Thread: Jayflight - Heavy Ball Weight

Hi Garry, I finally found the boat winch today, so will get it to you when I get back from Sofala.

Merry Christmas,
Terry

Hi
Weighing the jockey wheel will increase Ball weight
the actual ball weight will prob. be 10/15 % less
cheers
Ian

That would be some jockey wheel to weigh 20-30 kg!

Experienced this excessive ball weight problem with a family caravan about 50 years ago when I was just a young fella and it did sway uncontrollably and almost caused a major disaster. I recall dad tried repositionong various items in an effort to rebalance the set up but anything he did made insignificent difference so he ended up repositioning the axle and problem was solved. Also have a friend who bought an 'off road' van which was excessively heavy on the drawbar and on his second trip while doing about 90km/h on the highway it started to sway and caused the whole rig to roll over, writing off the van and the tow vehicle - a Range Rover.

Having learnt this lesson from experience, dads boaing business also involved building boat trailers and as the outboard motors (carried at the very rear of the load and having a major influence on the balance) were sometimes changed and subsequently affected the tow ball weight of the trailer, he used to build the axle/spring section as a separate box section which could easily be moved forward or back to achieve the ideal balance and tow ball weight. This 'ideal' tow ball weight he found (from experience) to be around 100lb, irrespective of GVM of the trailer. This weight also made the trailers very manageable when disconnected from the tow vehicle.

A bit different to what the RMS (old RTA) now recommend but I know for a fact that it worked well and those trailers used to tow beautifully. I've recently built a single axle car trailer and a 130 tub based camper trailer utilising the 100lb tow ball weight principle and they both tow exceptionally well and are easily manageable when disconnected.

So Garry, IMHO the only real solution to your dilemma is to either move the axle forward or replace the van with one that is better designed in the first place. However, due to the door and fridge position on your van the axle would be near impossible to move forward unless you were to give it a suspension lift as well and then your access, centre of gravity and stability would become a problem.

I hope you get it sorted out soon as vans can be handy to have at times but when they don't work properly can be a PITA. As mentioned in a previous thread by you containing similar thoughts, be careful of your back when coupling or uncoupling your van!

Actually, when you think about it, one method of reducing the towball weight would be to lengthen the draw bar! Trouble is, don't know how practical that would be. A few measurements and a simple calculation of the "moments" involved would give you an answer...

Originally Posted by Xtreme

So Garry, IMHO the only real solution to your dilemma is to either move the axle forward or replace the van with one that is better designed in the first place. However, due to the door and fridge position on your van the axle would be near impossible to move forward unless you were to give it a suspension lift as well and then your access, centre of gravity and stability would become a problem.

Thanks for your detailed comments - however there is no issue towing the van as it is well within the tow requirements of the car and is very stable - it is just a pain to man handle around to connect it up to the car - I am changing the hitch to an ozhitch next week so that should reduce the alignment issue when connecting and as a result the need to man handle the camper.

Cheers

Garry

Originally Posted by Hoges

Actually, when you think about it, one method of reducing the towball weight would be to lengthen the draw bar! Trouble is, don't know how practical that would be. A few measurements and a simple calculation of the "moments" involved would give you an answer...

You would have to double the length of the A frame to halve the towball weight, not going to be practical.

Originally Posted by garrycol

Thanks for your detailed comments - however there is no issue towing the van as it is well within the tow requirements of the car and is very stable - it is just a pain to man handle around to connect it up to the car - I am changing the hitch to an ozhitch next week so that should reduce the alignment issue when connecting and as a result the need to man handle the camper.

Cheers

Garry

And I hope for your sake Garry that your rig continues to behave while being towed because it's a rather hopeless feeling when they start to sway and no matter what you do (brake, accellerate, drive with it etc) nothing seems to overcome it, and although, as you state "there is no issue towing the van...... " it can start at any time. Probably some odd type of road, wind, surface condition or a combination of conditions sets it off but at least I have eliminated the one factor that I can control with my trailers.

Good luck with yours.