Race-car trailer advice

[david_syd_au]

The "10%ish of gross weight on the towball" is not a mandated or regulatory standard, but more a convention to give good trailer stability. You can go lower, but with a greater risk of trailer sway.

That 100kg/2000kg combination seems mad. Maybe it is intended to tow trailers that incorporate stability or anti-sway controls?
Have you checked the detailed vehicle specs to confirm those numbers.?
I have seen European vehicles which have a reasonable towball limit up to a certain gross trailer weight, then a much lower limit for a heavier trailer up to their towing limit


quote="Celluloid Retina"]While i'm asking... can anyone tell me whether the 100kg tow-ball limit on a VW Tiguan would be sufficient for towing a 1500kg dual-axle trailer with an MX5 on it? The Tiguan's have a 2000kg braked towing limit (which is obviously enough), but the European cars seem to have a tiny tow-ball weight compared to their braked towing limit. I gather the standard here is 10% of your total weight making it 150kg, but I just don't understand what the point of that disparity with the European cars is?..

My girlfriend would happily give sign-off on a Tiguan, but the tow-ball limit seems oddly out of place. What could you possibly tow that would weigh 2000kg but only put 100kg on the tow-ball? Are European trailers different?[/quote]

[manga_blue]

Every time I go to a meeting I'm towing the 5 up and down Clyde Mountain or 1600kms around a winding coast road. For that I need bags of torque, big brakes, big cooling and a 2 tonne tow car. I've fried more brakes on the tow car than I have on the race car. If I was just towing around the suburbs to Eastern Creek or down the Hume to Wakefield it would be a different story. As long as you're not going down to the Island or up to Bathurst you can get away with something a fair bit lighter.

[mazmad]

At the end of the day the weight of the tow vehicle relative to the trailer + load weight IS important. Sure you can get away with light tow vehicles, but if you get in a sticky situation, greater chance of the tail wagging the dog. Especially with an unbraked trailer (and I am including everything without elec brakes as unbraked). It happens and can get ugly if you get a sway going. You can't stretch the relationship to a Pajero / Prado / Merc ML thingy ?

[MattR]

Just buy a $2000 Falcon AU S2 ute in auto, put a transmission cooler on it and if needed spend $600 on 2300kg Haymen Reece tow bar, problem solvered.

One of the best rigs for towing around, dirt cheap to run and will go forever and you can put all your spare parts and what not in thetray no problems.

I have towed with Falcon utes for the last 20 odd years, starting with a XD and then moving on to AU, BF and now FG. All tow effortlessly, even the old 250 six in the XD was enough to tow a 1000kg car with a 500kg trailer and a full tray of spares including diff and gearbox, tyres and bonnet plus race kit and gear for three for a week from Sydney to Winton at better than 140km/h three up in the front. Not the most comfortable with the three of us but very capable.

The AU with the 4litre six was more than enough grunt for the same duties and the Boss V8 of the BF, well passing caravans at 160km/h with the race car on a trailer off the back raised eyebrows from grey nomads. The turbo 6 in the FG is pretty good for towing too

Getting the AU, it will be cheap enough you don't care where you leave it and parts are ridiculously cheap and they don't have some of the problems of the BA/F utes. Just make sure it's a series 2 or 3 ute for the better front suspension.

[mazmad]

Just buy a $2000 Falcon AU S2 ute in auto

What he said. Cheap option, park it wherever you like.

[Celluloid Retina]

I have checked the Tiguan specs David and it's definitely 100kg tow-ball, 2000kg braked limit (by checked I mean I read lots of opinions of people I don't know on the internet). The not sticking to 10% on the tow-ball in Europe seems to be an attitudinal thing, rather than any difference in the engineering in European trailers. They just don't seem to feel it needs it. Everyone has smaller cars over there, so if you needed 10% on the tow-ball every time, no one would be able to get their caravan around the English countryside... and Jeremy Clarkson would need to find another bee for his bonnet. They do seem to be big on electric brakes working with cars ESP systems to account for the addition of a trailer and help counter things like sway.
Phil, it mostly would be to Wakefield and SMSP, about 10 times a year, but thats a good point about factoring in more difficult journeys... it would be a bit sad to be prohibited from doing other trips because of the tow vehicle (would love to do Phillip Island one day).
Matt and Craig, great suggestion... I wish it were that simple. A big part of my problem is that, for the foreseeable future, i'm living the inner-city apartment lifestyle with one car space and one car. I'm already struggling to find somewhere to put the race-car on a trailer, another vehicle just to tow is going to create another problem (street parking in my area is 24 hour meter parking at $4.40/hr ). I'm sure there's a set of circumstances out there that will work, but at the moment its feeling like inner-city living and racing don't really go together.

The search continues...

[mazmad]

As someone who has tested the VW groups mechanicals, well within the quoted capacity, and found it sorely lacking, my advice is...tread carefully.

...plenty of places you could park a car for occasionally/monthly use on the street without getting in anyone way, and perfectly legally.

[Exocet Australia]

Storage places have areas for caravans and boats. So parking it shouldn't be a problem. As for ball weight, I'd say that regardless of the manufacturer specs, you could go over a bit. The single axle trailers I build with a MX5 on them are around 150 - 160kg ball weight with the front bumper level with the front of the deck. To lessen the weight, position it further back on the trailer.

[CM sport]

Mate I've got my prototype single axle airbag trailer sitting there. Needs paint and rego. You can have it for 2500

Got a link to this at all? May be interested.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Exocet Australia]

Not this one no. I'll take some pictures tomorrow morning and send them to you.

[Ramona]

I agree with MattR, the old Falcon is the way to go except, I would buy an EL auto wagon with a Hayman Reese bar already installed. I sold one recently, a Ghia wagon for $600 in good nick! Same engine and gearbox as a Ford Territory. Plenty of room to sleep in the back! Tows a caravan easily. Heavy fuel consumption is the only downside.

[Ramona]

I've built a few trailers over the years, mostly boat trailers. Recently I had the occasion to borrow a car trailer off a friend. The trailer turned out to be a modified caravan chassis. Last week I had to dismantle a 16 foot Millard caravan and I brought home the chassis to make into a race car trailer. With the outriggers cut off and a bit off the rear, the rectangular frame is ideal for a car trailer. Its for my Fiat race car but the frame is alongside my MX5 at the moment and it would be a perfect fit. All the technical part is done with the geometry, spring hangers etc, over ride brakes. The later Millard 16's had a galvanised chassis too.

[Magpie]

Any issues with load capacity? What is the gross weight of the caravan you would not want to exceed the designed capacity.

[Skinny Jim]

an old falcon on club reg maybe and then something nice for your lady friend. i feel your pain re inner city living. my dual cab bt50 is a nightmare around here (brunswick melbourne) hence i have a honda ct110 postie bike for running down to the shops etc

[mazmad]

lol I feel your pain

my BT50 is longer than some of the car spaces in the inner West where I work - not difficult to park, but physically longer than the space provided.