driving offroad with offroad tourers/trailers/caravans

[stewie110]

Hi,

I've recently purchased a camper trailer. One of the common themes that came up in conversations and research was how having a trailer changes how you drive offroad and the modifications to the car towing them.

Here are some of the common themes across various vendors...
- "you will need to have a good quality winch if you venture off on your own"
- "you will need to have front and rear lockers if you tow a trailer in the bush"
- "even offroad trailers don't really go offroad"

Having seen trailers in some pretty off road situations I have doubts about the validity of some of those statements. I am interested to know what other people's thoughts are.

[debruiser]

Never done this myself (other than towing a trailer on the beach) so I'm interested as well.

[weeds]

A lot of owner fit winches and lockers.......some manufacturers are fitting rear lockers as standard.

Re: off roading with a trailer, most trailer are set up as off-road so that it sits level with the tug and has matching wheels (that's another debate in itself)

If k was towing my camper to the cape or night country or west coast of tassie (all future trips) I would consider a winch and front locker.

My current tug has neither but has a good LSD and four maxtrax.

Each to their own really......you just have to consider the terrain you an to travel with all the extra weight behind.......my trailer weighs in around 1.2T

Yes most trailers get the owners to a location.......and never really get off-road.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Just take it out and play with it,,:D
go somewhere close to home thats safe, with mates and phone reception.
Only way you'll answer the question.

[Redback]

I do a lot of towing offroad, I try not to go where a winch or lockers are needed when towing, especially when alone, it's one thing to get stuck, but getting stuck when you're on your own, that's just plain stupid, so I don't go ANYWHERE I'm not sure of alone.

Sometimes it can't be helped, I've been stuck a few times when things went wrong on a track that normally was OK and had the get the winch out, sometimes you get to a point in the journey when going back is worse than keeping on going.

Most important thing when towing offroad, and when I say offroad, I don't a forest trail, don't travel alone.

Second most important thing, get a winch, a locker would be good, but not really that important, sometimes lockers can actually get you deeper in trouble.

Third most important thing, don't go on tracks when it's raining, especially in hilly or muddy terrain and especially in hilly AND muddy terrain.

Also try and avoid really narrow winding tracks, reversing on narrow tracks can be dangerous, especially if you're not very good at reversing a trailer.

If you're alone, stick to mild to medium tracks or open fire trails, base camp and explore in the 4WD only, much safer and you'll enjoy the experience a lot better, we base camp and explore with the car, when out exploring, we look at the potential tracks to take when we move to our next spot, that way we know it's trailer friendly.

I live by this rule when towing;

If you have second thoughts, DON'T.

[C00P]

What Redback said (all good advice) plus a few comments from my experience.
Have towed a camper trailer (about 800-900kg) behind a standard Series III LWB with 2.25 petrol motor. The only mod is a Global Roamer Overdrive which makes towing a little easier by giving more gears. It is slow, not that we cared much as we were never in a hurry. The trailer had electric brakes.
Did the West Coast of Tasmania (and everywhere else on Tassie) no problems. No winch, no diff locks, no problems. Used the base camp/explore without trailer method, and had lots of fun. Had to sort the SIII's brakes out mid-trip (thanks again Arthur, won't forget your hospitality and technical assistance in a hurry!). Some beach driving, some very steep roads in places.
Have also explored the Gawler ranges and Arkaroola with same rig. Some mud, some pretty rough going in places, again, no problems. The trailer coupling is a Treg Hitch which is pretty flexible and it was a good choice on the Gawler ranges trip as the angles on some washouts got pretty steep and twisty at times.
THe camper trailer is nothing fancy- just a standard off-road camper which is pretty solidly built with leaf spring suspension and electric brakes (the Series III is limited to 500kg without brakes). It suffered a bit of paint loss from stone chips, but nothing else. We keep the speed down when off-road (well, to be honest, we rarely have much choice anyway... :D)
Taking a trailer through heavy sand will make life difficult. Our SIII has also crossed the Simpson, but we weren't towing anything, nor (c)would we.
Hope you find that useful,
Regards

Coop

[vnx205]

One more warning you might need to add to your list is:
Do your research to find out if trailers are banned where you intend to go.


I have no idea how widespread the problem is, but I do know that trailers are banned on two of the three routes into Bendethera Valley in Deua NP.

In the current climate of funding cuts, it wouldn't surprise me if NPWS see banning trailers on more tracks as a way of reducing the cost of maintenance.

As far as your original questions go; I don't believe there is a "one size fits all" answer. There are some people without trailers who can't manage without their winch and diff locks while there are others who have towed all over Australia with neither.

One thing that has always occurred to me is that there are some situations where backing up to have another go or to get around a very tight bend is a doddle without a trailer but a major operation with one. In those situations, neither a winch nor diff locks are much help.

[stewie110]

Thanks for your response.

I agree regarding some users who must have lockers and a winch. Most of my mates have Land Cruisers, most often a 7x series. In most cases I will not need lockers where they will have to engage them to get traction. Even If I drive their cars over the same challenges (110 vs 76 troopie) i'll even need to engage at least the rear locker. It seems to me that they do not seem to get the traction that the defenders have.

Is there any source to know where trailers are banned or not? I have never seen a sign saying trailers not permitted passed a point unless it's a truck length sign. Any ideas would be great.

[vnx205]

If you are thinking of National Parks, then there are generally alerts about fire restrictions and road closures on the NPWS site.

Here is the information about Deua NP for example. I couldn't find any others. Maybe the problem is not yet as widespread as I feared.

Deua National Park | Local alerts | NSW National Parks (http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/Deua-National-Park/Local-alerts)

[C00P]

Not sure if trailers are now banned on the Simpson Desert track, but they are certainly discouraged, and will probably be banned if they haven't been already.

Coop

[Saitch]

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/228383-trailer-couplings-3.html
Have a look at this as well & what I mentioned about elec brakes.
Steve

[WillsTdi]

Lots of great info here. I too have just bought and brought back to life a Camper. It's an old '85 Cub Camp-o-matic. I have only ever towed on sand[Stockton Beach]and that was made a little easier having the wheel track the same as the towing vehicle[Vitara]

Never towed anything offroad with a Disco though. Going to be a steep learning curve I reckon. Let us know how your first effort goes.

[stewie110]

If you are thinking of National Parks, then there are generally alerts about fire restrictions and road closures on the NPWS site.

Here is the information about Deua NP for example. I couldn't find any others. Maybe the problem is not yet as widespread as I feared.

Deua National Park | Local alerts | NSW National Parks (http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/Deua-National-Park/Local-alerts)

Thanks for that.. I didn't even know about Deua National Park. I will have to check it out. Looks good on Youtube.

[vnx205]

Thanks for that.. I didn't even know about Deua National Park. I will have to check it out. Looks good on Youtube.

In one camping book I read, Deua NP was described as some of the best bush camping in NSW. I can understand why.

Apart from the general beauty of the area, one of Bendethera Valley's great attractions is that the camping possibilities extend for a few kilometres along the Deua River. It is possible for several dozen groups to camp along the river and be out of sight of all the other campers.

If you add the other camping spots back from the river a bit, then the number of spots you can camp and have the feeling of being the only ones there increases significantly.

EDIT: If you don't mind some company, if you plan to come down this way, let us know. Tank and I are always looking for an excuse to take other AULRO members in to Bendethera.