Towing a car trailer with the van.

[Maysik]

Hi there,

Has anyone towed a car carrier trailer with a car on it?

Wondering how it handled.

Thanks

Maysik.

[stickthis]

Jenny and Roddo do quite often. With their Yellow HZ Sandy and "The Player".

Ill message her and make sure they get on here

[Maysik]

Thank you for that, much appreciated. I am possibly looking at a trip from Sydney to Newcastle through the week.

[playwme]

I towed another van down a pretty twisty mountain road into the Araluen valley with my van. You can't do the speeds you normally do but it handles ok. A decent trailer helps, and properly loaded is a must too.

[Maysik]

Thanks for that, I havn't towed a car trailer before so I'll do a bit of research on load and balance.
Rolling shell no motor, should help a bit.

[Valencia]

Id put it on backwards with no driveline but thats just me

[hxbunny]

Id put it on backwards with no driveline but thats just me

Totally agree, I picked up a van without the driveline and put it on the trailer forwards, the back of the car looked a little high but I thought I'd get away with it.
Was all fine until I got out of town and up to about 70k's and it started fish tailing, I was very lucky that there was nobody coming the other way.
Back into town and backed the van onto the trailer and made the 4 hour trip up the freeway, not at 110 though, without any further incident.
It would have been a lot easier for me to get a proper tilt tray to pick it up and that's what i'll do from now on.

Cheers.

[wbute]

http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roads/safe...es/towing.html

Check this out first. I know people are doing this but you need to look at rules. You are only allowed 1.5 times the weight of your tow car if you don't have the manufacturer rated specs. Plus you will need s brake controller.
It's great that it's possible to tow a van behind a van. But the RMS don't give a rats if your overloaded. They are blitzing caravan owners at the moment. I know one bloke who bought a new caravan but they wouldn't let him take it out of the yard because his car wasn't rated to tow it.
I don't know any figures, but assuming a trailer weighs 800kg and a V8 van weighs 1450 (without being decked out with 150kg of plywood and trim in the back) then you are 50kg overloaded. That's without a driver in the tow car as well.

[wbute]

IMG_0128.JPG
I carted hay on this old Inter for years. It's got no rego and I was on on a back road here. It's a 5 tonne truck that had 20" wheels put on it to make it "look" like an 8 tonne truck. There is only 6.5 tonnes of hay on it.
It got me in the end. Twenty km/h and over it went. Just glad I didn't have my kids in it with me. I had to hang onto the drivers door so I didn't fall out the passengers window as it went over.
I spent a fair while driving 793 Cat dump trucks. They carry 250 tonnes of dirt. I have driven trucks for 30 years without an incident. Truth is, stuff has a weight limit for a reason.

[Maysik]

Thanks:

Playwme
Valencia
wbute

Great info all.

I'm thinking Mooney Mooney on the way home will be a concern then if its raining......

The extra $$ for a flat bed and no care is looking good, I do not know anyone with a car trailer, I don't like borrowing other peoples stuff anyway.

And its a long way to haul a dodgey Caltex loaner.