Well we picked up our Bailey Ranger 460/4 (2008) today (very exciting) and drove it to the storage area and OH did very well (it's his first time!) but I did start to feel a little 'sea sick' on route as it felt a bit like we were 'bouncing' along, a little bit up and downy but not necessarily side to sidey (if you get my drift?!) We've got a Toyota Avensis estate 1.8 petrol and we've been 'weighted' correctly so just wondered if this was meant to happen when you tow?
The only things in the van were the gas bottle (in the front locker), a porch awning under the front bed and the wastemaster and aquaroll under the fixed bed at the back and one or two other light things. There's also a stabiliser on the 'van. OH thinks that once the tyres are at the correct pressure on the car and the van has a bit more weight in it will feel better......what say you?? Anyway, OH did an absolutely fantastic job of reversing 'van into space between 2 other vans at the storage place....very impressed! The only other thing for me to worry about now (and I do tend to worry!) is that when we left the dealers the electrics all worked fine but as we were driving down the road and went to indicate left, it didn't work....the right indicator and brakes etc did but not the left. We've checked the bulb and it's not that. So we need to sort that out now too. Other than that we're very happy.
So sorry about the epic thread but hope you might be able to come up with some ideas - thanks very much.
I'm a novice too but we have had 3 different vans in 1 year (we only "pop in" to a dealers and seem to swap the van )
Anyway, I've noticed a huge difference between the 3 and the way they tow, has it got the same stabiliser as your old van? It may just be something that takes a bit of getting used to, our first one was extremely bouncy, the Alko was a bit better but this ones got a Winterhoff and we've swapped the car and you can't tell it's on.
We have a fixed bed indiana and when i first towed it I felt like it 'bounced' a bit too. I have the aquaroll and wastemaster in bathroom and the porch awning with very light poles under the fixed bed towards the axle. I dont feel the bounce now - I have modified my driving though - I was towing an arizona with side dinette and I think different models tow differently. I carry my gas bottles in the front too. My husband has looked at the weight distribution and we feel we are alright. I just think it takes a bit to aclimatise to the way a van handles.
I would let the dealer have a look at the electrics - they should sort this out for you.
Ditto re your tyres being correctly inflated - it makes a huuuuge difference! It might also be worth looking at some rear suspension assisters, but most definitely look at your noseweight. Best pennies we ever laid out was to get a decent noseweight gauge, and it's checked every time we take the van out.
I took the liberty of checking your weights on whattowcar, and it's well inside the 85% (if I got the right car!!), but tbh I find our van tows better when it's got a fair amount inside it....without going mad of course!!!!!
------------- Glyn W.
What if the Hokey Cokey really is what it's all about....?
When we picked up our new van (which has shock absorbers, ATC, and Stabiliser as standard it was a little bouncy. Turned out it was just because it needed to have more of a load in it. When we loaded it for a weekend away it behaved impeccably.
That's great! Thanks everyone for putting my mind at rest. We hadn't inflated the tyres on the car so that's certainly something we'll definitely do and also move the stuff about inside the van.....we've got more stuff to go in it obviously including 3 chairs so I'm sure that'll help.
Hi, the front to back bouncing is called 'pitching' you always get a little bit of it but i guess (as mentioned) that a light unloaded car with a nose heavy van will be the problem.
Get it home and load it up, (if your unsure where's best to put things ask on here) check the noseweight, don't load the back of the van if the noseweight is high that will make it unstable, I'm sure it will be much better with a car boot full of clobber!!!
Jules
Congratulations on getting your caravan, we too have a Ranger 460/4 from Berkshire Caravans but ours is a 2006 model which we have had nearly 3 years now.
The pitching problem may be due to the fact that your caravan was nose heavy and your car boot nearly empty or it could be the due to the suspension on the car - we had a similar problem with our old car (a xsara picasso). I will get OH to post on here later to explain how he solved the problem but he is out at the moment!
thanks very much.....we only had the gas bottle in the front locker but the porch awning was under one of the front seats at the front. The car boot is pretty empty so yes that certainly needs filling up! When we hitched up, the van was only very slightly nose down but not too much and the chap at Berkshire Caravans said it looked OK.
I'll keep an eye out for your later post. Thanks very much once again.
FB's other half here.
With the caravan hitched and the old car loaded for a holiday with 2 of our children it would nearly be riding the bump stops.
On the Picasso I fitted some spring assisters - these are smaller springs that actually fitted alongside the torsion bars at the rear to stiffen up the suspension. After they were fitted the ride was slightly higher than normal without the caravan - but the "lean" when going round corners was much reduced. With the caravan loaded normally there was still a couple of inches of travel left on the suspension.
We changed the car to a vectra as the picasso had done 120,000 miles in less than 4 years and was starting to make expensive sounding noises.
When I collect the caravan from storage it is almost empty and so is the car - this does result in a "bouncy" ride that is not present when both are loaded for a trip.
Thanks for that.....we're hoping to go away next weekend (if we can get the left indicator to work!) so we'll see how the 'bounce' is when both car and 'van are loaded, if not we'll give the spring assisters a go. Thanks again.
Remember to load heavier items over the axles medium items at waist level storage and light items in roof lockers. Just because the weight seems evenly distributed there is a certain way to load your van.
Hope you dont feel so sick next time!! LOL
------------- Jan:Braids Gretna, Feb Stanwix Park Silloth & Braids Gretna,
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: `Bouncing` Bailey
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