Thread: Towing my caravan with my D2 is very ordinary

Thanks Peter never thought of out of alighnment I will also do that. Thanks Lindsay if I can work it timewise any chance of tomorrow morning?
I will pm you my number
Thanks
Steve

Not sure what brakes you have, probably electric but I have found that my cable brakes may also be contributing to my swaying, the cables dont need to move much to make my calipers activate. I think I have really weak springs on the calipers and the cable swaying activates the brakes on one side like a tapping motion. Ill be fixing this up for sure.

Steve,

Lindsay will probably sought you out. If you can measure each axle group do it that way or if only what sits on the bridge that will work too. You need to put the van on your disco and just put the disco on the bridge with the van attached but off the bridge, the disco and van on the bridge, the disco by itself and the van by itself. You could get away with at least one less measurement but you will make it easy this way. A few subtractions etc and you will have the weights.

An adjustable height towbar tongue will sort out your height issues, there are a couple of different designs. I checked ebay and there is one for $137ish posted, they vary in design, some use bolt holes, other use 50mm SHS with pins others use a corrugated design where you select the corrugations you want to match up I think they also use a pin. The local exhaust/towbar place will most likely have a catalogue from which to choose.





Plenty of designs, just pick one that is not going to get snagged too easily due to it hanging down too far.

It wont be the car,,
(cant see pics)
as said, measure the trailer axles, are the bushes in good condition? , bearings tight? are all the tyres the same? in good nick? less tha 5-7 years old? the same pressure?

mine sits ever so slightly nose up too,, but doesnt seem to bother it,,

Sorry Pedro I was thinking my problem started out to be the D2 which is why I put it there, sorry for being in the wrong section.
Neavesie thanks mine has electric drum brakes on the front axle which I think are working as they should, I do understand what you mean if one is slightly grabbing.
Slug_Burner thanks for the pics. I am thinking maybe I will have to change to something like that. I do have the adjustable heavy duty HR one but I dont know if it will go much lower than the LR one, I'll have to try it on.
Thanks Pedro as far as I know the undercarriege components are ok and I did have different sized tyres on it untill couple of weeks back when I blew the front tyre on the left side. Had 175 14 l/t's on the left side (was'nt my doing) which were virtually new when I bought it in Jan this year, all the tyres were basically new. I have, since the tyre blew replaced both 175's with 185 bridgestone l/t's. I know that 175's are not the right size but gee I never thought they would blow!. I have a similar but a bit older setup to the pic below and would like to use all the bits but the tongue part I might see if its lower than the standard one.

I went to see Lindsay today and again I cant thank him enough for his help and the use of his weighbridge it was invaluable.
The findings
Van only weight = 1950kg
Disco only weight = 2360kg
Disco on bridge connected to van with van off the bridge = 2520kg
Ball weight = 160kg

Other weights
Disco front wheels only on the bridge
With van attached = 990kg
Without van attached = 1070kg
So van weight takes 80kg off the steer tyres when attached.

Did a little test I put just the rear axle only on bridge and pumped the air bags up into offroad setting which I think is around 2' higher and
810kg on the rear axle normal
920kg on the rear axle when airbags pumped up.

160kg ball weight is this about right?
Any thoughts on these weights appreciated

Thanks
Steve

nothing wrong with 160kg,,
but blowing a tyre makes me worry about the setup, maybe the tyre just failed,, maybe.
mine is 1700kg,, so will measure rear car axle to front van axle tonight,,

I have no idea what the correct/minimum distance should be though,,

I'd be checking tyres for roundness, jacking the van up and shaking the wheels/axles.

truck wheel-alignment places will do vans

I thought 160kg was'nt too bad but if supposed to be 10% of van weight should it be around 190kg?. The tyre blowing astounded me as they would be lucky to have done a few hundred k's. I will be checking the bearings over the next couple of weeks.

ball weight is a can of worms,,

lots of urban myth and very little engineering.

160 is more than enough,
Id tell you how much I run but this thread is running along quite peacefully!