Just had the first voyage with HR WDH fitted to the NT Paj to tow the 2.4 Galaxy Odyssey. 800 km round trip for Christmas and the New Year. The Paj was a little nose up with 6 chain links suggested by the previous caravan owner. Felt better with 5 chain links and a bit of extra weight on the rear axle of the Paj (2 extra passengers on the return trip) and up front weight to the caravan stored in forward of the axle.
As a newbie by all accounts I had done a reasonable amount of research beforehand. However, nothing beats experience. Can anyone out there please comment on this thread regarding their experiences in setting up and making adjustments to their WDH's. Things like tyre wear in the long term would be especially helpful. It would be helpful to know where I might be going wrong. Though, the trip was terrific and without incident. The NT Pajero served well as a tow vehicle and asside from the hellish traffic and a need for better side mirrors, I felt no more drained than I would if the van wasn't on the back (well, maybe a little).
This is my first post. It has been a steep learning curve thus far and now prepping for a trip to White Cliffs.
Happy New Year to you all.
Delta18 said
02:36 PM Jan 5, 2015
Sounds like you are going ok Marg.
Theoretically if you measure alongside your rear wheel from the ground to the underside of the top of the mudgaurd prior to hooking up the van, then again with the van connected.
Fitting the hitch should bring the second measure back to the first.
As to mirrors, if your budget runs to it get a set of Clearview mirrors. You will never look back..(ha ha) www.clearview.com.au
Mike196 said
03:37 PM Jan 5, 2015
Really nice to see someone post that understands the necessity to change settings to get the required outcome, and as you have found out one link on the chains does make a difference, well done.
Regards,
TAJ said
04:31 PM Jan 5, 2015
we do different things and they work i measure front wheel
arch to ground told years ago by hay/reece agent
TAJ
deverall11 said
04:47 PM Jan 5, 2015
When we had a Paj, I ended fitting airbags in the back. This helped to stop a lot of yaw and did not adversely affect the WDH. And when not towing, let most of the air out of the bags and you are back to a nice supple ride.
Larry
brickies said
06:24 PM Jan 5, 2015
I would contact Hayman Reece and you will find they are very helpful . When I had the car I was told to take the measure from front wheel arch , When I got the Prado had a talk to them and was told to message front and back arch to kept the tug level when loaded with the caravan hitch ,They may have different advice for your tug but I have found the advice they gave me was perfect .
keiron said
07:25 PM Jan 5, 2015
I am using a hitch I purchased in Victoria. It has 30mm diameter bars and an adjustable hitch.
I drive a Patrol, and when I adjust the hitch to get the van coupling at a respectable height, I am unable to open the rear doors on my tug.
To be able to open the doors I have needed to lower the hitch, and with the WDH bars connected my coupling is only about 150mm off the ground.
Am doing something wrong, and what do other Patrol drivers do?
MarqPaj said
11:49 PM Jan 5, 2015
Cheers for the responses. Very helpful and reassuring in these early days of Newbiedom. Measure and measure again. Makes for a good point of reference and adjustment for the particular ride with the particular weight. Care obviously needed to check out the tow ball weight to keep within the range. As for handling, getting the nose down made a noticeable difference to the front end and where the rubber hits the road, quite a noticeable difference infact. Surprising what one chain link on the WDH correlates to!
MarqPaj said
11:56 PM Jan 5, 2015
Not sure on the Patrol issue Keiron. Perhaps admin might prompt your post as a new thread. The Paj has the rear door/spare tyre problem as well. I just contacted Mitsubishi today and will be picking up a lift kit for the spare wheel on Wednesday. No more concerns over having to unhitch to get the gear out of the back for flat tyres etc.
When measuring the wheel arches it is the front arch that is the important measurement point. The front suspension should come down nearly to the van unhitched height. This will mean that the weight removed by the weight on the ball is nearly restored. It is better to under compensate the weight loss than over compensate for it.
If you are measuring the rear axle height as the principal measurement you can lead to a dangerous set-up. If the bars are tensioned so as to lift the rear wheel arch to the pre hitch-up height this means that the rear axle is not carrying any of the ball load. The ball load is being distributed to the tugs front axle and the vans axle group. This in turn will change the tugs handling from a desirable under-steer to an undesirable over-steer characteristic. You do not want your van pushing the rear axle around when the tug is over-steering. With the van on behind you want the extra friction between the tyres and the road that the extra loading on the rear axle gives you.
The following diagram shows how the ball weight is distributed both with and without WDH after the van has been hitched up. The weights were taken during an actual HR demonstration at a Melbourne caravan many years ago. Do some figuring with pencil and paper to see the increase and decrease in the axle weights (adding the two van axles together.) As I said, this is a very old demo, the front axle has been over compensated. Since then the views on how things should be done have changed a little.
-- Edited by PeterD on Tuesday 6th of January 2015 05:21:18 PM
I am using a hitch I purchased in Victoria. It has 30mm diameter bars and an adjustable hitch.
I drive a Patrol, and when I adjust the hitch to get the van coupling at a respectable height, I am unable to open the rear doors on my tug.
To be able to open the doors I have needed to lower the hitch, and with the WDH bars connected my coupling is only about 150mm off the ground.
Am doing something wrong, and what do other Patrol drivers do?
We have a Nissan Patrol, towing a 3.5t Kedron. We have a Hitchmaster DO35, as all other hitches created the same issue.
MarqPaj said
10:49 AM Jan 15, 2015
Just got back from a 2500 round trip across NSW. The Paj with Galaxy Odyssey and HR WDH performed well. No issues to report. No over heating of the transmission or probs with the WDH set up. However, I will be following up on the recs as per your post Peter. Getting the balance right between front and back with any given load is worth the fine tuning. I am particularly interested in what it might mean should too much weight be distributed to the front and insufficient to the rear.
PeterD said
03:28 PM Jan 15, 2015
Michel, When you check your WDH settings it's the front wheel arch that is the important measurement. Measure the height of the front wheel arch to the ground and note the measurement. After you hitch the van that measurement will rise due to the extra weight on the hitch removing weight from the front suspension and wheels. You then tension the bars so that increased measurement is reduced to as close as you can get it to the first measurement. If you make that height less than the original it means you are putting too much weight on the front tyres and in return you have too little load on the rear tyres.
Just had the first voyage with HR WDH fitted to the NT Paj to tow the 2.4 Galaxy Odyssey. 800 km round trip for Christmas and the New Year. The Paj was a little nose up with 6 chain links suggested by the previous caravan owner. Felt better with 5 chain links and a bit of extra weight on the rear axle of the Paj (2 extra passengers on the return trip) and up front weight to the caravan stored in forward of the axle.
As a newbie by all accounts I had done a reasonable amount of research beforehand. However, nothing beats experience. Can anyone out there please comment on this thread regarding their experiences in setting up and making adjustments to their WDH's. Things like tyre wear in the long term would be especially helpful. It would be helpful to know where I might be going wrong. Though, the trip was terrific and without incident. The NT Pajero served well as a tow vehicle and asside from the hellish traffic and a need for better side mirrors, I felt no more drained than I would if the van wasn't on the back (well, maybe a little).
This is my first post. It has been a steep learning curve thus far and now prepping for a trip to White Cliffs.
Happy New Year to you all.
Sounds like you are going ok Marg.
Theoretically if you measure alongside your rear wheel from the ground to the underside of the top of the mudgaurd prior to hooking up the van, then again with the van connected.
Fitting the hitch should bring the second measure back to the first.
As to mirrors, if your budget runs to it get a set of Clearview mirrors. You will never look back..(ha ha) www.clearview.com.au
Really nice to see someone post that understands the necessity to change settings to get the required outcome, and as you have found out one link on the chains does make a difference, well done.
Regards,
we do different things and they work i measure front wheel
arch to ground told years ago by hay/reece agent
TAJ
Larry
I am using a hitch I purchased in Victoria. It has 30mm diameter bars and an adjustable hitch.
I drive a Patrol, and when I adjust the hitch to get the van coupling at a respectable height, I am unable to open the rear doors on my tug.
To be able to open the doors I have needed to lower the hitch, and with the WDH bars connected my coupling is only about 150mm off the ground.
Am doing something wrong, and what do other Patrol drivers do?
Not sure on the Patrol issue Keiron. Perhaps admin might prompt your post as a new thread. The Paj has the rear door/spare tyre problem as well. I just contacted Mitsubishi today and will be picking up a lift kit for the spare wheel on Wednesday. No more concerns over having to unhitch to get the gear out of the back for flat tyres etc.
The way to set up your WDH is to follow the HR instruction sheet. - http://www.southcoasttrailers.com.au/picts/WDH_Installation_Instructions.pdf This sheet may be for a slightly different WDH style but the principles remain the same.
When measuring the wheel arches it is the front arch that is the important measurement point. The front suspension should come down nearly to the van unhitched height. This will mean that the weight removed by the weight on the ball is nearly restored. It is better to under compensate the weight loss than over compensate for it.
If you are measuring the rear axle height as the principal measurement you can lead to a dangerous set-up. If the bars are tensioned so as to lift the rear wheel arch to the pre hitch-up height this means that the rear axle is not carrying any of the ball load. The ball load is being distributed to the tugs front axle and the vans axle group. This in turn will change the tugs handling from a desirable under-steer to an undesirable over-steer characteristic. You do not want your van pushing the rear axle around when the tug is over-steering. With the van on behind you want the extra friction between the tyres and the road that the extra loading on the rear axle gives you.
The following diagram shows how the ball weight is distributed both with and without WDH after the van has been hitched up. The weights were taken during an actual HR demonstration at a Melbourne caravan many years ago. Do some figuring with pencil and paper to see the increase and decrease in the axle weights (adding the two van axles together.) As I said, this is a very old demo, the front axle has been over compensated. Since then the views on how things should be done have changed a little.
-- Edited by PeterD on Tuesday 6th of January 2015 05:21:18 PM
We have a Nissan Patrol, towing a 3.5t Kedron. We have a Hitchmaster DO35, as all other hitches created the same issue.
Just got back from a 2500 round trip across NSW. The Paj with Galaxy Odyssey and HR WDH performed well. No issues to report. No over heating of the transmission or probs with the WDH set up. However, I will be following up on the recs as per your post Peter. Getting the balance right between front and back with any given load is worth the fine tuning. I am particularly interested in what it might mean should too much weight be distributed to the front and insufficient to the rear.