Not good towing

[hinsch]

This is not good, driver states that the wind caused the caravan to start swaying, the Pajero and caravan completed 180 degrees and ended up on the other side of the road, happened near Lancelin WA. No one got hurt.

[CC2005]

From what you can see in the pics the vehicle looks more worse for wear than the caravan. Probably not the case.

[nj swb]

At least no-one was hurt!

A bit scary to think this can just "happen".

[old Jack]

Good no one is hurt.

Van has become completely uncoupled and safety chains or there attachments have broken.
There does not appear to have any WDH fitted and you can see in the photo the towbar tongue appears to be distorted but the ball is intact, not sure what the fitting is in front of the ball though.

2 large water tanks in front of the van axles so I wonder what the towball download was?
Wonder if the Pajero has upgraded suspension?

Things just don't happen, there could be things wrong with the setup waiting for a small incident to unbalance a setup that is right on the edge in regards to stability. I see this all the time when travelling, many setups a "twitchy", you can see this if you are travelling behind someone for a while, that it does not take much of a bump in the road or a passing truck to induce some instability.

OJ.

[Faereag]

Good no one is hurt.

Van has become completely uncoupled and safety chains or there attachments have broken.
There does not appear to have any WDH fitted and you can see in the photo the towbar tongue appears to be distorted but the ball is intact, not sure what the fitting is in front of the ball though.

2 large water tanks in front of the van axles so I wonder what the towball download was?
Wonder if the Pajero has upgraded suspension?

Things just don't happen, there could be things wrong with the setup waiting for a small incident to unbalance a setup that is right on the edge in regards to stability. I see this all the time when travelling, many setups a "twitchy", you can see this if you are travelling behind someone for a while, that it does not take much of a bump in the road or a passing truck to induce some instability.

OJ.

Can't see the coupling OJ, but I wonder if both vehicles would have gone over if a DO35 or similar hitch was used? I have not seen any breakdown figures for this ype of accident broken down by coupling type!

[hinsch]

OJ looks like the caravan may not have been balanced correctly to much weight on the ball maybe, a lot of force to bent that tow hitch. Pajero is rated to 180kg on the ball for max of three ton towing as far as I know. Hopefully by showing others mis-fortune gets people to look at what they are doing. As I said this guy stated the complete unit Pajero and caravan did a 180 degree turn, this accident was on a well travelled road, families coming and going on holidays. Lucky nobody was coming the opposite direction, accident could have been a whole lot worse. I got a fwd fold camper and try to keep as much weight over the axles as possible, but you see some with motor bikes, boats, outboards, canoes etc etc loaded to the top, they must be over weight / over loaded.

[mrbitchi]

not sure what the fitting is in front of the ball though.

.

Its the mounting for MarriageSaver


Van looks like a Concept Belmont. Typically weighs in around 2600kg

[Dicko1]

Driver said wind tipped the complete rig over. Close to 6 tonnes of weight if both loaded to max plus some. Worst thing about seeing photos like this without the facts is that too many theories and conjecture is thrown up. Glad they got out alive. Normally the facts about the accident come out some time down the track and we do not hear about them.

[Ian H]

A mate of mine just had one water tank moved from in front to behind the axle. He had two in front like that and fully loaded the ballweight was 400kg

[hinsch]

Driver said wind tipped the complete rig over. Close to 6 tonnes of weight if both loaded to max plus some. Worst thing about seeing photos like this without the facts is that too many theories and conjecture is thrown up. Glad they got out alive. Normally the facts about the accident come out some time down the track and we do not hear about them.

Agree, something has gone wrong here and I am not saying there was any real reason. I have driven that road and it can get very windy, just posting so people can think about how can I do this trip safer and maybe that is stop if it is really windy.

[ticky]

Too much weight behind the axles is another way to induce swaying as well

Another theory, packing contents behind the axles to reduce the weight on the ball when the water tanks are full, but forgetting to shift that weight forward for the trip home when the water tanks are carrying a lot less weight

my wife and i used to go away on our motor bike, so we got into the habit of packing lite, but I have seen vans with all the gear spread out in parks and and it makes me wonder what they left home.

Steve

[KiwiNTPajero]

in my humble opinion these vans are just too big for the tow vehicles.If you cant do this and cant do that it is really an expression that you are too close to the limit.?
To me the idea that the van is heavier or bigger than the tow vehicle,and the stability is dependent upon factors which to many people is not easlily determined then the system is just wrong.
I have always wondered why these big vans dont have a wheel in each corner like the big truck trailers.Then there is no weight on the tow ball

[Just Cruzin]

in my humble opinion these vans are just too big for the tow vehicles.If you cant do this and cant do that it is really an expression that you are too close to the limit.?
To me the idea that the van is heavier or bigger than the tow vehicle,and the stability is dependent upon factors which to many people is not easlily determined then the system is just wrong.
I have always wondered why these big vans dont have a wheel in each corner like the big truck trailers.Then there is no weight on the tow ball

If they had a wheel on every corner, which is a good idea, they could not navigate corners without a pivoting draw bar. That creates more problems in itself because of having two pivot points. You reckon it's fun now watching people trying to reverse any trailer, break out the popcorn.
My step father, who is very competent at towing trailers, had one to tow his car behind his mobile home. He gave up trying to reverse his, the shortness of the draw bar and then the distance to the pivot point made it near impossible.
Not saying it can't be done, just goes against all natural logic and is the reason normal semi drivers aren't automatically granted a B double licence.

[sandgroper 123]

Agree, something has gone wrong here and I am not saying there was any real reason. I have driven that road and it can get very windy, just posting so people can think about how can I do this trip safer and maybe that is stop if it is really windy.

Can i just mention speed ! , i used this road every year traveling up north lots of bends and windy , i keep to 85 towing here as we have a large van ,but i see every year caravans passing us at 100 kph i have even had to brake as i can see a tank slapper starting on a overtaking rig , most heavy rigs tow fine even if wrongly packed until they reach a certain speed , two spares and a tool box on the back of a van are the ones to watch .

[Peterng]

Not good towing

With having a dual wheel suspension the van would ride well, but they can be a bit soft and bounce around if not weighted properly.
Miscalculation with weight distribution combined with speed could be a factor.
One aspect not realised is the approaching speed of oncoming vehicles, especially large trucks. Their wind wake can be considerable if approaching at 100kph, plus the tow vehicle speed of 100kph..this could be a recipe for a ‘tank slapper’ situation to occur and with over correction of steering inputs by the Paj driver...the van and Paj fall over.
Good to see all occupants survived..


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