All things towed - Trailers and caravans

[Steve Willis]

What with having the flu and having to try and decide which thread to follow this is hard work - so I started a new common one.

Never had a caravan and have never stayed in one - but over the years have slept over at the roadside in a soft top MGB in a blizzard (lots of drips from roof!) and a Mini Cooper S full of my uni gear after falling asleep on the road (luckily only for 1-2 seconds) - boy does that give you a focus on night driving for life! - maybe a new thread 'craziest places I have slept' ?

Anyway back to towing things around with two salutory items.

In the late 1960s my father piled all four of the family into his Ford Corsair for the 3 day drive to Palamos in Spain with all the luggage in the Mirror dinghy (264) on the trailer behind. Being a physicist he had worked out that putting the luggage in the trailer balanced across the axle was better than loading the rear of the car down - and thus increasing the trailer nose weight and possibly causing more 'jaw'- great thinking.

He did his normal meticulous preparation of wheel bearing grease, hub nut tensions, etc.

Trouble with theoretical types is that they sometimes miss the more obvious. On day 2 ( a Sunday ) in the middle of France an axle on the trailer broke because of the trailer load ( bu**er, forgot direct downforce and concentrated on angular moment only).

Being France a quick trip to the next village found the blacksmith having his Sunday rest in a bar and three hours later, with axle repaired we were on our way (with a lot more luggage piled in the car between me and my brother.

Now the second (and more pertinent to Steve and Ben). Last year at the Seasalter Shearwater TT we were nearing race briefing time when I got a call. A car towing two Shearwaters 'piggy-back' on a trailer on the M2 motorway had felt a sudden lurch and then saw one of their trailer wheels roll past them !

With the help of our local constabulary they managed to retrieve the wheel (that stopped about 3-400 yards ahead of them) and sort things out temporarily and to be escorted off the motorway and down to the club.

Looking at the damage the wheel nuts had probably not been tightened properly as the wheel stripped the nuts off the studs. They found three of the nuts on the verge after much searching and got enough thread to allow their slow driving.

Luckily we were able to help out with studs and nuts by the end of the weekend for them to get home. A very lucky escape from potentially destroying two cats and even possibly causing the car to turn over.

My interest in caravans is limited to the sort of things the 'Hamster' does to them in Brainiac. But the kids still do the 'Run to the sun' to Newquay' each year and are building up another VW camper.

So back to crazy sleeping places - I once slept through an earthquake whilst staying on Cephalonia in Greece and did not believe my wife until i heard everyone talking about it at the airport later that day. Conversely We were sitting in bed having a cup of tea one morning last year when the Folkestone earthquake happened (30 miles away). Interesting feeling the bed rocking up and down for 10 seconds and the light swinging from the ceiling. Maybe another new thread - earthquake experiences.

Right come on then more input !

Steve

[Robert]

Good man Steve. I'm not sure I can qualify for a contribution to this thread without revealing secrets that should not be revealed but the thing about the wheel nuts is very important. I haven't done it yet and my boat stands outside ready for an early tow to Carsington tomorrow and I really should check my wheel nuts because I replaced the wheels recently but it is raining...

The trick is probably to get the nuts tight then dob a stripe of paint across each nut and stud end in such a way that a loosening nut can be detected at a glance. HGV's have little plastic pointers that are all supposed to line up for this purpose, I notice.

Perhaps we could have a "Caravan Owners" trophy at the Nationals this year, then I might win something (provided there are no other caravan owners competing).

[George Love]

I grew up on the west coast area of Scotland and was always around boats, mainly the powered variety. Our summer hols. were often taken on the south coast of England - quite a drive (usually 2 days duration) with speedboat on trailer behind a Moggy 1000 in the days of no motorways. One boat had a trailer with aircraft wheels on account of the previous owner being a pilot who had built the trailer. Travelling at some speed along the Hereford bypass on a Sunday morning en route to Lyme Regis we had a blowout - bits of rubber everywhere!! And no spare! Where do you get an aircraft tyre in Hereford on a Sunday morning? Answer - you don't! What you do is wait till Monday, find the nearest boatyard and purchase a brand new trailer!! Cost £29-10s leaving parents with the princely sum of 10 shillings left over from the holiday funds for the next two weeks for all the usual holiday expenses for a family of four!! This was summer of '61 and a great time was had by all!!

[Derek James]

Not much on the telli tonight then ! I had a nasty experience with my trailer a few days after I bought my boat last summer . I decided to take my boat home to prepare it for the nationals at saundersfoot . It didn't tow as well as I hoped for and wobbled around bends and roundabouts . Just as I pulled into my street and less than 10m from my drive a wheel fell off the trailer!!! Worst was to follow as I made the fatal mistake of asking the wife to help me lift and push the boat onto the drive , after all it was only 10m !!! I'll lift and you push I said , thinking it was just like my old laser , not a chance , she pushed and I couldn't even manage to lift it an inch !!! After recruiting the help of my wife and 3 children we managed to drag the boat and trailer off the road and straight into my neighbours flower bed . So what did I learn from this experience ? 1) Always check your nuts before setting off on any journey 2) In addition to a spare wheel you need a jack 3) Towsure - great for trailer bits and really cheap 4) You need to use a wheel brace to tighten your nuts , an adjustable spanner isn't big enough 5) Finally - don't ask the wife to push the trailer , ask her to lift it

[George Love]

Just an thought, guys and gals.
Some of these stories are both very funny and educational!
How about you e-mail me a few in confidence for the moment and I'll publish them in the next Mag? It could be a regular feature in the 'Tip Bits'/'Just for Fun' pages. They would also be good cartoon subject matter!

[Martin Searle]

Well I was towing my boat from my 'olds' place to SSC and down the country lane from their house I encountered a broken down 2CV (its just a single car width track really). The owner and me looked at one another and decided that the easiest option was too pick up the 2CV and move it too one side, fortunately it was by a gate too a field! Sorted!

My inability to go in reverse with trailers is legendary so Jack Knifing is common and thus I normally end up having too pick up the boat with trailer and walk it round to a non jack knifed position and drive off with much honking of horns etc. Only a 100 or so KG!

Now you know why the Celica doesn't have a towbar

Martin S.

[Martin Searle]

Ahh just remembered that I was in a car that was towing a whole load of canoes on one of those multi-layer trailers and it was very wet and we were driving towards the dartford crossing on the Essex side after having spent a week canoeing on the Norfolk Broads. It was a Venture Scout trip and one of the parents had driven up to collect us and boats.

Anyway zooming down a hill I noticed that the trailer wasn't exactly tracking right and was very bumpy, so the driver stopped and guess what one of the wheels was sort of half off the hub having punctured. So we left one of our number at the side of the road to guard the trailer, then we found out that the nearest trailer shop was in Dartford in KENT! so we had to go through the tunnel that day 3 times! and also find said shop in dartford which no one knew at all well. The funny part was of course our very bedraggled colleague (the son of the driver) plus one pissed off parent.

Martin S.

[Peter Lytton]

Now, we are on to canoe trailers- story from a few years ago, when I was asked to bring a canoe trailer, plus canoes back from the venue where the camp had taken place. I was on my own in my car, bowling along nicely on country roads, when I felt that the vehicles was lacking in accelaration. Engine sounded fine, handbrake was off, and then I noticed an extra black line on the tarmac. This black line stretched from the trailer wheel back as far as the horizon. Lack of maintainence had caused the wheel bearings on one side to seize totally. No option but to abandon at the roadside, drive home, collect my A frame trailer (and younger brother), return, take all canoes off, manhandle useless trailer on to mine, lash two together and refit canoes. Take them to Youth Organisation and dump whole outfit in their yard and depart leaving someone with else with a repair job. Moral of the story- it is not a big job to keep bearings greased up.
Did I tell you about the boat trailer unloading on a Sunday afternoon in northern France? Virtually new trailer by a well known reputable manufacturer- all the welds holding axle to trailer frame broke as it was coming down the ferry ramp. Oops! 24 hours later before they found a welder and were heading south.

[Charles]

Well my story goes that the family set off from Halifax to our usual summer destination of Abersoch. About 20 miles down the mororway the traiiler starts to wabble & I think hmmmm better pull over. Sure enough the tyre had blown. No problem, got the spare on & off we go. 5 miles further on the same happens. Fortunately I packed a second spare & we managed another 5 miles until my 3rd spare was needed. We limped to the inlaws & managed to get to a local trailer centre to purchace some 13" instead of 10" wheels. About 9pm that night we got to our destination & during the holidays I sorted out some new mudgaued as the previous ones were too small for the new wheels.

Morale use big wheel when towing 1 cat & 1 large box full of sailing & beach stuff. Good job I didn't have the Oppi on top!

To get back to some more mundane stuff I took my boat & trailed to the local weigh bridge.

Trailer & Box = 140kg.
Hulls, beams, tramp & Mast (nothing else) = 107kg
Total "normal" trailing weight for me (sails, gear, tools, etc) = 342kg
Good job I also uprated my trailer suspension after that!

[Andrew Hannah]

What do you put in the sandwich?

I am thinking of double-stacking two Sprints to take to open meetings. One would be stored upside-down atop the other. Could I ask what sort of sandwich filler is used between the two boats?

Andrew.

[Charles]

Andrew

Try searching the chat pages with the word trailing, there's plenty of entries. A useful one is entitled 2 up trailing, which I asked when I was first planning to do this & got some good advice from the usual suspects.

To answer your specific question you can use VERY heavy duty foam packing, but remember most is not designed to take so much weight.

Alternatively you could use 4 car tyres in bin bags (to stop them marking decks).

However, I have found that 4 lots of 8' x 2' of old carpet tightly rolled & taped to hold it together is very successful, it is kind to decks & doesn't squach down too much.

Leave yourself plenty of time to sort out the top boat, Steve T & I have spent 2 Wednesday nights after sailing trying to sort out our boats in car headlights! Also 1 person per corner for lifting is best, it's possible with 2, but neesd plenty of strength & balance!

You also need to think about balance of the trailer, total weight, whether the mast support is strong enough for 2 masts or will need bracing using rope & one of the trolleys across the upturned bows.

As I said read the other threads, there's lots to think about, but it's worth doing & gets easier & quicker with practice.

Good luck!