Just returned from easter weekend in Scarborough and experienced the worst snaking ever, thought we were gonners!!! Just past Scotch Corner passing lorry and the van just went, it was very severe snaking and shaking luckily my husband was calm and got it back under control, I closed my eyes and shook alot!!!!
I never want to experience that again it was enough to put me off caravaning even though we have been doing it 4 years.
Going to France in the summer and not really looking forward to the journey especially now!!!
Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience. Tell hubby to check your stabiliser it may need adjusting or is one that fits on the towing hitch then maybe you need to replace the pads inside it.
My lorry driving hubbys says that when overtaking a lorry you need to keep well to the right to make a bigger gap between the van and the lorry this also applies when lorrys overtake you keep well to the left.
When Lorries/coaches overtake, you do get some movement, not to the extent of snaking though, I always move over to the left when I see one about to overtake.
Its always scary when you get instability. I think what you need to do now is investigate possible causes. Here are some things to consider, I am sure will make more suggestions.
Tyre pressures in both car and van
Is the noseweight correct
Have you an imbalance in te loading of the van
Are you overloaded
Have you checked the stabiliser.
Were you travelling too fast
All of these things could have caused instability, it would be a shame it if put you off as you clearly enjoy your vanning.
"and experienced the worst snaking ever, thought we were gonners!!! "
Been there many times so you have my sympathy.
Over about a 10 year period we tried 3 caravans and 2 LR Discovery's in an effort to find a caravan /car combination that was stable and reasonably economical to tow.
We failed with everyone of them despite boning up on all the factors, loading tyre pressures, stabilisers, tow ball heights etc. After a bad snaking experience we would creep around at 30/40 for a few trips and irritate other road users so eventually when back to 50/60 we would find ourselves snaking and my wife standing up in her seat screaming.
After a bad experience on the M1 we drove home at 30mph and sold both car and twin axle caravan but missed the freedom so now we have a folding campoer which we tow with a VW Golf diesel auto.
I think the reasons it is more stable is lower c of g, less side and frontal area,a fraction of the weight of a caravan, therefore better power to weight/drag ratio.
The proof is in the traveling. When we overtake hgv's we dont get any side thrust or instability and never experience the smallest hint of snaking.
Bliss at all speeds. In fact we prefer towing to travelling solo as we stick to 60mph when safe which is relaxing and more economical than 70 dicing with the white vans and reps.
Having just returned from a trip, mostly along duel carriageways, I discovered most of the lorries were doing well over 60mph, even on hills, and overtaking me. There wasn't one time when I felt I needed to overtake a lorry...to do so would have taken my speed well over the 60mph limit. On the odd occasion I came up behind a slowish one on a hill I was quite content to sit behind him at 50mph until he managed to pick up speed again.
Patience is not only a virtue...it's a life saver.
I have only travvelled down motorways / dual carriageways on a couple of occassions as i am fairly new to caravanning ,but not towing, but my experience to date is that i have found the "white van and man" doing 85mph and passing you about 6 inches from your wing mirror to be more of a problem
I have only travvelled down motorways / dual carriageways on a couple of occassions as i am fairly new to caravanning ,but not towing, but my experience to date is that i have found the "white van and man" doing 85mph and passing you about 6 inches from your wing mirror to be more of a problem
Andy
I agree Andy i find that they seek up on you and i am sure they are traveling faster than that
I agree with David, yesterday I towed for the first time without a stabiliser. Travelled from leeds to south wales paid particular attention to loading, tyre pressure and nose weight van was approx 60% of the kerbweight of my vehicle.
Speed was maintained at 55-65mph and the van behaved perfectly had me thinking if we pay careful attention to the basics do we really need stabilisers ?
We had terrible snaking with our last van which was a twin axle towed by a Range Rover everytime we went out with it, my partner said he would never have a twin axle again
Hi Jules, sorry to see you had trouble with a twin axle snaking...can't really understand why especially towing with range Rover.......we have had four twin axles now and have had not the slightest problem with any of them...
Makes you wonder whether it's best to avoid motorways/dual carriageways, or keep use of them to a minimum in this day and age....too many lunatics in a hurry on them unfortunately!!
Mind you the amount of caravans being towed on the M5 last week that were "nose heavy" had to be seen to be believed....no wonder they were bouncing around all over the place!!
Modern trucks--have speed limiters set at about 55mph--they will speed up going down hill--but on the flat they do 55mph----the limiters cant(effectivly) be tampered with--I normally cruise along with the trucks--a lot of caravaners seem to do 70mph or more--weaving in & out--driving as if the aint towing a 'van--no wonder they get problems--
do foreign trucks have speed limiters because a couple flew past us last weekend.ok we werent setting any speed records, why bother ,theres no rush, a steady 50-55 mph and these were overtaking with ease.
saw some awful examples of towing on the way home, the nutter who overtook towing his swift and pulled in so quick he nearly took the bumper off our car and the guy with the elddis who flew past only to be on the hard shoulder 5 miles down the road with his offside tyre shredded.
you were lucky pal,could have lost your van at that speed.
Like Edward452, we too have now gone for a smaller, lower C of G and more aerodynamic van after our other van was written off in a snaking accident.
This was caused by our brand new stabilizer being set to the wrong pressure at the factory. It had been set at 6Kg of pressure instead of 27Kg. Ofcourse they denied any responsibility and I could not prove their negligence.
So buyers beware. Buy a Spring Balance and check your stablizers!
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Topic: Nightmare snaking
