Jockey wheel, air suspension question.

[Fred Nerk]

In my past life, as a Navara driver, if we were stopping for an overnight break on holiday, I would leave the camper trailer hitched to the car. For stability while we slept, I would lower the trailer jockey wheel. The Navara has "normal" suspension.

I am yet to do this with my D4 and I'm wondering how much weight the car might place onto my offroad hitch and jockey wheel if the car "sags" or auto levels during the night. Is the practice I'm considering best avoided with air suspension or does everyone do it with impunity?

Does anyone have a cautionary tale to share?

[Graeme]

I've only used the van's rear supports in case the vehicle lowers even just a little. I think either you don't use any front or jockey wheel support or you unhitch the van.

[Fred Nerk]

You have given me an idea :ohyes:

I could park the car at normal height.
Lower the rear trailer supports. They are adjustable, but not when under load.
Put the car at access height.
Lower the supports a little more or just put the leg plates under them.
Return to normal height.

Thus it should be stable and no problem if it sags while we sleep.

[TDV6]

We have a three ton off-road tandem axle van, and do not have a problem with the car or van moving around while still hitched to the car overnight. I do not lower any stabiliser legs or jockey wheel.

Two things I do are apply the park brake to the van and disconnect the 12 volt supply from the car as the our van has LED's the indicators start flashing after about 20 minutes and also I do not want to accidently drain the starting battery in the car.

Happy travels.

Ryall

[discotwinturbo]

Same here.

We camp at horse events, and adjust suspension to make horse float as flat as possible, then leave for two nights. I never bother disconnecting it from the car even with the hitch weight being 340kgs.

Step on the front of the float and visually no movement.

Brett....

[Blknight.aus]

only one cautionary tale...

Dont forget to raise the bloody thing.... they make for very entertaining noises and light shows of a night if you leave in a hurry.

[TerryO]

Its not pretty if and when the car decides to lower and you have the jocky wheel or front legs down.
I have had this happen and you just chringe when nearly 1.5 ton of the D3's weight is transferred to the van and the whole thing starts to creak and groan under the added stress.

If we are just parking over night or somewhere very level I leave the van connected with no legs down and that works fine. Like Ryall we disconnect the trailer plug as I have had the car battery drain overnight because the fridge was left on DC by mistake.

cheers,
Terry

[gghaggis]

We generally lower the jockey wheel, then unlock the ball housing and lower the car to access, so that the ball is still in line under the housing. The car can sometimes auto-level overnight, and that can be a bemusing experience if you have it attached to the van!

Cheers,

Gordon

[mowog]

Over night stops on the way to somewhere we just try to get as level as possible sometimes with ramps. No jockey or caravan stays are used.

My ball weight is over 300kg. I find once the car has settle thats it for the night.

[BobD]

I have a precautionary tale!

Trying to unhitch on a very steep horrible site at Yallingup Beach Caravan Park on our March long weekend at 10:30pm I couldn't raise the caravan enough on the jockey wheel so I told my son to unhitch while I lowered the car to drop the ball. I have a Geist with a German hitch and he didn't know he had to lift the handle the last bit to fully release it! I put the weight of the car on the 100kg capacity hitch, bent the insides of the Jockey wheel, pushed it into the ground and jambed everything up really well.

The moral of the story is be very careful when using the fancy suspension to help with hitching or unhitching a caravan. It is really easy to put a large downwards load on the caravan draw bar, as one of the other posters also mentioned.

Bob

[jonesfam]

Same thing happened to me only on flat ground with a standard ball hitch.
Went to Off Road height, put down the jockey wheel, then lowered the car.
The ball just hooked into the hitch slightly & I ended up with 1 very bent & mangled jockey wheel.
I now just wind up the jockey wheel so if it hooks I can just wiggle the trailer to release it properly.
Jonesfam

[Fred Nerk]

Thanks everyone for comments and tips.

The idea to disconnect the ball and lower the car (but don't move the car) is a good one. Although it would not apply to my Tregg off road hitch.


I have a Traxide battery isolator (to be fitted as soon as I get around to it) to protect me from flattening the car battery if I leave the Anderson plug connected to the trailer battery overnight.

Most important lesson: Don't lower the jockey wheel and leave the trailer connected to the car for any length of time. :spudnikconfounded: