Hi all
I'm currently away about 35 minutes from home, trying out my new air beam tent and new trailer. Yesterday, I was going down a moderate hill, less than 30 miles an hour (third gear) which felt the correct speed to have a controlled descent but the trailer started to wag slightly and to be honest really scared me.
In driving a Citroen Berlingo which had two adults, one child, two dogs and the 21kg tent in it. The trailer is a brand new towbag so about 5foot by 3 foot. This had the rest of our things in, including a mobicool B40 which was was at the front of the trailer to the left but was counteracted by equally heavy items to the right. Tried to get the weight evenly distributed over the axle and was loaded just above the rails (the cover is designed as higher walls). It's designed to carry a maximum of 200kg and we were no where near that. Normal towbar and we checked the connection was completely secure.
I had a towing lesson at the Nec which although not a full lesson gave me at least some proper basic instruction, so what went wrong?
I'm dreading driving home as I didn't feel that the downward slope was that great.
SPECIFICATION:
Overall Size: L 205cm x W 135cm x H 85cm
Enclosure Size: L 125cm x W 100cm x H 45cm
Folded Size: L 135cm x W 50cm x H 50cm
Weight of Towbag: 65kg
Maximum Payload: 200kg
Gross Vehicle Weight: 265kg
The 21kg fridge was at the front though, we don't own anything heavier than that and the trailer is a week old, surely the tyres would be fine brand new? That's what's confusing me :( the trailer is really light weight though as it all comes apart into pieces and goes in the corner of my shed.
Just a thought if you check everything else .and it comes out o.k I.e air pressure in the tyres etc .it might be worth taking the wheels off when you get home and getting them balanced at a local tyre place .
Have you checked the tightness of the wheel nuts as well ,as it's a new trailer they might have worked loose .
The only other thing it could be is a buckled wheel,unlikely but not unknown ,again only wheel/tyre balancing will show this up
I would re-pack the trailer and include the tent. When we had a trailer it was often almost fully laden. Heavy stuff low down over the axle and slightly to the front. Steady as a rock. The only time you would ever have a problem with an un-braked trailer, is on a down hill slope in the wet and having to brake hard. The trailer can push you sideways.
Thank you all so much for your speedy replies whilst we were away, we checked the tyre pressure and as we had also taken the manual away with us, we could confirm that they were correct. I was very worried about the drive home as it was a definite snake (long experience of caravans with my ex husband although as a passenger) and this was on a single carriage way in the countryside, so not even a major road. I also rang the MD of Towbag who has been brilliant. He talked us through checking various things on the trailer, including the two screw bolts going through the bottom, which were fine. We concluded that it was possibly two things, firstly the fridge (21kg) was loaded front left, it was a single solid object, which although we thought was counteracted by the weight on the right, its possible that it wasnt and this would also have affected the noseweight also. The second thing is that he asked if I had used the gears to slow down the car going down the hill or the brake. I was in third gear but with my foot on the brake so not using the drive of the car (is that the right term) to slow down the car. So on the return journey, the heaviest object being the fridge was moved to the centre and just forward of the centre axle and objects were packed evening around it. I dropped down a gear rather than braking to go downhill and although the return journey was overall more uphill and there was not the same long downhill to try, I didnt get a single wobble.
I have decided to perhaps also get a proper towing lesson using my own trailer to become a bit more confident as well. It cant hurt can it :)
Taking a lesson can never hurt,esp when it comes to reversing (cant always unhitch to move the trailer,no matter how small).
Personaly ive never liked the tin box type you get from Halfords and the like,so have always gone for a small "Home built" type,main reason I always fit larger wheels as the small 8" or 10" just don't look upto the job to me,currently have Volvo alloys at 14",but have had some nice 13" mini wheels.
I always pack heavy stuff on axle and spread weight around whilst favouring the front.
The little wheels are fine if you stick to the weight limits.
Putting larger wheels on instead of the little ones moves the issue onto the wheel bearings.
Seems the little erde trailers dont exactly over engineer the wheel bearings. Larger wider tyres will put more stress into them.
Cheaper than other trailers for a reason i think. If you see them on display check the bearings and spin the wheels. I bet one has more play than the other.
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Topic: towing small trailer, wag down hills
