Towing a van with D4 - unhitch at night?

[Drafrete]

Hi,

A question for those of you with larger caravans. I am in process of upgrading from a camper to a full caravan. I have noticed that a lot of people (not Disco's) towing larger vans leave their cars hooked to their vans overnight. I would have thought that with a D4 with EAS this was not a good idea, as the car will try to level out during the night and end up fighting the van or the hitch putting pressure on the connection.

What do those of you with larger vans do? Do you stay with the car hitched up over night or not?

Thanks in advance.

[TerryO]

Whether its considered as being the right or wrong procedure I don't really know, but I now lower our D3 down to access height if I'm leaving the van hitched for an overnighter, even though it usually means the van isn't sitting level.

The one thing I found wasn't a good idea was to put the vans stabiliser legs down with the van hitched, as the Disco will settle and you end up with the Disco's weight sitting on the vans stabiliser legs ...:eek:

Others may have different experiences but this is what we have found happens works best with our van.

cheers,
Terry

[PaulGOz]

I have a camper trailer and for overnight stops remain hitched without jockey wheel often kn off foad height i only have rear stabilisers so any settling is unlikely to cause stress on trailer. I guess this is a risk if using front stabilisers or jockey as you could end up witb several hundred kilos of negative tow ball weight. Is an option to release the coupling but not actually remove so if car settles it will just lower the ball out if coupling? Remembering to reset before setting off of course.

[TerryO]

You can't release the coupling if you have a Trigg Hitch like I do and just imagine how far you will jump out of bed if at 4.00 am in the morning if the car settles and there's an almighty bang as the ball pulls out of the coupling if its not sitting centre.

cheers,
Terry

[Drafrete]

Thanks for your replies. My previous camper had a tregg coupling and to avoid all this I released the coupling each night. But the camper was light enough that re-hitching was not a big deal. With the larger van I am not going to be able to move it by hand to line up so was wondering about leaving it connected for a short stop. But I am concerned about the negative load on the coupling.

At least I won't have a WDH to have to worry about as well.

I suspect that if the van ball weight is close to the limit of the car (say 300 kg or so) and I leave it hooked up with no front stabilizer legs then depending on where we move in the van the ball weight could exceed the max for the car and I think that would be most unwise. So I expect that I will need to uncouple each night.

[Tombie]

Ball weight is based on dynamic loading.

And as others already suggested...
Use the Back legs but not the front.

You are worrying about things you need not bother about.

[gghaggis]

Ball weight is based on dynamic loading.

And as others already suggested...
Use the Back legs but not the front.

You are worrying about things you need not bother about.

Exactly - but if not being level really bothers you, you can always pull the fuse for the EAS.

Cheers,

Gordon

[TerryO]

Treggs /Triggs which ever, yes they can both be a real pain in the bottom when hitching up.

However I found the secret, let your better half do the reversing and you stand at the back giving the directions. I have found this make coupling a hassle free exercise that takes five minutes to hook up and get everything sorted.

Before when I drove and my better half gave the instructions it was hellish to say the least and usually took ten to fifteen minutes and lots of angry shouting at each other.

Give it a try it may well work for you as well.

cheers,
Terry

PS ...I'd never go back to a tow ball, having a Trigg hitch makes towing so smooth and noise /bang free.

[games1]

Hey Guys, get a camera. Didn't realise how easy things become when you can actually see the Tregg and only need to adjust the height. Definitely saves the shouting.

[robbotd5]

Gday.
I don't have a D4 but I do have a big van. All you need to do is put on your jockey wheel/trailermate and adjust until you take the weight off the tug. All good.
Regards
Robbo

[TDV6]

I adjust the car height to get the van as level as I can, the car up or down makes no difference.

Van stabilisers, rear only if at all, generally not.

Hitch is a "Hyland" 360 degree with normal 50mm ball.

The boss and I use a hand held UHF and car mounted unit to help overcome miss-communication parking, hitching up etc.

Ryall

[Graeme]

Gday.
I don't have a D4 but I do have a big van. All you need to do is put on your jockey wheel/trailermate and adjust until you take the weight off the tug. All good.
Not a good idea with a vehicle with air suspension that periodically checks that the vehicle is level and will re-level downwards.

[pohm66]

I agree with paulgoz about lowering the rear stabilisers only.

The wife and I spend almost 5 months on the road and about half the time free camping.

Generally what we did was leave the rear legs towards the end of camp setup, after opening and closing the car doors several times the car settled to its happy level. We then set the legs down and don't recall any time where the car settled over night upsetting the legs.

We have about 200 kg ball weight.

[robbotd5]

Not a good idea with a vehicle with air suspension that periodically checks that the vehicle is level and will re-level downwards.

Even with the car locked up? Do they drop down? I don't know. Surely it wont keep the car level over night? But I can see that if it does drop, the car will put weight on the van. I've got coils but with polyair's so my D2 will not drop.
Regards
Robbo

[Graeme]

Even with the car locked up? Do they drop down? I don't know. Surely it wont keep the car level over night? But I can see that if it does drop, the car will put weight on the van. I've got coils but with polyair's so my D2 will not drop.
Regards
Robbo
Yes, they wake-up 2 hours after the last door is closed then every 6 hours thereafter.

[Tombie]

Based on the logic of "taking the weight off the vehicle"

Do you (sic) empty the boot area each night when it's loaded?! :p

[robbotd5]

Yes, they wake-up 2 hours after the last door is closed then every 6 hours thereafter.

Are you serious???:o:o:eek:
Regards
Robbo

[Graeme]

The WSM states 2 hrs after the ignition is switched off so I may be wrong about the last door being closed time.

From the WSM...
Periodic Re-leveling

When the vehicle is parked, the air suspension control module 'wakes up' two hours after the ignition was last switched off and then once every six hours. The vehicle height is checked and if the vehicle is not level within a pre-set tolerance, small downwards height adjustments may be made automatically.

[discotwinturbo]

The WSM states 2 hrs after the ignition is switched off so I may be wrong about the last door being closed time.

From the WSM...
Periodic Re-leveling

When the vehicle is parked, the air suspension control module 'wakes up' two hours after the ignition was last switched off and then once every six hours. The vehicle height is checked and if the vehicle is not level within a pre-set tolerance, small downwards height adjustments may be made automatically.

Explains why the battery goes flat reasonably quick.

Brett....

[robbotd5]

Well what do you know!! Technology ehh???
Regards
Robbo

[disco4now]

I quite often leave the van hooked up over night, we don't use any legs. We like to level it up so show water runs out ok. Here we are at Jame Earl Lookout, south of Lakefield I think. It is a bit of a slope down, I have a piece of wood each side under the rear wheels, D4 at off road and LLAMS at +50. I originally took this to tell Graeme about new use for LLAMS but have never posted it until now.
I adjust the D4 to what ever is needed to get van level and don't every remember it not being the same in the morning.

Have I read somewhere that special programs wont change the height automatically if trailer is attached? Maybe the trailer being detected also stops the leveling. Anyway I reckon the water runs out the show the same next morning. You can see the picture was taken next morning.




https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/02/966.jpg

[Graeme]

I'm in the process of fitting 17" X5 wheels to my small van which will give it another 2" lift after having just replaced the suspension with a good off-road setup. Even though I've lowered the coupling 3" and will get a 2" raised hitch, it will still need to be levelled at night so Llams will be put to use there too - just have to get the right combination each time. Better to have the van a little nose down to prevent the tail from getting too low if the vehicle needs to be raised for obstacles.

[mervwho]

I tow a 3.5t van and if I am free camping for the night I am usually too tired to worry about the cars suspension and don't put the stabilizer legs down on the van. I go to sleep. There are more things to consider/ponder than two inches up or down....I stay hitched because you just never know if you have to pack up real quick..

Cheers

Merv