Thread: Get these blokes off my front lawn

I've hired 5 ton flat tops from Avis in Canberra before, About $180 a day plus kilometres. We moved some plant from Blayney to Canberra and back for about $350.00. Might be worth thinking about. Sorry to hear of your woes, If there's anything I can do to help give me a call, Disco Pom knows my number.
Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by dobbo

Does anyone know of a decently balanced trailer big enough to carry the 5m length x 2m width x 2.25m short 3- 3.5t vehicle? The County will tow it slowly, very bloody slowly but it will get it there, we just need the trailer. Preferably around the Newcastle area.

Yeah Dobbo. Check out the BP's now, they seem to have changed trailer suppliers or something and they're generally looking pretty good. They also now have winches on the front of the trailers to get the cars up and onto them, and double as a supplementary restraint. They tow well. I don't think you will find any hire trailer that is rated for a total mass over 2T due to braking requirements and the need for load sharing suspension. If you do load it to the max, you will need to pump up the tyres to their max pressure and you will have to ensure that the ball height is where the trailer wants it to be otherwise the trailer will just eat the tyres off it.

rovercare Quote:
Originally Posted by dobbo
Original trailer got mangled last night. The one we tried came from the servo at Natex. We found doing anything over 60km/h or being passed by a truck and the Rangie was all over the road. It's also been bad weather up this way. Trailer is now halfway back to Canberra. 130 has been unloaded.
Edd (George130).

How'd the mangleing happen?

Mangleing of trailer had nothing to do with us ..

When I went to pick up the trailer early this morning from the Shell servo , was told the previous hirers had trashed the taillights and not allowed to take it away..they rang round the nearest servos with trailers and found another car trailer for me at the Shell garage near canberra exhibition ground ...very similar to one I had booked but didn't look as sturdy !..

Drove up north and met Edd for a pit stop...got to Dobbo's about 11.30 ish..

I went away and did my job , Edd sorted his beast out ready for loading onto the trailer...got back and loaded the beast onto the trailer and all was looking good except for the thunderstorm and heavy rain..

No probs with the Rangie pulling the load , but it was just too unstable and anything over 60k's and it started the death wobble ..steering and braking was fun...got about 40k's from Dobbo's and decided to turn back due to the bad weather and instability of the trailer.

The beast is now back at Dobbo's place and Edd will be discussing ideas on how to get it home !..have just got back home now (11pm) after leaving at 5am..round trip of 920k's and used 170 litres of fuel...fun day had by all !..

Fluffy needs a little rest now..she's had a long day..!

cheers,
Richard

[quote=Disco Pom;686115]no probs with the Rangie pulling the load , but it was just too unstable and anything over 60k's and it started the death wobble ../quote]

Wobbles normally indicates not enough ball weight - too much weight to the rear of the trailer - ie not far enough forward or car loaded on backwards.

Whatever was causing the issue - not worth the risk and a good decision not to proceed.

I crashed a Suzuki with a dodgy trailer 20 years ago and nearly lost my Disco towing my E-type coming down from Cassell Drive to the Glenrock Interchange in Canberra a few years back.

Good call.

Garry

Wobbles normally indicates not enough ball weight - too much weight to the rear of the trailer - ie not far enough forward or car loaded on backwards.

Edd's truck winched itself onto the trailer as reverse is the only way it can go under it's own power..so it was facing forwards with all the weight on the tow ball..not sure what the reason for the instability was..probably a combination of the trailer not up to the job and the bad weather..

I've got a couple of pics , will put them on later.

cheers,
Richard

Here's a couple of pics of Edd's beast on the trailer..

Looked OK..roughly balanced over the trailer wheels and well secured..

Trailer tyres not flat and everything seemed level..

The Rangie pulled it all OK..but did we miss something obvious or does it look like the trailer wasn't up to the task ???.. ..the heavy rain didn't help matters..

Not sure what the total weight was ..but pretty heavy I would assume

Just interested to see if anyone can spot something obvious in our attempt to tow this monster home..

Should we have loaded it facing backwards ?..or further forward on the trailer ??

cheers,
Richard

Yep...should have been forward more, even to the point of the front wheels hard against the trailer. By the looks of it you couldn't get it that far up because of the trailer winch but ideally should have been as close as it can.

The trailer clearly has a nose up attitude which would not have helped things

Drive it home backwards!