking systems on modern vans are a lot better than they were some years back; as are vehicle braking systems as well. Thanks for the response ; most enlightening & interesting.