How are towing capacities determined?

Whenarewethere · Guru

RE: How are towing capacities determined?

yobarr · Guru

Whenarewethere wrote:
The roads are a lot better in Europe, no surprise as they have about 3 times the capita per km of road to pay for them.

Yes, and they seem to use Toy cars to tow Toy vans? Cheers

Whenarewethere · Guru

I have been in my brother in law's car driving from Germany to Italy with oversized caravan in tow with Touran. It is a smooth ride but he always complains about fuel consumption. I have suggested he will save a lot of he reduces his speed from 160kph!

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Whenarewethere wrote:
The roads are a lot better in Europe, no surprise as they have about 3 times the capita per km of road to pay for them.

The main roads are better, the secandary surfaced roads are maybe similar but not so the minor surfaced roads. Lots of cobbles and they are not so nice.

That is all great for going from one side to the other, but if you are exploring then it is the minor roads you are on and they are no better than here.

Cheers,

Peter

Whenarewethere · Guru

Their secondary roads are equal to our best roads. Their best roads are like their ICE trains, a glass of water does not ripple.

We have still have State roads unsealed.

Hitting the road · Senior Member

Likely is 12% gradient, I just can't recall as it was a very long time ago when I had to be totally across that sort of stuff...

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

I know in UK its far better to stay on main roads ! Even if the secondary seem shorter ? Sheesh some are very narrow !!! Helps when your not familiar!! Although GPS is a big help !! Omg how we rely on them now !!

yobarr · Guru

Hitting the road wrote:
Likely is 12% gradient, I just can't recall as it was a very long time ago when I had to be totally across that sort of stuff...

Figures are as Peter stated. Cheers

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Aus-Kiwi wrote:
I know in UK its far better to stay on main roads ! Even if the secondary seem shorter ? Sheesh some are very narrow !!! Helps when your not familiar!! Although GPS is a big help !! Omg how we rely on them now !!

Cheers,

Peter

Whenarewethere · Guru

There is a heritage stone arch driving to Sydney's North Head. A decade or so ago the military drove a truck through the arch even though there is a road next to it. I believe it was somewhere in the $100k region to rebuild it, plus a new vehicle.

Tony108 · Member

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:
Gundog wrote:
One wonders where these so called rules, like towball weight must be 10% or greater, and towing vehicle must be heavier than the trailer are published.
They are NOT "rules". They are conventions, and mostly in Australia, not other places.
In Europe, 5% is a more typical ball weight, but they don't have heavy front and rear ends to their vans so their yaw inertia is much more sensible that is typical here.
When I tow our off road trailer (which can weigh 2T) behind the OKA, I would typically have a ball weight of about 20kg. That is 1%. It has a long draw bar and low yaw inertia and the OKA weighs about 6T.
Cheers,
Peter

-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Wednesday 23rd of March 2022 01:50:03 PM

I agree, they are not rules. I tow a British caravan which weighs 1500kg max, which is 75% of the cars weight loaded up. My towball weight is 75kg at max load which is 5% of the vans weight. The van tracks true and steady. The 10% often quoted is an advisory figure. As Peter says it is down to how the distribution of the weight of the van sits relative to the axles. Most of the weight on mine is central or close to the axle allowing me to get a low towball weight. The maximum nose weight for the chassis as per manufacturers figures is only 100kg which is only 6.66%, so this van could never hope to reach 8 to 10% as advised in Australia.

-- Edited by Tony108 on Friday 22nd of April 2022 02:17:42 PM