Towing Advice from MCA - oops

[Jono Garton]

Belive It To Be An Arctic 22 - Anyone Agree/disagree

[Roger]

OK !!! Definitely Land Rover 110 County, possiblely Artic 22, what about comments on the trailer, what make ? and is it the one for the job ?

Roger

[peteb]

There are some interesting land rover wreck pics at the bottom of the page on this link, including smashed up Freelanders :-

http://www.landroverclub.net/Club/HTML/Wrecks.htm

Some of the accidents must have been pretty painful

[Jono Garton]

This Was My 6 Week Old Disco

[peteb]

Who was driving that, and were there serious injuries? Nearly bought a new Disco two weeks ago, they were almost giving them away as all had to be registered by the end of last month, new one is launched 1st Nov, starts at £26.5k give or take a couple of quid.

[Richard B]

Jono, I see that your towing courses use the same syllabus as the MCA!

[eupa]

Ok here goes - snaking out of control- single axle trailer- over 60% of the weight at the extreme rear. Force( distance from tow hook x weight at
extremity) created which would be difficult to control once movemnet started-typical snaking which gets out of control unless you accelerate violently to counter-act force created

Jonathan

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by eupa

accelerate violently...

I've tried this with an out-of-control horsebox which was snaking across both lanes of the A1 and it didn't work. (BTW this was many years ago when I was much younger and much more foolish!)

Survived with no damage to vehicle, trailer or occupants, by just slowing down.

[peteb]

I must say I have had that Oh! Sh*t feeling a couple of times when your brain seems to send a message down your spine to your arseh*le . It happened on two occasions on the M25 where lorry's wheels had worn grooves in the slow lane, it certainly gets the concentration focused . I must say that a tweek of acceleration and a bit of slowing down has done the trick for me, not that I want to be an expert in that though

[Seb]

Yep, its and Arctic 22 and a picture of what its supposed to look like is here...................http://www.vtplc.com/halmatic/produc...D=407&catid=93

[Jono Garton]

Originally Posted by peteb

Who was driving that, and were there serious injuries?

Me - a bit of a bad shoulder, we both walked out, but Amy my other half got the top of hir ear chopped off, they glued it back on though. She still get glass coming out of hir head now, 9 months on

I hit a flood doing 60mph, funny how discos don't plane as well as ribs! rolled it 6ish times

[codprawn]

With all this talk it may be worth asking if fitting a stabiliser is a good idea - caravanners all seem to use them - why not on a rib trailer? They are often bigger and heavier than a van although with less windage!

[peteb]

Blimey Jono You were either very lucky or in one strong vehicle, did airbags work? My car has them in the front sides and roof, just hope I don't need to test them, my 4X4 that I tow with has NONE Best get stabaliser or two

[Mark Halliday]

Stabalisers only mask the habits of a badly loaded trailer. A well set up trailer does not need one. The main reason for fish-tailing is lack of nose (hitch) weight. Better to go with a lot of nose weight when the boat is fully rigged, then when going home with empty tanks/fridge etc. you still have enough. I find with my rig around 30-40 kg is good (the Range Rover will take 250kg). I can lift it but there is still plenty of weight when I have burnt off 80-90kg of fuel.

[Jono Garton]

Originally Posted by peteb

Blimey Jono You were either very lucky or in one strong vehicle, did airbags work?

Air bags didnt go off! I guess they didnt need to. I couldnt get out my side so got out the sun roof.

Touch wood, but have not had an accident towing. I belive the towing courses are a good thing.

Dave Manning will tell you even the most experianced towing drivers F**k up now and again.

[DGR]

...it looks like they attached the RIB to the trailer OK... !!!

My trailer wasn't (isn't) very well set up, very nose light, and can start to snake at anything over 50 mph. I'm in the process of moving the axles back to try to compensate, but with a 1 ton engine sat at the back (at least that's what it says on the weight-plate thing on the lifting slings) plus a B2X leg, I'm not sure I can move them back far enough!! I've only got about 3-4 inches until the axle sub-structure starts to foul the roller tilting mechanism.

If that doesn't cure it - are people saying that a stabilser will help, or that it will mask the problem until it's too late and I end up like the photo?!?!?!?

DGR...

[DM]

Originally Posted by Jono Garton

Dave Manning will tell you even the most experianced towing drivers F**k up now and again.

Nissan Patrol 1 Trailer 0

DM

[Brambles]

Originally Posted by DGR

If that doesn't cure it - are people saying that a stabilser will help, or that it will mask the problem until it's too late and I end up like the photo?!?!?!? DGR...

Or you could get a couple of fat blokes to sit at the front end when you are towing

[DGR]

Originally Posted by Brambles

Or you could get a couple of fat blokes to sit at the front end when you are towing

Yeah - but I have to drive.........