Thread: Vehicle towing capacities

Originally Posted by Tombie

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.
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.

Originally Posted by BradC

I've seen a few go close to that but I've never seen one go over. Generally the cause is a loose nut behind the wheel.

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Milton477

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.

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.