Hello all.First trip in caravan on sunday.Myself and son have bought an old 1984 Sprite alpine 4 berth.First trip is to local campsite in Newbury to see how it all works.My question is do you need a stabilizer for towing a light van.Im towing with a Peugoet 406 1.8 petrol.Will probably change car to a diesel at some stage.
Eamonn
This subject has been flogged to death on here.There is some that will advise you if the van is loaded properly you wont need one,others will say you do.Personally,i would not tow without one even though my van is loaded right.
Hi and welcome to the forum. First and foremost, there is no hard and fast rule regarding using a stabiliser so it's all down to personal choice really but what a stabiliser won't do is correct a snake from an unbalanced outfit which some seem to think that it will. However, what the stabiliser does is provide assistance in windy conditions and tall vehicles passing you either on a dual carriageway or motorway. There are other factors to take into consideration besides a stabiliser such as correct noseweight, correct tyre pressures on both caravan and towcar plus loading the caravan correctly and once these are achieved then your stabiliser will provide the maximum performance that it is designed to do and although I do all the necessary checks as mentioned I still prefer to use a stabiliser myself for that added security when towing. It has been debated on numerous occassions on this forum regarding the to's and fro's of stabilisers like Jeff said but at the end of the day it's all down to personal choice whether you consider a stabiliser being beneficial or not.
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Topic: First time caravaning
