OT: Caravan suspension

Has anyone got any idea as to the carrying capacity of the
suspension units from a 12 foot caravan
Obviously I don't expect an exact answer but a round about
figure would be great
TIA

--
Andy

SWB Series 2a ( dressed as a 3) "Bruce"
It's big, it's mean it's really, really green

"Andy.Smalley" wrote:
>
> Has anyone got any idea as to the carrying capacity of the
> suspension units from a 12 foot caravan
> Obviously I don't expect an exact answer but a round about
> figure would be great
> TIA

I would guess, roughly and except its own weight, an extra of around 4
to 500 Kg.
Don't blame if......;-)
Erik-Jan.

Andy.Smalley <[email protected]> uttered summat worrerz funny
about:
> Has anyone got any idea as to the carrying capacity of the
> suspension units from a 12 foot caravan
> Obviously I don't expect an exact answer but a round about
> figure would be great
> TIA

It's a bit of a piece of string question as it depends on the spring
ratings. If you have a chassis then hopefully it may have a plate on the A
frame that would tell the unloaded weight and max weight of the caravan.

Would help knowing the type of caravan as well. uk.rec.caravanning can be a
useful source when they aint bitching about each other.

HTH

Lee

Erik-Jan Geniets wrote:

>
>
> "Andy.Smalley" wrote:
>>
>> Has anyone got any idea as to the carrying capacity of the
>> suspension units from a 12 foot caravan
>> Obviously I don't expect an exact answer but a round about
>> figure would be great
>> TIA
>
> I would guess, roughly and except its own weight, an extra of around 4
> to 500 Kg.
> Don't blame if......;-)
> Erik-Jan.

Probably about right or a bit high, but depends on the van; they really are
not designed to carry much other than themselves. But as with any trailer
you'll probably get away with a substantial overload provided you drive
gently on smooth roads.
JD
JD

"Andy.Smalley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Has anyone got any idea as to the carrying capacity of the
> suspension units from a 12 foot caravan
> Obviously I don't expect an exact answer but a round about
> figure would be great

Probably around 600-800kg for the pair, but:

Because caravan weights don't vary much between tare and laden, they
could be very "soft", i.e. low stiffness. If they're coil springs, they
may just become coilbound at overload, which means they'll suddenly go
solid in the absence of any earlier bump stop. If they're rubber-based,
like Indespension, they can go "over centre" and take on a permanent
sag, with unpredictable effects on their load-carrying ability, or go
virtually completely solid, perhaps with the wheel alignment completely
lost, which does nothing for stability or tyre wear.

If the question did indeed relate just to the suspension units, that
would be about it, but it probably includes the brakes, hubs, wheels,
and tyres. Caravan, indeed trailer, wheel bearings are often very
marginally specified, so even when they're new, there's not much room
for overloading. After they've been driven around and neglected for a
few years, then stood for a while, probably filling up with water, they
are a bit of a disaster waiting to happen, and, unlike your car's wheel
bearings, you're unlikely to hear anything amiss till the whole caboodle
is a glowing mass of ex-bearing.

There are plenty of caravans around still with cracked old cross-ply
tyres on very narrow, non-hump rims. The wheels themselves may not have
a high load rating, and won't take a reinforced or commercial tubeless
tyre. A typical 155R13 car tyre may only have a load rating of "79", or
875kg per pair.

Assuming this is all about trailer conversion. I think the conclusion is
that you could start with an old caravan, but in practice, if you're
going for a single axle trailer you may as well stick to a maximum of
750k, and if you're towing it with a Land Rover, you can then just buy a
couple of new unbraked suspension units and hubs, and a new coupling
that's not going to fly off at the first bump, and avoid a lot of
trouble.


--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. [email protected])***
Car Transport by Tiltbed Trailer - based near Derby

I built a very useful trailer from an old LR axle. Just took a torch
to the two ends of the diff housing, and then a bit of machining and
hey presto an axle that could probably transport about 3tons. I have
loaded about that much sand onto it.

The great part about this is that the PCD matches the Landy, and I use
the overrun part of the hitch to drive a ser1 master cylinder that
drives the standard brakes. All very cunning, except for the fact that
when I fitted the hitch, I didn't allow for the reverse lock thingy to
activate properly, so at the moment I can't reverse uphill without the
trailer coming to very sudden stop.

Here in South Africa, if you are not a registered trailer buiilder,
you can only register a homebuilt trailer for a max of 750Kgs (which I
did) unless you get a South African Bueaure (spelling??) of Standards
inspector to check it over for about ZAR2000 or about 200notes of your
money.

I would also advise that what I thought would be a spot of welding, a
quick trip to the galvanizers and bob's your aunty, in fact turned out
to be something of a mamouth undertaking and probably cost me as much
as getting a trailer builder to do it. Still there is the satisfaction
angle.

Regards
Stephen

"fanie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I built a very useful trailer from an old LR axle. Just took a torch
> to the two ends of the diff housing, and then a bit of machining and
> hey presto an axle that could probably transport about 3tons. I have
> loaded about that much sand onto it.

My 205R16 tyres are rated at 900kg each. 1500kg would be quite an
overload, but you'd probably get away with it for a while, if you drove
slowly enough.

>
> The great part about this is that the PCD matches the Landy, and I use
> the overrun part of the hitch to drive a ser1 master cylinder that
> drives the standard brakes.

Not allowed in the UK for new trailers - in fact no re-use of vehicle
brakes is. Again, you may get away with it, if you don't mind the
trailer having no handbrake and no emergency break-away braking.

<snip>
>
> Here in South Africa, if you are not a registered trailer buiilder,
> you can only register a homebuilt trailer for a max of 750Kgs (which I
> did) unless you get a South African Bueaure (spelling??) of Standards
> inspector to check it over for about ZAR2000 or about 200notes of your
> money.

Just occasionally (usually when I see a trailer with strangely cambered
wheels, no working lights, and the contents dribbling over the road, or
at the side of the motorway with an odd number of wheels) I wonder if we
should have something similar in the UK.

>
> I would also advise that what I thought would be a spot of welding, a
> quick trip to the galvanizers and bob's your aunty, in fact turned out
> to be something of a mamouth undertaking and probably cost me as much
> as getting a trailer builder to do it. Still there is the satisfaction
> angle.
>
yup, OK.


--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. [email protected])***
Car Transport by Tiltbed Trailer - based near Derby

....and JD spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...


> Erik-Jan Geniets wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> "Andy.Smalley" wrote:
>>>
>>> Has anyone got any idea as to the carrying capacity of the
>>> suspension units from a 12 foot caravan
>>> Obviously I don't expect an exact answer but a round about
>>> figure would be great
>>> TIA
>>
>> I would guess, roughly and except its own weight, an extra of around
>> 4 to 500 Kg.
>> Don't blame if......;-)
>> Erik-Jan.
>
> Probably about right or a bit high, but depends on the van; they
> really are not designed to carry much other than themselves. But as
> with any trailer you'll probably get away with a substantial overload
> provided you drive gently on smooth roads.
> JD
> JD

Another way of looking at it (which may be wrong):

My caravan, on a standard Al-Ko chassis - MTPLM 1407Kg, and I estimate the
weight of the chassis (compared with the 500Kg of my car trailer) to be ~
400Kg. That would suggest the weight of the caravan bodywork and fittings
to be around a tonne. So the same chassis, rigged up as a trailer, would be
able to carry 1000Kg, less the weight of the trailer body. That's for a
caravan of approx 15ft, so scale it down accordingly, say 800Kg?

Could be rubbish, though.

--
Rich
==============================

There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary
and those who don't.

> Another way of looking at it (which may be wrong):
>
> My caravan, on a standard Al-Ko chassis - MTPLM 1407Kg, and I
> estimate the weight of the chassis (compared with the 500Kg of my car
> trailer) to be ~ 400Kg. That would suggest the weight of the caravan
> bodywork and fittings to be around a tonne. So the same chassis,
> rigged up as a trailer, would be able to carry 1000Kg, less the
> weight of the trailer body. That's for a caravan of approx 15ft, so
> scale it down accordingly, say 800Kg?
> Could be rubbish, though.


Actually that was what I thought it might be
just thought I'd double check
--
Andy

SWB Series 2a ( dressed as a 3) "Bruce"
It's big, it's mean it's really, really green