Thread: Towing with a heavy drawbar weight

Originally Posted by Hannahandsando

Hi There,

We have a Range Rover sport 2008 with air suspension. We are wanting to buy a 4WD camper trailer. We have narrowed it down to an Ultimate (which have very good balance - hardly any drawbar weight) or a Kimberley Kamper. We prefer the Kimberley (we think) but it has a high drawbar weight due to length and position of wheels. We are concerned the air suspension could give us problems, partic when towing off road. All of our friends who regularly tow have Toyotas with coil suspension. Any advice appreciated.

sorry i didn't quite answer the question posed, either camper is a fantastic bit of gear, personal choice is the only thing you need to consider between the 2 in my opinion.
the only issue you may have with a 2008 vehicle is compressor life, and rear struts. if you are considering an extended touring trip, i would replace the compressor and the rear struts if they are still original, before leaving.

use genuine struts, and there is a new upgraded compressor available that is far more reliable by all accounts.

your friends with toyotas will be so envious of your corrugation handling capabilities, and ride quality that it may just convert them to the green oval!


jc

Originally Posted by Tank

Very expensive bed on wheels, independent suspension of any configuration is way over rated IMO, Regards Frank.

Not entirely so.

We have a Trakmaster Sturt with independant coil suspension, the suspension is so good that on one occasion I left a jaffle iron sitting on the gas bottles at breakfast time, found it there when I went to turn the gas on at lunchtime, a couple of hundred corrugated kms later. The suspension is brilliant.

never had to tighten a screw or loose bolt on the van.

bit different to our old tube axle leaf sprung 'offroad van' where I had to take a screwdriver and bottle of glue at the end of each day to reassemble furniture and fittings.

Independent suspension on any single axle trailer is a gimmick! Drawbar-Left wheel-Right Wheel = Tripod.... If someone can tell me (without all the crap) what benefit independent suspension can have on a single axle trailer, then I'll change my tune. Granted it may have a few + points on a dual axle trailer, but not many! A rigid axle (where the wheels always track the same whatever the terrain) with soft parabolic springs and the correct shockers is a vastly superior setup. A lot of the 'Off Road' trailers I've seen have a heavyweight leaf spring that's wrapped with 4 bands.. They are way too hard for the job they are doing, and shake everything above them to bits. We had a camper trailer come into work the other day for chassis repairs due to cracking. It had some weird independent suspension arms clamped around a 9 leaf spring which had a solid 50mm bar connecting the two!! It had shaken the chassis and contents to bits. I'd go with the simplest bar axle and leaf suspension you can find, with a decent drawbar length and a 50/100kg drawbar weight.

Originally Posted by Sitec

Independent suspension on any single axle trailer is a gimmick! Drawbar-Left wheel-Right Wheel = Tripod.... If someone can tell me (without all the crap) what benefit independent suspension can have on a single axle trailer, then I'll change my tune.

In short, for comfortable ride on any vehicle (including trailers), in my opinion, coils are better than leaf and air is better than coil.
Independent or solid axle makes little difference.
My camper has the Track MC-2 suspension.

No, I haven't disagreed with you. I've just offered a different explanation.

Nice van Goingbush.....

I don't really care whether its independent or otherwise, the fact is it travels well.

There will always be knockers!!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa4BgNF8eKQ]Track Trailer Tvan Military Proving - YouTube[/ame]

Originally Posted by goingbush

Not entirely so.

We have a Trakmaster Sturt with independant coil suspension, the suspension is so good that on one occasion I left a jaffle iron sitting on the gas bottles at breakfast time, found it there when I went to turn the gas on at lunchtime, a couple of hundred corrugated kms later. The suspension is brilliant.

never had to tighten a screw or loose bolt on the van.

bit different to our old tube axle leaf sprung 'offroad van' where I had to take a screwdriver and bottle of glue at the end of each day to reassemble furniture and fittings.

That's great, but I can't see why you would need independent suspension on what is basically a box trailer, overkill IMO, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by Cracka

Nice van Goingbush.....

I don't really care whether its independent or otherwise, the fact is it travels well.

There will always be knockers!!

Track Trailer Tvan Military Proving - YouTube

Very good. Am I right in assuming the Toyota had leaf spring suspension?

Originally Posted by Cracka

Nice van Goingbush.....

I don't really care whether its independent or otherwise, the fact is it travels well.

There will always be knockers!!

Track Trailer Tvan Military Proving - YouTube

All that video shows is that the piece of crap towing the trailer has stuffed shocks and probably 60p.s.i. in his tyres, Regards Frank.