Bal gewig

Middag Chris

Ek het die naweek gou gaan loer;

1] my Kavango het ook nog daardie lae punt onder die A-raam.

2] die bokant van my sleepstang bal is 550 mm van die grond. Selfs met die 17 duim Hilux vellings en dieselfde bande, staan my Kavango steeds effe neus af.

Het jy al gemeet hoeveel jou Everest se stert sak met jou wa op die hak, plus bagasie.? Die vraag is, is jou Everest se agtervering werklik te pap, of is jou problem bloot grondvrye hoogte?.  Onthou jy my eerste opmerking Nadat jy die eerste foto van jou kombinsie geplaas het. Die opmerking was----wat is agterin jou Everest dat sy stert so lag hang.

Nou die vraag waarmee ons vriende moet help----wat is 'n aanvaarbare sak van die stert onder die las van die wa en bagasie, uitgedruk as 'n aantal millimeter. Jare gelede het Caravan en Outdoor dit gemeet vir voertuie en die waens wat hulle getoets het.

Groete

Not a train-smash, but in theory, that means your bos-wa's towing attitude, <theoretically> is slightly nose-up, which is the wrong way....

(then of course your soft suspension's over compensating)....

I think you may find that with stiffer springs at the back you will actually be able to "drop" the ball down 1 set of mounting holes on the drop plate!

Just a question, cost for cost, compared to a spring stiffener, what would it be to have new leaves made up? or even an additional leaf added? It would make the ride perminently harder though.

But here's the thing. As you may know, I've put new tyres on my Landy that are a bit bigger.... Consequently the spare only just just fits between the bumper and the bracket on the door... I mean millimeters clearance.... The boys on the 4x4 forum say I can "invert" the spare wheel bracket and that will give me a bit more room as the studs in the bracket on the door are not central to the mounting holes.....

So I thought to let you in on this, it may be an option... IDK if your mounting can be inverted or if it will  make the wheel higher, but it may be worth looking into..

regards

Warren

Op hierdie foto, is die bal reeds op die onderste gate? 

My tyres are still good for at least 40 000km so I won’t go that route

Not suggesting to change your tyres <I did that>, but a possible way to raise the height of your spare, see if you can  flip the spare wheel bracket upside down (Like my landy's) it might be such that there is more space between the coupling and the bottom of the spare wheel cover..... RGDS

Warren, then he still sits with the door problem?

Ek sit nou en dink, ek maak nooit my agter deur oop terwyl die wa gehak is nie.

Ek verstaan, ek pal die tente en grondseile en ander goed agter in die Ford en daar is nie goed om uit te haal op die pad nie, maar gelukkig kan my agter ruit apart ook oop maak sou daar so iets benodig agter in.

Ek sit soms die neuswiel in die wa se deur op die trappie as dit te vol is agter.

Middag Willem

Dis nou as jy dit nie toegeplak het nie, nê

Ek onthou die lekker voordeel van die Territory se agterklap, met aparte ruit oopmaak. Ek moes net altyd onthou om te sorg dat die neuswiel slinger agtertoe wys, anders het die klap gehak.

Hoop jou kar is binnekort weer spiekeries

Ah, I understand now. Thanks, will have a look. As Johann said I’ll still only be able to open the door about 30cm wide and that can be a potential pain with small kids and a wife who might just want something out of the back en route. 

here is a pic of how I got round the same problem, 

I calculated the distance I needed for the door to clear the jockey wheel, (which was reduced because I'm using a pintle yoke hitch which is "longer" than a STD ball coupling) and made up 2 extentions out of solid square bar (think it was 50 x 50) then drilled 16.2mm holes ththrough the middle, then used 2 M16 HT bolts of the right length to bolt it all together... All in all 1/2 H on the lathe and 1h on the millacron milling machine to angle off the corners.. Hydraulic machine vise, a setsquare set at 45 Deg and a tungsten rose cutter and BOOM! good enough...

One of the benifits of having served an apprentiship in turning & machining.... SAA actually.... Back in the day when SAA was something to be proud of......

My old ones on the Defender where actually made from 80mm round bar, I shaped them to look like dumbels <middle reduced> for weight, but kept the ends big for additional strength to counter torsional <mostly downwards> force....

I really do not like the prefabricated extentions I think they are too flimsey for when things go wrong and you have 1500 - 2000Kg behind you.... I actually think they are only meant for for bicycle racks...

If it's the jockey, that's stopping the door, look into getting a removable one (I'm not shure what's stopping the door from opening fully)

Just some ideas.... hope it's helpful 

RGDS W

You said your ball is at 480mm, (top of the ball) and without the coupling attached the bottom of the door clears the ball? Is that about it?

But that means your ball is 80mm “too high” (you could even push that to 90mm too high)

Industry standard is 400mm +- say 10mm. IE if you measure the height of the coupling from inside the “cup” of the coupling to the ground, at 400mm, the trailer should have a level towing attitude.

The highly desirable slightly nose-down attitude happens from the additional weight when you hook-up, and the back of the car goes down a bit... should be around 50mm or so.

So the big question is: - By how much does your door actually foul on the coupling at 400mm?...

IE : - Set the height as I’ve mentioned, just on the jockey, don’t hook it on your ball, reverse the car up to the front and measure the interference.

You should clear... That means to sort that problem, you might consider lowering the ball by approx. 80mm

Now I know that’s not going to help you right now, but when you do get the stiffeners, then you will have a roadmap how to get the door to clear

See you need to go back to the start... 400mm ball height... Pretty much everything revolves around that.

BTW, those extensions of mine also made it way easier to hitch the coupling onto the ball, because the spare wheel‘s in the way, so, I canned 2 problems. Made it much easier to hitch and the door JUST also clears in-front of the jockey wheel shaft.

Warren

Dit is nie standaard vir alle woonwaens nie.  My Exclusive en die off-road wans sal nie noodwendig die selfde wees nie.

Volgens my moet jy die woonwa waterpas staan maak en dan meet jy die hoogte van die bal.

What if my tow ball is too low?

This is more likely to happen with long wheel base estate cars or vehicles with lowered sports type suspension. Some vehicle manufacturers/tow bar manufacturers provide an option to have the tow ball set in a higher position – you would need to check as this will not be a ‘user adjustable’ setting. If it cannot be adjusted, you might need to see if it’s possible to have the rear suspension changed (stiffer springs, spring assister etc) to raise the rear end.

Can I use a drop plate up-side-down to raise my tow ball?

No. I don’t know of any vehicles or tow brackets that can use a plate to raise the height of the tow ball. Using one would add increased loading on the tow bracket and would invalidate the EC Approval. I would suspect you might have insurance issues if anything untoward were to happen.

Willem jy is 100% korrek!. Ek volg die draad al van die begin af en jy is reg. Die 400 mm is reg vir meeste pad waens. Off road waens is gewoonlik heelwat hoër. Dit is dan die rede waarom viertrek voertuie ń sakplaat nodig het vir n pad wa.

Sou jy ń sak plaat omdraai om sodoende die bal hoër te lig verander jy die hefboom krag op die hak se hegting, dit kan katastrofies wees.

Daar is ń goeie rede hoekom dit ń sakplaat genoem word, anders sou hulle dit ń ligplaat genoem het.

Terloops die Pajero se standaard fabriek gemonteerde sleepstang kom met drie verstellings, 400, 450 en 500 mm.

Dit kom met die sleepstang so uit die fabriek.

Dit is juis daarvoor dat ek huiwerig is om raad te gee op sulke onderwerpe.

Ek glo die beste roete is maar om die  suspensie op te beef.