Printable View
For what it's worth, I'd also look at the condition of your suspension arm bushes. After replacing them, I found that the stiffness of the ride in general, and the control of my 'van in particular, improved immensely. Might also be worth looking for wear in the Watts Linkage.
Eliminate play in the hitch to reciever may help.
Something like this.
Secure-A-Hitch | RV Towing Solutions
Or drill and tap a bolt in the reciver
Regards
2 more things to look at, I never thought of these.
Another thing crossed my mind, the last person to owned the trailer mentioned that they blew 3 tyres on a trip so they installed the new heavyduty axles and fitted light truck tyres.
this would have lifted the trailer height making the load even more top heavy. Might see if I can properly raise the axle height by 2" above the springs, all a weekend job in this weather.
Been a while and I have not been able to do any fishing so no towing my big clunker, But I have been reading up on suspension and all things related. I have not modified the boat trailer axle height, there is no room, :censored:.
I took my mates boat for a tow and can get to 90-95kph before it wants to sway, not as much though, He can sit on 120 with no movement at all.
So I finally checked the condition of all the suspension bushes and the like, they all "look" really good and dont seem to move under leverage. Then I noticed that my towbar has what I would call excessive play. 5mm side to side and about 10mm up and down, I think this could be a major contributor.
But I also think I need to replace some bushes. I still have drift when driving around town, not serious but annoying enough to notice, LR is all stock. I do however occasionally hear a loud bang when on decent when doing some medium 4WDing, sounds like its being dropped on a rock from a large height but I have heaps of clearance when it happens and I am going pretty slow. I hear this can be the rear sway causing the noise.
So I am tossing up between fitting a tensioner to the towbar to stop the play or ordering a WDH kit (RAA527) which I found out that LR can use them as long as it is this specific type. I will change all my bushes to be sure anyway.
Next thing I am not sure about is, If I go for a 2" lift with all the popular bits'n'pieces, will this effect the towing? especially when my tow load is very top heavy.
Interested in what you guys have to say about it all.
I think when looking at the trailer, most sway is from having a lot of weight at the trailer extremities rather than a particular ball weight or percentage. In your case it's the motors which will do this, especially being such a distance from the axles. The system has to be pliable to sway, so I would try upping the tyre pressures to make them more stable.
For the car, before doing all of the expensive stuff, increase the tyre pressures up as marked on the placard or on the tyre sidewall. The D2 has a lot of overhang to the tow bar which allows a greater measurement of lateral movement. The higher rear tyre pressures also takes out a lot of this available sway that will move between it and the trailer. Your 18" rims will help too.
Also, I think some 18" tyres move around a lot anyway on the D2.
The below are my personal opinions only, and come from my own experiences and extensive online and real world discussions with suspension specialists, towing experts, and mechanical engineers. No responsibility taken.
If you are getting sway at 90-95 with a different trailer then your D2 is the problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neavesie
This is much too much play. I'd suggest reducing this significantly, I welded some runs of weld onto the tongue shaft, then filed to make it a very snug fit. Also suggest that you reduce the total overhang as much as you can. If the towbar protrudes by say 50mm from the front face of the reciever, I would suggest having the shaft redrilled so that it's as close as possible to the receiver. D2's have a lot of overhang for their wheelbase, so anything that you can do to reduce the leverage that a trailer exerts is very helpful.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neavesie
Any drift or slop will be greatly accentuated when you are towing, especially with above mentioned leverage in effect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neavesie
Respectfully, I'd strongly suggest NOT fitting a WDH UNTIL you have all of the vehicle issues sorted out. Doing so will initially mask the problem, but can cause the problem to recur at the higher speeds you will be doing, with possible severe results.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neavesie
As above, I doubt you should lift until the suspension issues that you currently have are resolved.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neavesie