My 1969 Millard caravan

Caravan will be towed with the Disco :)

Ill read more about weight, learning these things now but if the caravan is 'balanced' properly, ie, weight distributed evenly, then why wouldnt 80kg on the ball be enough?

Not being smart, I really dont know, hence ill read up on it and let me know.

The ball weight recommended on my old Viscount was between 8 to 10% of the weight of the van loaded ready for the trip.

Going by this page it suppose to be between 10% and 15% :eek:

Measuring Towball weight

I always thought 10% was about right. I'll be aiming at between 120 and 130Kg ball weight when I'm fully loaded. Van will weigh 1200 ish Kg. The weighbridge will tell all in a few days... :)

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Probably less than a couple of hundred kilo's of ball weight.
As you have noted, the axles are a fair way back. This adds to the stability. This is why I think bacicat made a good decision to extend the draw bar. What makes a trailer so unstable is the weight at the back of the trailer and the distance this weight is from the rear trailer axle. It's far better to put the spare on the drawbar rather than mounted on the rear of the van.

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I agree Mick, the weight at the back it is a recipe for trouble, in my Viscount I have the gas bottle in the the draw bar and because it was short and no room for the spare the factory fitted it under the floor.

looks like i got some short on back accessories tail light! no power to it, and when i use indicator it turns on the other side tail light, with a very faint glow. hope i dont have to rip internal rear wall out to fix it!! :(

Have you checked your earth connection.

Dave

Ill be checking that all again too. The brake light works OK for that same side, only the indicator (that triggers the other sides brake light) and the accessory light (not working) are the issues.

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Originally Posted by Cap

Ill be checking that all again too. The brake light works OK for that same side, only the indicator (that triggers the other sides brake light) and the accessory light (not working) are the issues.

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Mate .... it's definitely the earth!!!. Southoz has obviously been there many times before too.

Realisicaly it pays to give the wiring a good going over. I pulled the wiring back through the drawbar on my caravan (as I found traces of copper rot in the wiring at the plug) and found a heap of ****ty joiners and wiring splices pulled out of the drawbar with the wiring. So I snipped the trailer plug off, taped some new wiring to the old wire and pulled it back through the A frame. Then snipped the old wiring off where it entered the caravan way back near the axle. Then soldered the new wiring on.

Whip the lense of each light (sidelights as well) and check the wiring. Especially the earth connection. Ideally you want a white earth wire running to each light, if there's not, pull whatever screw out is earthing the light and clean/check it. Also chekc the white earth wire both car and caravan side to ensure it's earth well.

I have a gutfull of doing this years ago with my trailers ( 'cos I'm a tightarse and kept using those ****ty $8.00 trailer lights from the local markets) and ran new wire on them all and soldered on LED submersible/water proof lights. I haven't need too touch trailer wiring in about 5years now (other than on other poeples trailers).

seeya,
Shane L.

Chances are there won't be an earth running to each light, but the lights earthed through the aluminium cladding. If this is the case, there will probably be corrosion around where the mounting screws go through the cladding. I had to redo all mine - I cleaned everything up and used a slightly larger screw so it bit into some new metal. Only a stop gap measure though, what Shane did is a more permanant fix.