Optimal weight on a tow-ball when towing a trailer.

hahaha Jim,

How does a pig sway ?

Cheers

I find 25kg on the ball is the ideal towing weight for my 1500kg camper trailer ,10kg lighter and it starts to dance . If I followed the 10% rule then I'd have to have 150kg on the ball,which IMHO is way too heavy. At 25 kg it makes it easy to unhitch and move around and I can load the back of the ute with another 125kg of essential camping/fishing gear.

That was a very interesting site BUT.

In the demo they use at shows it seems they have the axle too far forward which accentuates the problem of snaking.

Here we mostly have the axles placed more than halfway back on our tandem vans anyway and this goes some way to stopping this.
Also that type of van runs a much lower ball weight than do we.

In fact in the demo it would have no ball weight at all as the rear weigh was larger than the front one and was further from the axle so if you unhooked that in reality it would sit on its bum.

However it will answer the posters question.

I'm not sure that link is working try copy and paste this :
http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/courts/coroner/findings/findings_2006/jong.finding.htm

teege

It would appear obvious even to a realatively untrained eye that the caravan is poorly designed......... just shows "caveat emptor"..

Cheers,

Mark

Johno (and others),
I should have added that we're returning to Godzone later this year and my query most certainly related to Oz conditions.

And, yes, there is a HUGE difference in roads - I cringe when I think of our Australian "highways" and freeways etc [and I actually saw a dirt road the other day over here :) ].

Cheers

From the Eurorean vans I have seen they mostly use a Winterhoff coupling which actually grips the towball and helps prevent sway.

Also our vans are much higher off the ground than them and are a lot heavier and so are inherently less stable for a start.
If you dont think a semi can affect you think again.

For a start when towing the van I have had two rear spare wheel covers literally sucked off the rear of the cruiser by passing semis.(Now I tie them on)

Have noticed on the Hume in the last few days that you can actually feel them as they get level with the van.

They seem to have a "Bow Wave"that pushes the van to the left then as they fully pass you it sucks you to the right.

Inexperienced drivers could be correcting the first and get caught by the second and get into trouble rather quickly.

Well firstly how many vans do you see that dont need a jockey wheel to keep the front off the ground.
Its plainly obvious that it appears to be rear heavy otherwise as was said in the enquiry it would not sit level as it does empty.
Even a backyard trailer does not do that.

Maybe he did load it to give it a ballweight but maybe he didnt.
Maybe he didnt have a WDH either as that would have helped steady it.
Probably thought he didnt need it due to the bad weight distribution.

As well as all that the cops didnt weigh it didnt check the loading couldnt remember where the jockey wheel was.

If it was still on the A frame he needed his head read. Fastest way to bottom out and head off road unintentionally.

Appears to be a disaster waiting to happen which it ultimately did.