Bugger, wouldn't you hate that in the middle of your big lap. Looks like a fairly smallish trailer by the size of the RHS. I had it happen to me many years ago, was towing a box trailer laden with camping stuff up to Lancelin north of Perth.
The trailer draw bar was only angle type steel not boxed, so the Draw bar collapsed while dragging the trailer through some sandy winding tracks. Fortunately when it did I was only a couple of hundred metres from the camp and with help was able to drag it the rest of the way.
There were Cray fisherman on site in the shacks there and they helped me straighten the drawbar a bit, then welded a couple of bits of angle over the top to give it some strength.
I did get it back to Albany after our camping trip and had a new draw bar fitted...but up until then had shown no signs of fatigue...
Good point Craig, but I suspect that its purpose is to prevent the drawbar from hitting the road if the trailer comes off the towball, as is REQUIRED BY LAW. After much consideration, I built a vaguely similar system on my car, so that if the van jumps off the DO35 hitch (unlikely?) the drawbar will be supported well clear of the ground. As someone has suggested, the drawbar design leaves a lot to be desired, with the head unit bolted to a very thin, unbraced, tongue. Good to see the ubiquitous tie-down being utilised though! Cheers
P.S Another pointless exercise, with this chap apparently unable to even afford any tie-downs. Cheers
-- Edited by yobarr on Tuesday 3rd of May 2022 06:15:02 PM
Interesting. Love the S hooks to connect the chains. There is a carabiner clip in there as well. And how about taking up the slack with a cable tie?
However, does anyone have an idea of what the device on top of the jockey stand is? And the gas bottles seem to be a lot larger than the normal ones on a van.
Around fifty years ago, we towed a ply van probably built seventy years ago, on a bit of a tour for a week. It was a much lighter van than those built at the time of our trip. No fridge, no on-board water, no brakes, little storage, simple 2 burner stove.
Prior to leaving gave it the usual visuals, all looked good.
But, due to the terrain we unexpectedly covered on our last day, and the resultant porpoising, the 75mm x40mmx 3mm (3"x1 1/2"x 1/8") C section channel that formed the draw bar decided to fatigue. We identified the problem at a lunch-stop on a country dirt road, some 20 km from our last stop.
(Due to leave the van at that stop, travel home, come back in two weeks to use the van for two nights and then take it home.)
So, over the next hour, I uncoupled, brought the frame into alignment, taking care not to tear the rest of the material, braced it with a decent sized tree limb and held it in place with plenty of round lashing. I had lots of rope at hand. I then used chain and shackles to provide some pull strength accross the fracture. The other side of the A frame was intact. I could have used a roll or two of duct tape!
We set off carefully in 1st gear, checked things very frequently and arrived at a town some 4 hours after the mishap. We put the van into storage at an old CP that we had used a couple of years earlier that was now closed. This town was some 10k short of our original destination.
Arranged with a local workshop that in thirteen days time we would limp the van in for some repairs.
On return to the van we replaced the tree limb with some rhs held in place with several G clamps, re-applied the chain and crawled to the workshop.
2 hours later both sides of the A frame were better than new, break repaired, braced from coupling back past the first cross-member. Next day we picked up where we were originally intended. Trip home was totally uneventful.
That van did several more trips till we eventually upgraded.
Around fifty years ago, we towed a ply van probably built seventy years ago, on a bit of a tour for a week. It was a much lighter van than those built at the time of our trip. No fridge, no on-board water, no brakes, little storage, simple 2 burner stove.
Prior to leaving gave it the usual visuals, all looked good.
But, due to the terrain we unexpectedly covered on our last day, and the resultant porpoising, the 75mm x40mmx 3mm (3"x1 1/2"x 1/8") C section channel that formed the draw bar decided to fatigue. We identified the problem at a lunch-stop on a country dirt road, some 20 km from our last stop.
(Due to leave the van at that stop, travel home, come back in two weeks to use the van for two nights and then take it home.)
So, over the next hour, I uncoupled, brought the frame into alignment, taking care not to tear the rest of the material, braced it with a decent sized tree limb and held it in place with plenty of round lashing. I had lots of rope at hand. I then used chain and shackles to provide some pull strength accross the fracture. The other side of the A frame was intact. I could have used a roll or two of duct tape!
We set off carefully in 1st gear, checked things very frequently and arrived at a town some 4 hours after the mishap. We put the van into storage at an old CP that we had used a couple of years earlier that was now closed. This town was some 10k short of our original destination.
Arranged with a local workshop that in thirteen days time we would limp the van in for some repairs.
On return to the van we replaced the tree limb with some rhs held in place with several G clamps, re-applied the chain and crawled to the workshop.
2 hours later both sides of the A frame were better than new, break repaired, braced from coupling back past the first cross-member. Next day we picked up where we were originally intended. Trip home was totally uneventful.
That van did several more trips till we eventually upgraded.
Love this story. Resilience, self sufficiency, isn't that what the government want to teach people now ??? Get rid of the phones !
Get rid of the phones !
