Stability has several factors.
A narrow Prado doesn’t meet many of them, add a long van like that and moments would/could/did be quite scary.
I’ve never had a sway moment in the D4 regardless of what’s been on the back.
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Stability has several factors.
A narrow Prado doesn’t meet many of them, add a long van like that and moments would/could/did be quite scary.
I’ve never had a sway moment in the D4 regardless of what’s been on the back.
I've had a few "sway" moments this trip, despite having been a careful professional driver for a fair proportion of my working life.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tombie
The D4 recovers reasonably well, but even with wide (285 60) 697 tyres and reasonably well, but not over loaded in either car or van, the heavy van can get into a sway in some of the weird camber situations so far only on the Stuart Highway between Alice and Cooper Pedy (both ways).
I discounted the minimal sways on gravel as the rare few that have occurred have reminded me to slow down even more on an otherwise excellent surface between WA and Uluru. At best I travelled at 80 - 85 kmph with all tyres down around 25 psi. Am relearning to use backside clenching muscles I forgot I had.
Looks like a V60 Pajero to me, towing a Kingdom Kensington EVO Caravan
A quick google reveals a towing capacity of 2,500kg for the car, and an ATM of 2,660kg in the trailer.
Not a great solution I would suggest.
Yeah, overtaking with a setup like that shows there wasn’t much going on between their ears. Probably had no idea of what could go wrong and drove it with the van on the same way they drove it on its own.Quote:
Originally Posted by BradC
A wiser man would have hit the trailer brake. Nothing wrong with a Paj though. Probably poor weight distribution plus a strong element of not knowing how to drive and panicking. Scary stuff who out there driving around. Hard to gauge the speed involved.
Not always that simple to just “hit the van brakes”.
Once that yaw moment starts it can go beyond recovery very quickly.
A lot of stability comes down to where the weight is in the van. It may be under weight = good, but if the mass is at either end of the van and not near the axles you are asking for a world of hurt.
More likely just the usual combination of “we want this van” coupled with a non-suitable / matched vehicle.
Just because a vehicle can handle the weight etc doesn’t make every pairing suitable.
Glad they are ok.
I just wonder if the rig had warned him earlier that it was unstable & he ignored the signs.
Go on the Caravaners forum - that’s an eye opener.Quote:
Originally Posted by Milton477
They all insist on WDHs, belittle LR owners for not using them, and many there think if the combo is safe at 80 but not 100 then it’s just safe to haul along at 80 everywhere.
When I indicated that means the combination is inherently unstable and unsafe I was met with much abuse.
Certainly do seem to be a lot of people out their whose rigs are way over the GCM and think it's okay to speed and generally behave like racing drivers.
Forums are like that though. People tend to be far more reasonable with their feet up around a camp fire. It's like the old booze thing, but worse "instant arsehole, just add keyboard".Quote:
Originally Posted by Tombie
But yeah, there is a significant lack of understanding of the basics out there and a complete reticence to learn. About 15 years ago, a good friend of mine had her mother die and father completely incapacitated in a van-rollover when he was driving, so the accident and surrounding forensics is something that is with me every time I plug the tow bar in.
Even though he'd been towing for years with the same rig, he essentially had no idea how to tow a van, had it loaded wrong and did pretty much everything wrong rushing to the scene of the accident.
At Christmas on the way to Cervantes I was passed by an Audi Q7 towing a long 80's style van. As he overtook me he wound up a sway that oscillated well in excess of 10 times across both lanes. Out of morbid curiosity I actually sped up a bit to keep pace to see it happen several more times, one of which was so bad I dropped right back expecting a total loss. Some people just have no idea. But then as my father has said repeatedly over the last 40 years, "some people just shouldn't own boats". So it's not just vans.