Trailer caravan cold knowledge: between the front and rear of the car have to mention those things

I have a Corolla, can I use it for towing? Can an ordinary family SUV be used to tow a trailer? Play trailer must ensure that the front car is non-load-bearing body? These are some of the more common questions that I have recently summarized about towing caravans. Trailer caravan, in fact, not only need to take into account the insulation performance, sound insulation capacity, sleeping comfort and other conventional issues, but also need to take into account the front and rear vehicle weight ratios, the front of the car's towing capacity and other issues. Previously, we have introduced the relevant issues about the towable RV regulations, for more details, please click: "Finally a basis? Can your car tow a trailer RV or not? , today I mainly take you to understand the towing caravan in the process of driving.

Nowadays, a lot of self-media on the Internet and even some sales, will say: 1.6L or more displacement can be towed. But in fact, the towing capacity needs to take into account the vehicle power, the vehicle's own weight, the rear suspension can withstand pressure and other factors. For example, some cars displacement more than 2.0L, but their own weight is relatively high, the power response itself is not very good, plus the towing will lead to climbing effort, fuel consumption increased and so on. In addition, the rear suspension of some cars is relatively soft, and when towing a trailer, the rear suspension travel of the main car will be excessively compressed, and the trailer body is not in a horizontal position, which leads to poor driving stability.

For playing towing caravan, the most recommended is the pickup truck, off-road vehicles such as non-load-bearing body, with chassis beams of the model towing. Because the non-load-bearing body chassis beam is very strong, can better defuse the impact; at the same time, pickup trucks or off-road vehicles own weight is relatively large, can better inhibit the impact of the trailer on the front of the car; in addition, pickup trucks or off-road vehicles, more than the rear axle using the overall bridge form, in the load capacity is relatively better, can be used for towing some of the heavier caravans.

And such as SUVs, sedans can indeed be used to tow a caravan, but not necessarily suitable for towing a caravan, many caravans even one or two people unarmed can pull away. Many people may be curious: why many caravans in Europe are towed by cars? In fact, the overall development of the caravan camping industry in Europe is relatively early, the design of the caravan is also more mature, and the lightweight of the vehicle is more excellent. The general 7-meter body length of the European imported caravan, the vehicle weight is only in the 1100-1300kg or so. In addition, in the European region and North America have a clear safety standard for trailer caravans, requiring the main body weight of the trailer caravan by the center axle, and for the towing frame on the towing ball of the lower pressure also has a clear requirement: the European standard generally requires the lower pressure of the towing frame is 7% of the weight of the trailer caravan, and the North American region is required to be in the 10% or so.

In addition, it is from the overall development of the caravanning and camping industry in the European region is relatively early, many European cars in the beginning of the design will take into account the towing of trailer caravans in this case, in the rear bumper hidden inside the trailer ball head and power connector installation position. Therefore, many European imported cars or some sedans or SUVs from European joint ventures have certain towing qualifications, which can be used to tow some light weight caravans with trailers. For example, the Elddis? 550 pictured above has a total weight of 1,300kg and a maximum gross vehicle weight of 1,500kg. According to the European standard for downforce, the downforce of the Elddis? 550 in unloaded and fully loaded condition is 91kg and 105kg respectively, which allows it to be towed by the Mercedes-Benz CLS sedan pictured above. However, it should be noted that the specific ability to tow a caravan also need to check the vehicle manual.

First of all, you need to pay attention to the weight ratio of the front and rear vehicles, the weight of the rear vehicle, and the strength of the brakes, to prevent the "folded head effect". The so-called "folded head effect" refers to the trailer pushes the tractor forward, resulting in the rear of the tractor to produce a certain rotation, and even appear to turn around the situation. The "nose-over effect" usually occurs during emergency braking, downhill driving, or when steering while braking. The main reason is that the current trailer caravan braking system mainly has two kinds of brakes: crash brakes and electric brakes, no matter which one, is the main car first brakes, then the trailer brakes, the front and rear of the car's braking time interval is very small, usually in milliseconds or even microseconds as a unit; but there is still a time interval. Therefore, in the moment when the time interval between the front and rear vehicle brakes is generated, the rear vehicle will form a thrust on the front vehicle. If the overall weight of the trailer is heavy, the front vehicle may not be able to press the rear vehicle. If it so happens that there is a certain angle deviation between the front and rear vehicles, the rear vehicle will cause the rear of the front vehicle to produce a certain magnitude of rotation, and may even cause the front vehicle to turn around directly. Therefore, in the use of trailer caravan, need to put as much material in the front car, reduce the weight of the rear car; and to minimize the situation of heavy braking, thus preventing the "folding head effect".

Additionally, you need to pay attention to the front and rear weight ratios of the trailer, traveling speed, to prevent "death swing". The so-called "death wobble" refers to the trailer caravan in the driving produced by the violent, high-frequency swaying left and right, when the swaying frequency reaches a certain value, may lead to the vehicle out of control. The main reason for "death wobble" is that it is subjected to certain external influences, resulting in a change in the vehicle's equilibrium state. Generally encounter crosswinds, vehicle weight distribution is not reasonable, traveling too fast and other conditions will lead to changes in the balance of the vehicle. Therefore, in the actual use of the car process, we need to do our best to evenly distribute the material to the front and rear storage compartments, and connected to the trailer as far as possible to not more than 90km / h speed in high speed in the form. If the death swing has been produced, you can properly release the brake, and tap the gas pedal, so that the vehicle produces new forward momentum, so as to crack the "death swing".

Summary: After the full text, we do a small summary, trailer car is actually a front and rear car composed of a car train, so in the use of the process need to pay attention to relatively more matters. First of all, before departure, we need to reasonably distribute the weight of the items, check the trailer brake system, understand the weather conditions ...... and in the process of driving, we need to pay attention to control the speed, observe the road conditions in advance, and try to maintain a greater distance between cars than the usual driving.

This article comes from the authors of the motor home car family number, does not represent the views of the motor home position.