Let's Have A Rant Thread

[Saitch]

I just discovered today that the tow ball weight on my '93 'cruiser ute is LESS than a 1.8 litre Toyota Corolla
I discovered this while checking the ball weight of our camper trailer with both the 'cruiser & the Disco1 which has a **** poor ball weight of 150kg. I also found out that an HSV Commodore has a ball weight of 350kg.
A wee bit mind boggling for this old brain. I now have to either sell the camper or try to find a fix for both tugs
Steve

[trog]

why not a dolly axle to take the weight and the tow ball to drag the caravan. sew something like this in WA a few years back. the driver claimed it was all legal , at least in Vic , where it was registered. might have a picture somewhere

[pop058]

There has been many discussions about towball weight for towing. IMHO 150kg is way too much to have on a towball. Some quote 10% of the trailer weight as the go, but I would hate to have 300kgs (my 3T car trailer) ball weight. I usually balance my trailer so I can just lift the drawbar which works out around 80-100kgs. This is enough to stop the "tail wagging the dog" and still not drag the arse down and the headlights up. I will check in daylight tomorrow, but am fairly sure the factory bar on my D1 states 120kg max ball weight.

I am sure there will be others along shortly, so I have my flame suit and fire extinguisher ready.

[debruiser]

I read an interesting article about this and the current utes that are being sold of late....

do a google search and there are plenty of interesting/concerning articles about the stated towing capacities, towball weights and GCM/GVMs....

[Slunnie]

There has been many discussions about towball weight for towing. IMHO 150kg is way too much to have on a towball. Some quote 10% of the trailer weight as the go, but I would hate to have 300kgs (my 3T car trailer) ball weight. I usually balance my trailer so I can just lift the drawbar which works out around 80-100kgs. This is enough to stop the "tail wagging the dog" and still not drag the arse down and the headlights up. I will check in daylight tomorrow, but am fairly sure the factory bar on my D1 states 120kg max ball weight.

I am sure there will be others along shortly, so I have my flame suit and fire extinguisher ready.

I completely agree and also thought that I was the only one that thought this. I think it is a far more stable and a significantly better handling setup for braking and cornering with lighter ball weights than 10%. With a 4WD on a car trailer, which is about 3t+ I look for no more than about 1" suspension drop on the rear and for small trailers you should be able to lift it by hand. If it wags, then the loading isn't correct at the rear extremity. I would never use over 150kg ball weight either.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

why not a dolly axle to take the weight and the tow ball to drag the caravan. sew something like this in WA a few years back. the driver claimed it was all legal , at least in Vic , where it was registered. might have a picture somewhere

Ah ha the Jones' Dolly Wheel it even has a patent.



Jones? Dolly Wheel | Vintage Caravans

[Saitch]

Ah ha the Jones' Dolly Wheel it even has a patent.



Jones? Dolly Wheel | Vintage Caravans

Not quite suitable for where we take the camper

[BMKal]

[Homestar]

Ink the 10% ball weight bit is a throw back from decades ago when most vans weighed under 1500Kg. A dual axle 20 footer built in the 70's comes in at thuis weight and my single axle 75 Franklin 16' doesn't crack 1300Kg. In these instances, 10% is fine - 1 run about 130Kg ball weigh which the 101 or the Captiva handles with ease.

In Europe, 5 to 7% is a common ball weight, so as long as it's loaded correctly, there is no need to have more than 150Kg on the ball for all but the biggest and heaviest vans.

Dare I say it - but on the Caravanners forum, there is much discussion about this and there are some links to good articles that show that 10% isn't always correct.

[Xtreme]

I completely agree and also thought that I was the only one that thought this. I think it is a far more stable and a significantly better handling setup for braking and cornering with lighter ball weights than 10%. With a 4WD on a car trailer, which is about 3t+ I look for no more than about 1" suspension drop on the rear and for small trailers you should be able to lift it by hand. If it wags, then the loading isn't correct at the rear extremity. I would never use over 150kg ball weight either.

That makes at least three of us.
I've found that 50 to 100kg works best for me.
Another aspect is that you'd need a rather large jockey wheel to avoid getting it bogged in soft ground with >100kg on it.