RV FEATURE
My previous vehicle, for example, was rated to
tow 2500kg (250kg towball download), but it
performed best as a tow tug when lugging no
more than 2000kg.
Now, this is not true of all vehicles. Larger, heavier
4WDs, such as the Land Cruiser 200 or 70 Series,
the Y62 Patrol or Jeep Grand Cherokee, each
rated to tow 3500kg, do it well. But some of the
one-tonne utes that are claimed to tow 3500kg
are somewhat… marginal when loaded right up
– they are just too light.
The moral: don’t assume it’s okay to tow a
trailer that weighs exactly what your vehicle’s
manufacturer claims it can. It might, strictly
speaking, be legal. But is it smart?
LOADING THE VAN
How you load your caravan is crucial. To be stable,
a caravan must have a certain amount of towball
download weight. Place the heaviest items over
the van’s axle and load gradually towards the
front of the van, not the rear.
Place heavy items over the axle and gradually
load towards the front.
Putting heavy loads behind the axle will reduce
the weight being imposed on the vehicle’s
towbar via the van’s coupling. And while this
may sound like a good thing, it will, in fact, only
set-up the van to sway. And no, you should not
try to ‘counteract’ weight you’ve added to the
rear by adding the same weight to the front.
Next issue, we’ll detail the ins and outs of caravan
weights, but it bares mentioning here: never,
ever exceed your van’s Aggregate Trailer Mass.
If it says 2500kg ATM on the compliance plate,
then that’s all your van can weigh (disconnected
from the tow car) after it’s been loaded up. End
of story.
“TO BE STABLE, A CARAVAN
MUST HAVE A CERTAIN
AMOUNT OF TOWBALL
DOWNLOAD WEIGHT.”
gorv.com.au
15