Yet another Adria caravan splattered

nothing like a good Aussie made van

hi william w
i tend to disagree
maybe not badly physically injured but their memories will be scarred for life and probably have lost a lot of personel stuff that insurance cant replace

they wont forget that event for a very long time

i feel sorry for them and we dont know the true reason for the mishap
unless you were there as an event witness ??

if owners choose to tow without a wdh
one can hardly blame the brand of caravan for the owners risk taking

there's plenty of australian made vans that have ended up just the same as this imported one for simular reasons

cheers and it wont be the last one to go a over t

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I'm currently in Germany.
On the autobahns the caravans are not allowed to go more than 80kph. Might tell you something.
Cars have no speed limit. Trucks and buses are 100kph.

Yep, you can always bank on it.

Another ill informed judgement by someone who has never owned or towed one of these vans.

For the records I too have a European van (Geist) rated for speed of 130kph. not that we can do this here, but I do sit on the legal speed limits wherever possible.

Van tows like a dream, have had it 5 years and travelled from our home here in Hobart to FNQ a couple of times.

Use it every winter for 2/3 months and over summer.

Never had any problems worth mentioning and could not be happier.

We had a 2 year warranty on the complete van and a 5 year warranty on water ingress! Is there any Australian van manufacturer game enough to match this level of confidence? I think not.

I feel very sorry for those people and would suggest that driver error is the cause of that crash, and unfortunately it could happen to anyone.

AFTER reading the news report there was nothing said about what caused the accident.Whats to say it was not driver error or the tow vehicle not the right one for the van .Perhaps some idiot cut them off.
cheers reggy2

I have not towed a European van but for many years I towed a 16 ft dive boat on a trailer that had similar suspension setup to the Adria vans and it was an incredibly stable and reliable system.

I cannot see how just driving at speed would make these vans any more unstable than any other similar van made here in Australia.

From what we heard while researching vans is that they make great vans for bitumen roads but are not designed for rough dirt roads.

Like any vehicle if you know your limits and drive to the conditions you should not have problems.

I'm probably looking at this picture wrong, but is that van wheel to far forward? A friend and i tried towing a boat a few years ago, and once we hit 80ks it went everywhere. A couple of times into the other lane before we got it under control. Turns out the wheel was to far forward. Lucky it was adjustable, which we did and the next servo.

BTW. He had just bought the boat and was bringing it home for the first time.

Maybe the problem is that these vans are made for good roads, whereas some of our roads are pretty ordinary.

My parents have a european van which is very pretty and great on the highway, but I would not dare take it where we take our Goldstream.

In saying that ours is an off road model so it is made for real Australian conditions.

Regards

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regarding WDH's... what manufacturers supply one (included in the price and stated that it must be used) with their vans?

William

As a lurker of the websites that you mention I have also noted the frequent attacks of the Euro van style vans such as the Geist. I have also noted that these attacks often originate from people who are either manufacturers or repairers of vans built to the traditional (Australian) method. I admit to being a cynical so and so, and take these claims with a grain of salt given the vested financial interests of these posters.

Given your obvious expertise in these in matters, could you please advise the following:
What is the ball weight of the Geist?
What was the ball weight of the van in question?
What is the recommended ball weight of the tow vehicle?
Where is the centre of gravity of a properly packed Geist?
What was the centre of gravity of the van in question?
What were the circumstances of the accident and why do you attribute this to the construction of the van?
What is your area of expertise for you to make such comments?
What van do you tow?

If you look at the Geist specifications, you would note that the ball weight of vans is between 6 and 8% of the tare weight; the norm for an Australian van is 10%. The van certainly does not have a 50% of the weight behind the wheels (a ball weight of 0 kg or negative ball weight).

I am not in a position to make any comment as to how the van in question was packed and I suggest neither do you.

WDH are an attempt to get the van and car balanced, so that the front wheels can steer, (and drive for front wheel drives) and handle in the manner in which the car was designed; they are effectively a bandaid solution to bring the tow vehicle up to operational norms for which they were designed. They are not the cure for all ills; a badly packed car or van is still a badly packed car or van with or without a WDH.

Rather than making half thought out attacks on a style of van, how about you present us with a fully researched argument on the forces involved in the towing an European and Australian style van on the tow vehicle, the effects of the use of a WDH and how this affects the handling characteristics of the tow vehicle and the van.

Basically, prove your allegations rather than relying on anecdotal evidence culled from other forums where some posters have vested interests in pushing their own opinions

My understanding is that Adria are made in Solvakia and I know they are sold by Merc dealers here. Before talking to owners, I took their quality to be good, as a line extention from Mercedes Benz because of where they were sold.

On Utube there is a video of making a Swift caravan. They are made in just one day, rolling through the production line. Just listen to the soundtrack and you will hear the screw guns. Just screwing the van together.

It certainly would appear lodgical that a van made that quick cannot be as good as ones made for Australia. A Kedron takes 30 days from beginning to end of the production line. I do not know other brands so I cannot comment.

Wow,, a lot of informed and uninformed comment it seems to me.

I can tell a story - my box trailer (built by me under supervision and with axle back from CL of trailer) was as stable as ever fully loaded for many years became totally unstable one day,, why??

was loaded with sand that moved to the rear despite being wet/damp

this TOTALLY changed the weight distribution, even though I'm carefull to distribute load with shovel

RESULT trailer slewed over 1m left and right very quicky - action flatten my foot till it was behind me and gentle braking trying to maintai the striaght line

a semi trailer coming the other way pu ALL wheel off ontothe dirt

I was very lucky and this was over in about 10 seconds

lessons learned obviously stability can be taken granted BUT when something happens to change the balance whatever it is YOU had better be ready for it

as to the cause of this one who knows - we can all gues but it would be good to find out at some stage

chers Baz