Just a touch of sway

budget · Member

Just a touch of sway

Are We Lost · Guru

You had more detail and some good responses in the thread you started several months ago.

https://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t70969203/towing-question/

Rather than go through that again why dont you continue on that thread?

Fred K · Veteran Member

I would start with tyre pressures
Get weight of van on wheels and divide by 4 to get weight on each wheel.
Then check sidewall of tyre and see max weight at what pressure

Then divide actual weight by placard (should be fraction less than 1) and multiply this by tyre placard pressure

Then subtract 2psi on front tyre of van and add 2 psi to rear tyre of van. Then do similar calculation to car where front tyres are lowered and rear tyres are increased by the same amount but more like 4-5 psi.

Surprisingly this works well in cars with active air suspension and was advocated by Collyn Rivers, a noted suspension expert from England and more recently Aus. He was written numerous books about caravanning but suspension is where he started.

Peter_n_Margaret · Senior Member

Caravans are inherently unstable.
If you have "Just a touch of sway" then in my view you are a bees bum from a total loss of control and a roll over.
WHEN that happens, the chances of a head-on collision and multiple deaths are very high. Your rig should not be on the road in its current form.
rvbooks.com.au/reducing-caravan-sway/~:text=A%20caravan's%20sway%20is,sway%20in%20the%20other%20direction.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

budget · Member

Apologies for creating another post dealing with these issues and not checking first that I previously started one elsewhere. Poor memory.

budget · Member

Peter Thankyou for your reply and I respect your opinion, but in the case I have indicated this is not something that I believe I would be confronted with. I do recognize the trouble an inexperienced person could get into but I assure you i am just trying to make things perfect as they were with my last vehicle.

budget · Member

Thankyou Fred K for your reply its great to get a reply that offers an idea that has a different approach I will try this and report back . Thankyou

Peter_n_Margaret · Senior Member

budget wrote:
Peter Thankyou for your reply and I respect your opinion, but in the case I have indicated this is not something that I believe I would be confronted with. I do recognize the trouble an inexperienced person could get into but I assure you i am just trying to make things perfect as they were with my last vehicle.

Read and understand the Rivers reports on this subject. It has no respect for experience.

The sway response of a caravan/tug combination is 'chaotic'. It rapidly become totally impossible to control irrespective of experience, or not.

Last I saw, insurance companies were reporting 2 total write-offs every day, on average.

Any combination that ever demonstrates any signs of sway should not be on the road.

Cheers,

Peter

peter67 · Guru

So! it seems it's possible to get half pregnant and stop there. Just a minor sway eh?

Possum3 · Guru

I would bet your suspension is out of alignment. Have it checked at a truck suspension workshop.

budget · Member

Thanks for the reply, I replaced all of the components on the suspension recently . I marked everything before dismantling and realigned the old way with string. Everything at the time was perfect with the old vehicle. A couple of days ago I re did the levelling of the van and towbar and everything is perfect. When I hooked the car up it pump up to near perfect. I now will weigh the van as discussed previously and check tyre pressures.