My wife and I purchased a Bailey Unicorn Cabrera in December 2011 and have found this unit to be very unstable and we are wondering whether any other Cabrera owners found the same.
I have been towing for 30+ years and have not had this with any other caravan, 4 different vans.
We went to Scotland for our main holiday with a trip of 385 miles each way. Going there through the night was quiet but I still felt the van swaying and it did not feel stable. On the return trip the caravan was very unstable and at times very scary. Coming through Glen Coe a coach came from the other direction and our van started to snake violently and took up the full width of the road, we were lucky that there were no cars behind the coach .All I could do was decelerate and hold on until it levelled out then accelerated out of it, we were only doing about 40 m/hr.
The rest of the journey was very tiring as I was not able to take a hand off the steering due to the caravan shaking the car. Even on the motorway we were lucky to reach 50m/hr. Glad to get home.
On the way home even a car passing would make the unit unstable. On the way home we stopped to check the loading of the van which had not changed, with the nose weight at 75kg and any heavy items like awnings were still over the axle, and they were.
We tow with an X-Trail with the back filled with an inflatable boat and 20hp. Motor so there was plenty of weight to hold the road I am glad to say.
We went to see our caravan dealers to talk this over. They asked us to take the van in for inspection packed the same way as we had travelled home. Up to now they have had the van on the road twice to test and the short distance they travelled using their heavy van as a tow vehicle they noticed what they called a wobble. They have been in touch with Bailey caravans and Al-ko and they have suggested that they try and rebalance the wheels and change the wheel sides ? We are still waiting to hear the results of this adjustment.
I know that previously with Bailey Alu-Tech bodies people have found them to be unstable and I was wandering if there have been any more reports of unstable Cabreras.
I don't have one, I just wanted to say how scary, and glad you made it home safe and sound.
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Adopt a rescue, rescue dogs make great pets, don't support puppy farms.
The road can be tough and rough,but what you put in you get back 10 x more.
The Unicorn Carbrera has a MPTLM of nearly 1600kg and your X-trail if the new shape is more than heavy enough for a good towing match .
If however its the old model there considerably lighter with some diesel models weighing at just over 1500kg and the heaviest (Dci Sport) at around 1640kg which would be a tad light for a van weighing 1.6 tons .
Both the present and the previous manual gearbox diesel models have nose weight limits of 100kg so perhaps if you increased your 75kg to neared 90kg that would help .
I previously had 55 plate dci sport and always towed are old series 7 Pageant at around 90-95kg nose weight and never encountered any stability issues
If the caravan is 1600 kg all up, noseweight should be at least 7% of that which is 112kg. I think max weight on Al-Ko hitch is supposed to be 100kg so set the the noseweight at that & try it or perhaps think about a heavier 4x4 such as a Disco.
"I know that previously with Bailey Alu-Tech bodies people have found them to be unstable and I was wandering if there have been any more reports of unstable Cabreras. "
Have never found mine to be unstable.
Presumably you had checked the tyre pressures on car and van and the nose weight.... 75kg does seem a bit light.
Try balancing the caravan wheels as someone a few years back in the Camping & caravanning magazine forum had exactly the same problem and he had also been towing over 30 years. This was a brand new caravan that had gone back to the dealers twice and also back to Bailey without tracing any problem. After chatting to someone on a rally field he took the advice, had the wheels balanced and it cured his problem.
ours is sometimes unstable , found loading the noseweight to the cars max limit helps as well as having zilcho at the back of van , empty toilet flush etc .
its easily upset in breezy conditions also.
had it behind 4 different towcars and all with the same result at some point , even a lwb pajero could feel the van twitching whereas there was none towing a senator wyoming.
eventually you get used to it
imho i think its the noseweight myself,the caravan is being set on the towbar at 75 kgs.for a caravan of near 1600 kgs MTPLM this is too light and as said should be nearer the 112 kgs mark.needs a car with a towbar weight of 150 ks like a landrover.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Also think its the noseweight, but I had a similar problem with a Kia sportage and a van that I had owned for 10 yrs. Eventually found that the rear spring on one side had snapped and lost the first inch or so of the coil. Might just be worth a look....
The thing that really worries me,is the fact that the ATC unit does not seem to control the OP's snake. It would be one of the first things I would complain about to the dealer
We tow our cabrera with an old lwb Nissan terrano the caravan has a mtplm of 1598kg ours come out at 91% on whatcar ,as for stability problems check the noseweight as bailey's are nose heavy,also you sometimes feel the stability control kick in ,also check the kerbweight of the x trail as they are not as heavy as people think
Tony
Quote: Originally posted by old chap on 15/9/2012
The thing that really worries me,is the fact that the ATC unit does not seem to control the OP's snake. It would be one of the first things I would complain about to the dealer
if its same issue we have experienced its not a snake . its a twitch , hard to explain ,i had a snake in the past this feels different like you sense the van is unstable / twitchy but not snaking . dunno if thats the experience the OP has.
as i said previously, more noseweight does equal a more comfortable tow as long as you dont over do it.
We tow our Cabrera with a Kia Sorrento, no problems with stability once we sorted the loading out, must have a strong noseweight of at least 90-100kgs, have now got 2 lightweight gas cylinders which gives more flexibility for extra gear in the two front lockers, it is very tempting to put a lot of gear under the centre bed but be careful with clothes in the rear wardrobes, rear lockers and draws it can quickly lighten the noseweight and make it rear heavy, one advantage we find with the cabrera is because the shower and washroom are in the centre of the van you can place a some heavy items in them so the weight is over the wheels, perhaps your noseweight is to light at 75kgs
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Topic: unstable Bailey cabrera
