Weight balancing hire car trailers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by johntins

I hired one from U-Haul today. Put a D2 on it, which may have exceeded the 1200kg load limit just a tad[bigwhistle]. I set the D2 about 600mm back from the very front of the trailer. Still made the D1 tow car sit a little high at the front. Oh for SLS. Trailer coped just fine, and the poor old D1 did just fine as well, on it's 31" tyres. Towing it up Mt Dandenong had me worried, but it was fine. Pretty sure U-Haul are very conservative with their limits.

If you have a Kennards near you, their trailers are rated for a 2200kg load. Maybe have a look. 2200 still doesn't cover a D2, but I reckon Kennards would be conservative as well.

Of course, you could consult a mechanical engineer...

---

Thanks John. Do you have any pictures?

I don’t have any other hire trailers around locally except for U-Haul.

Matko charged me $80/day. $10 up on last year.

I would like my own trailer rather than having to spend 2 hours driving just to get the trailer.

I’d like to build my own but don’t know what specs I need such as wheel positioning etc.

I definitely would go for electric trailer brakes but then all the trailers I’ve used haven’t always been quite roadworthy...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Tows beautifully.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachmen...n-dsc_4655.jpg

---

Where were you when I needed it today? Oh, and what does it weigh? 2.7 tonne Disco, plus???? What's a 110 rated for for towing?

Nice trailer, Mr Marsh. It sits high though. Do you get much movement?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by johntins

The better they reverse as well.

---

Yes. This one is one of the best I’ve used.

I just wished I had more room to balance it. I’d think it’d be difficult to get a 130 or longer wheelbase vehicle on.

In hindsight I should’ve got the Series III turned around for me with their forklift, but they weren’t a particularly motivated lot and I didn’t want to find it was too heavy and have to turn it around on the busy highway.

I also didn’t want to end up in the newspapers for a spectacular crash on the Hume Highway!!

It looks to me that the trailer could have been loaded a bit differently to get a much better result.

You can see that the tail has been squashed into the ground and the nose is sky high. That will make it handle really poorly in terms of steering, cornering and twitching and it wont stop when you use the brakes, especially on low grip surfaces. Even if SLS does level it out, the imbalance is still there and so will be all of the handling and braking problems. I would imagine it was pretty scary to drive!

When loading cars, I run a tape measure from the tow bar to the ground and then position the car to give about 25mm drop only on the towbar to get your ball weight. Don't give it a heap of ball weight because you will run into all of the above problems, and personally I do not subscribe to the 10%, especially with heavy loads.

When positioning the car on the trailer, you don't have to have the front wheels up on the front of the trailer, it will cause the weight distribution to be all wrong. Bring it back to where it needs to be, then strap it down. I use lifting straps to the rear of the trailer, then I pull the vehicle up forwards to tension the rear straps before chaining the front. The chain gives you enough adjustability to keep it tight enough. The car wont move (much), even if unbraked.

The D2 weight balance is an interesting one. It is 100kg heavier at the rear. This imbalance is increased if there is NO bullbar and it is increased again as soon as you put any fuel load into it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slunnie

It looks to me that the trailer could have been loaded a bit differently to get a much better result.

You can see that the tail has been squashed into the ground and the nose is sky high. That will make it handle really poorly in terms of steering, cornering and twitching and it wont stop when you use the brakes, especially on low grip surfaces. Even if SLS does level it out, the imbalance is still there and so will be all of the handling and braking problems. I would imagine it was pretty scary to drive!

When loading cars, I run a tape measure from the tow bar to the ground and then position the car to give about 25mm drop only on the towbar to get your ball weight. Don't give it a heap of ball weight because you will run into all of the above problems, and personally I do not subscribe to the 10%, especially with heavy loads.

When positioning the car on the trailer, you don't have to have the front wheels up on the front of the trailer, it will cause the weight distribution to be all wrong. Bring it back to where it needs to be, then strap it down. I use lifting straps to the rear of the trailer, then I pull the vehicle up forwards to tension the rear straps before chaining the front. The chain gives you enough adjustability to keep it tight enough. The car wont move (much), even if unbraked.

The D2 weight balance is an interesting one. It is 100kg heavier at the rear. This imbalance is increased if there is NO bullbar and it is increased again as soon as you put any fuel load into it.

---

Yes I agree. The SLS only makes it look visually right.

The trailer went front heavy as soon as the front axle of the Land Rover went past the trailer axles. (The rear wasn’t even on at that point)

How do you go about measuring nose weight on a D2 with SLS when they lower slightly when you turn it off? Or am I over thinking the whole thing?

I bet I had way more than the max towball weight!

In hindsight I should’ve found a quiet spot to change it around but winching it on by hand with two half flat front tyres was an effort!

It’s the first time I’ve towed a Land Rover Series III.

I’ve towed heaps of bobcats, mini excavators, dingos etc but have only towed lighter weight cars such as the Freelander.

It was a bit hairy to drive but in reality it drives like that unladen so I couldn’t really tell how much of a difference the trailer was causing.

I did find it was better to sit at 80-90kph though so I could accelerate downhill slightly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slunnie

It looks to me that the trailer could have been loaded a bit differently to get a much better result.

You can see that the tail has been squashed into the ground and the nose is sky high. That will make it handle really poorly in terms of steering, cornering and twitching and it wont stop when you use the brakes, especially on low grip surfaces. Even if SLS does level it out, the imbalance is still there and so will be all of the handling and braking problems. I would imagine it was pretty scary to drive!

When loading cars, I run a tape measure from the tow bar to the ground and then position the car to give about 25mm drop only on the towbar to get your ball weight. Don't give it a heap of ball weight because you will run into all of the above problems, and personally I do not subscribe to the 10%, especially with heavy loads.

When positioning the car on the trailer, you don't have to have the front wheels up on the front of the trailer, it will cause the weight distribution to be all wrong. Bring it back to where it needs to be, then strap it down. I use lifting straps to the rear of the trailer, then I pull the vehicle up forwards to tension the rear straps before chaining the front. The chain gives you enough adjustability to keep it tight enough. The car wont move (much), even if unbraked

The D2 weight balance is an interesting one. It is 100kg heavier at the rear. This imbalance is increased if there is NO bullbar and it is increased again as soon as you put any fuel load into it.

---

In my case, the car had no front bar, but it also had no fuel tank. Trouble was the length of the deck. I could have taken it back some though. What you say is valid, but it needs level ground to make it work. Had I been towing it more than the 10 Ks I needed today then I would have done exactly what you say, because it is good advice. I guess we get lazy, even when we are trained, as I am.

I would add: Many years ago, I nearly killed my then wife and me by towing a car and trailer combo behind a car far too light for the job. I compounded this by securing the car by the unsprung components only. The car on the trailer had no dampers. The resulting bounce, the instability of the towed versus towing mass, and my attempt to drive out of the resulting sway by accelerating, something I had heard was effective, put us into a ditch. Very scary stuff.

New 110 defenders are (de) rated to tow 2.5t in Australia from memory.
In the U.K. They are rated for a lot more.
The 300 tdi 130's are rated GVM of 7.2t including 1t payload on the roof!!!!! Think you may need external roll cage bolted through to chassis to pull that off! Though I had 700kg on my Puma 110 and it handled fine on the road - the hinges had to be dropped so the doors would close though.
Apparently the law in SA states that you must overstrap each wheel down to the deck when towing. Found that out when I had to have my 110 tilt trayed to Pt Augusta to replace an engine mount & IC hose a couple of years back. The coppers fined the truck driver a small fortune for chaining it down only. Totally retarded IMO - my truck wasn't going anywhere til we undid those chains.
Col

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Colmoore

New 110 defenders are (de) rated to tow 2.5t in Australia from memory.
In the U.K. They are rated for a lot more.

---

Pretty sure the D1 and D2 are rated 1000kg above that, braked.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Colmoore

Apparently the law in SA states that you must overstrap each wheel down to the deck when towing. Found that out when I had to have my 110 tilt trayed to Pt Augusta to replace an engine mount & IC hose a couple of years back. The coppers fined the truck driver a small fortune for chaining it down only. Totally retarded IMO - my truck wasn't going anywhere til we undid those chains.
Col

---

My experience with coppers is that they have a sheet to work from, and like robots they will work through every bullet point.

My D2 has been on two Nationwide trucks in the last week, and yes, overstrap each wheel. I wonder how they would go if I asked them to tow a 2.7 tonne Disco without dampers. Those little Isuzus that they drive might get a shock if a Disco started to bounce. I'd want a strap or two tying down the car. Most of the mass is in the sprung, not the unsprung. But what do I know?

The “she’ll be right mate” attitude coming through in this thread is ****ing disturbing!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tombie

The “she’ll be right mate” attitude coming through in this thread is ****ing disturbing!!!

---

Look away, Tombie, Look away. It was ever thus.

In my defence, the incident I reported was over 40 years ago... Made any mistakes yourself in that time??