Thread: D4 towing - trailer wobble

Originally Posted by Ruby2

...with a 700kg horse in the back as they really are unrestrained and can fall easily so if you get stuck behind a float going slowly.....they are doing so for the safety and comfort of their horse...not to ruin your day or make you late :-)

hi ruby, just wondering , wouldn't a crush of some kind make the horse less stressed during travel? i am not a horsey person, but i do repair floats etc for landie customers ,and have seen the hitching bars and dividers inside but until now never thought about this aspect.
also, travelling say with cows or similar creatures in a trailer should you have them packed properly ( would of course be easier in a cardboard freezer box ) , or if insufficient numbers should be in a crush of some kind to avoid injury etc i would've thought...?

jc

Originally Posted by justinc

hi ruby, just wondering , wouldn't a crush of some kind make the horse less stressed during travel? i am not a horsey person, but i do repair floats etc for landie customers ,and have seen the hitching bars and dividers inside but until now never thought about this aspect.
also, travelling say with cows or similar creatures in a trailer should you have them packed properly ( would of course be easier in a cardboard freezer box ) , or if insufficient numbers should be in a crush of some kind to avoid injury etc i would've thought...?

jc

Hi there, yes they are restrained with a divider but they can easily slip or scramble if the float goes too fast around a corner. Like being on a bus when the bus goes around a sharp bend the standing passengers get affected by the inertia.... A horse however will not understand why this is happening and they tend to think if there is too much angle that the walls are the floor.....scrambling is dangerous and stressful for the horses. They can slip and fall and end up under the divider if they get too scared! It's hard to pack them like cows, we also transport cows, but they are much easier however I still drive much slower around corners....
All good questions and thanks for asking!

Originally Posted by camel_landy

... the D4 as there is technology built into the car to detect and correct trailer sway.

Does the horse float actually get detected? There should be a trailer symbol flash on the dash when the blinkers are on.

Ruby - Has it got LED tail lights? (The D3/D4 doesn't detect a trailer with LED tail lights by default, so the above comment isn't completely true).

I have to say thank you to you all!

I appreciate your advice and comments very much.

I did a test tonight. Borrowed my friends float, another brand with the same suspension. Loaded it up with the water tank and 600kg of water.

Results.
Could travel at 100kph with no wobbling at all other than the water sloshing. Float felt very stable and solid. Not at all like mine today which wobbled and wasn't happy at 75kph.

Will be calling the place I bought it from tomorrow and asking for help. Hubbie has checked axles and suspension bushes which all look good. For it's age only 12 months old and less than 500kph travelled I should think if it had any wear issues it would be quite alarming!

One thing I did realise is that with a stable float and no horse (just water) god the car can go! Leaves my Hilux for dead!

One final question. When you tow a van or a float do you leave the transmission in drive or have it in Sport. Have read the book but there isn't anything that states what I should do.

Thanks again everyone.

Cheers
Julia

Originally Posted by jonesy63

Does the horse float actually get detected? There should be a trailer symbol flash on the dash when the blinkers are on.

Ruby - Has it got LED tail lights? (The D3/D4 doesn't detect a trailer with LED tail lights by default, so the above comment isn't completely true).

Hi Jonesy63 yes I get the flashing trailer symbol so the car knows the float is there. Hubbie took great care to make sure this all worked when he installed the electric brake switch and we solved some issues with great info on this forum provided by Sneigy!

One option to get some weight forward might be to move the axles back? (if adjustable).

But I was going to suggest the same thing you've decided. With only 15hours in, take it back and say "fix it, I'll be back at 4".

stick it in sports when you're on anything but a cruise or an over run where you want to do a long gentle slow down. If your giving it wellie and the TC is unlocked in top cog, manually shift down and bury the boot a little harder till you get up to speed then back off till the TC locks up, hold that untill you're done with the high torque driving then knock it back up into top and then pull it out of sports.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

stick it in sports when you're on anything but a cruise or an over run where you want to do a long gentle slow down. If your giving it wellie and the TC is unlocked in top cog, manually shift down and bury the boot a little harder till you get up to speed then back off till the TC locks up, hold that untill you're done with the high torque driving then knock it back up into top and then pull it out of sports.

Thanks Dave......just curious cause I have no idea basically...what do you mean by TC?? Thanks for your advice....basically been doing this as it's hilly were we are and I prefer to use engine braking rather than brake braking when I can.