Caravan Axles - Single- Double

Many, many years ago we hired a single axle C/van to go to Coral Bay for our Honeymoon, after the trip Hubby stated he would never tow a van again, and neither he did until we had 4 children and 6 weeks holidays to take, he rang me at home and asked how I would like to take a Caravan up North with the kids, after spending 8 years resigning myself to never having such an option I quietly said, "that sounds great Love, lets try it", so we hired a tandem (twin axle) and off we went. Within 6 months of the trip we were on our way to Perth one weekend (from the country) to buy our own caravan, the only stipulation was it had to have tandem axle. Now for the other reasons, they seem to tow better, you made mentioned if one tyre goes flat the other is there to take the weight, easier to park in C/park bays are some that come quickly to mind.
To answer your question about why single axles are manufactured, tandems only start at 18ft, some people like a smaller van and there are some people who would only want single axle for their own reasons, each to there own. We just prefer the tandems.
Just a footnote re the safety of the extra tyres, when we were in Coral Bay this year (2010) a woman pulled in next to us with quite a lot of damage to her van, (was an 18ft Jayco tandem) when asked what happened she said that one of the left side tyres blew and she had the devils own job to hold it from rolling, it appears that when the tyre blew the lowered step (which was at the rear of the van) dragged on the ground which caused the van to sway badly hence all the damage, door all buckled, dents where the corner hit the car somehow, and also a bent chassis. Last we heard the insurance company had written the van off.

Cheers

D

We have had both as we started out with a small single axle camper.

Advantages: We could spin it round by hand if stuck in a tight spot. Less tyres to maintain.

Disadvantages: Stuff was tossed from one side of the cupboards to the other (we travel off the bitumen frequently), damage to fittings, milk bottles and cartons leaking from the bottom from the bouncing. I wouldn't even try and take eggs!

My man’s reasoning had more to do with safety in case of a blowout or losing a wheel, and general stability of the unit. There is also less thrust up and down on your tow hitch with the van stable on dual axles.

Unless you have a very small caravan or a camper trailer and pack light, I thoroughly recommend tandem.

Happy New Year to you and all it is past the witching hour for those on EDST

Motherhen

What NP are you referring to BBA? If you're referring to Purnululu, they made the concession to allow small single axled caravans in - where previously it was no caravans at all. They also argue that dual axled caravans, because the wheels are fixed, cause more drag and damage to soft tracks when turning. If it is another park, i would like to know, because the only two parks we haven't been able to take our caravan into so far have been Purnululu (in 2008 when it was no caravans at all), and the Fitzgerald River NP on the WA south coast - again no caravans were permitted.

Mh

Same as Dunworkin, Had a single axle many years ago and nearly had a stoke towing the rotten thing - so no caravan for 30 years then got the bug but made sure we bought a tandem and it tows like a dream.(on our 2nd one now)

Nearly got cleaned up by a nitwit towing a single axle van last year - went past swaying all over the road - took out my driverside mirror on his way past - last seen heading toward Carnarvon.


Jeff.

hi bba
i've towed tripple/ double and single
the tripple was a 26ft jayco with 12inch wheels the worst thing i have ever towed didn't keep it long not suitable for around aus although in my wisdom at the time thought it would be ok but found out quickly but also used it as living quarters on the farm when first married until i sold out

then down sized in 1980 to brand new 18ft viscount suppreme which i might add only cost $8580.00 with reverse cycle air cond -tandem axle it was a dream to tow with same vehicle as above 1979 rambler v8 360cu inch powered jeep quadra-track fulltime 4wd cherokee
went around aus with this in 1980/81for 8mths still a huge amount of narrow gravel and sealed highway roads in those days but not a problem didnt know it was there most of the time had to look in the mirrow to confirm this
then sold jeep
and bought 1982 land cruiser petrol 6cyl it couldnt match the cherokee in any way or form what a disapointment noisy /gutless and thirsty and poor ride/ road manners
kept it 2 yrs and never bought another lc ever and sold van in 1985

then in 1988 went to single axle 1969 viscount and a nissan navara d/cab diesel 2.7 for a few years then a mazda a/market turbo bravo 2.5 diesel d/cab as tugs

nissan handled it but was flat out at 90km/hr
mazda much better and could handle 100km /hr standard mazda suspension let the van control the mazda so upgraded to toughdog foam cell shock sand one extra rear leaf and also rotated the caravan crank axle to raise it inline with 4wd height
so as tow rig was just slightly down on the drawbar had no more trouble after this was done and didnt need anti-sway weight-distibution bars either used this set up until 2005 when i got the campertrailer bug and sold the van

what i learnt over the above period is if the van and rig is set up in the correct manner and loaded in the right way as to where the weight in the van is placed is crusuall
this is the golden rule no matter what lenght the van is and what you tow with load distribution number 1-- get this right and result is--- A1 towing rig
the tow vehicle imho needs to weight more than the caravan ---absolutely

the 16ft single 1 tonne was good but much more care has to taken when someone was overtaking the single compared to the tandem 18ft but i would not try and tow a single 18ft-er and i saw a south african one recently that was i think 19ft on a single axle with wide fat single tyres

at 100ks/hr the tanden was deffinately the more stable at 2 tonne but then the jeep also weighed 2.3 tonne and was a beaut power/weight tow vehicle
which was a big factor in stability allround and with a w-d-hitch

sorry for the long reply but you did ask a question that i felt could only be answered in the best way
cheers /hny2011

It`s not what you asked I know but I prefer no axle at all.
I reckon the Trailing Arm Independent Suspension is far better than any axle suspension.
Why are you not considering independent suspension ?.
Just interested that's all.

Regards

Scrubby

Hi All

I accidentally posted a follow up to Jeffie (Reply 4) rather than a reply to the whole thread.

I would be curious for comments if you look under Jeffie's reply

Ken