Thread: Towing a heavy camper trailer on sand?

I will be watching with interest as I am hoping to try my luck with 2.7t of van on Teewah beach soon.
Like a lot of places, getting on & off the beach is the problem because of the 35", 40 psi holes at the entrance/exits which means you have to slow down.

Is it possible to hire one up your way? Maybe take one for a spin first to see if you like it, take it for a run on a beach, etc?

We were sold on the forward fold units too - then we hired one for a week. Heavy to tow (car has no issues, but at over 2t loaded you definitely know it's there), slow to set up, complicated tent pole system, minimal storage space and hopeless kitchen. We ended up saving our money and going for a much more basic and light weight trailer.

Sorry - bit off topic

Originally Posted by veebs

Is it possible to hire one up your way? Maybe take one for a spin first to see if you like it, take it for a run on a beach, etc?

We were sold on the forward fold units too - then we hired one for a week. Heavy to tow (car has no issues, but at over 2t loaded you definitely know it's there), slow to set up, complicated tent pole system, minimal storage space and hopeless kitchen. We ended up saving our money and going for a much more basic and light weight trailer.

Sorry - bit off topic

Probably a good idea, I'm sure I'd be able to hire one somewhere.

What trailer did you hire? I'm interested in the Bluewater trailers at this stage. From what I can see the main tent would be less than 10 mins to set up, and perhaps another 15 if you want the awning up as well. Not too bad.

Originally Posted by mojo

Are any of you guys towing something similar?

I used to own a forward fold camper that weighed 1.9t fully loaded (1.35t empty) and had a ball weight of 270kg when fully loaded. This is more than the 10% rule of thumb but is normal for the typical forward fold camper due to the relatively long drawbar length.

Towing on sand will not be a problem, simply reduce the camper tyre pressure 2-4 psi lower than what you previously used on the smaller camper.
We found the camper excellent and only sold to get a small offroad hybrid van that we felt would be more suited to a six month trip.

If you are Brisbane based I highly recommend paying a visit to Paul at Wild Boar Campers, he turns out a quality product.





Cheers,
Scott

Originally Posted by mojo

From what I can see the main tent would be less than 10 mins to set up, and perhaps another 15 if you want the awning up as well. Not too bad.

Main Tent - 5 min
Awning - 10-15 min extra

Forward fold is great for quick setup especially for single nights if wanting to stay hitched

Following too as I’m yet to take my 2T camper onto the soft stuff. One thing I did check was making sure my camper had the same track as the D4. A track wider or narrower than the car would be a more challenging tow.

The critical factor towing in sand is having the trailer track the same as the towing vehicle. If you can manage this, and use suitable tyre pressures, there should be no issues.

Originally Posted by mojo

Probably a good idea, I'm sure I'd be able to hire one somewhere.

What trailer did you hire? I'm interested in the Bluewater trailers at this stage. From what I can see the main tent would be less than 10 mins to set up, and perhaps another 15 if you want the awning up as well. Not too bad.

We tried out a PMX trailer - the Stirling SE. Nothing wrong with the trailer in terms of build quality, just not practical for our purposes.