Towing in winds (I.e tomorrow and Sunday)

[Adam and Hayley]

We've got to tow from leicester to chard tomorrow and then on Sunday from chard to lymington



6.3m Humber and trailer:1500 kg
Towing with an Audi A6 Quattro- good for 1800kg



So...


Motorways on day 1 (Mainly had wind I believe)



A roads on day 2 ( crosswinds)


Wind: gusts of into 50 mph


I guess the simple answer is keep my speed down

Beware lorries overtaking me

Any other thoughts?

Or am I just being over cautious?

[Adam and Hayley]

Oh and twin axle brenderup trailer

[Pikey Dave]

Make sure your nose weight is correct. Keep your speed down especially going down hill. Use engine braking rather than brakes.

[Last Tango]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Use engine braking rather than brakes.

Debatable....During advanced driver training I was "encouraged" not to use engine braking. The reason being most modern cars are fitted with ESP as well as ABS and the ESP system can't mitigate for any unbalanced braking effect from the engine particularly with two wheel drive as there will be a disproportionate braking effect on one axle set.....However I've never noticed this and I have certainly noticed the alarming effect of brake fade (Yon big hill down into Oban). So open to debate

[neil.mccrirrick]

Brakes in a car I agree tech had come on a long way but with trailer old school for me far more control with engine braking least that's how it feels to me driving

[HUMBER P4VWL]

Bit of both surely?

[ShinyShoe]

ABS etc should only matter when you are at or close to locking breaks. Engine breaking is surely meant for slowing the car not trying to stop quick? If you need to stop quick use the breaks. If you want to break over a prolonged period use the engine to allow the break still to work if you need it - at which point the ABS will trigger just fine. You will gather I think it's nonsense. Even before EPS etc people argued if you put the wear on the engine (expensive to repair) or breaks (intended to be consumables). I suspect the 'modern brakes are good and are cheaper to repair camp' found another argument.

[matt h]

Bit of both as above and drive with mechanical sympathy!

[paintman]

On motorways & exposed roads keep an eye on sections where you emerge from relative shelter onto exposed areas.
The section of the M1 just north of J21 is like that & its nickname of 'caravan alley' is well earned.
IME twin axles are a lot nicer to tow - when National Express passes you at Warp 6 the whole rig, car & trailer moves instead of a bit of tail wagging by the trailer.
Take your time, look well ahead, stay within the trailer speed limits & you should be fine.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

......Engine breaking is surely meant for slowing the car not trying to stop quick?

Au contraire, I find engine breaking usually results in a fairly rapid halt.😏

[mick]

Originally Posted by Adam and Hayley

We've got to tow from leicester to chard tomorrow and then on Sunday from chard to lymington



6.3m Humber and trailer:1500 kg
Towing with an Audi A6 Quattro- good for 1800kg



So...


Motorways on day 1 (Mainly had wind I believe)



A roads on day 2 ( crosswinds)


Wind: gusts of into 50 mph


I guess the simple answer is keep my speed down

Beware lorries overtaking me

Any other thoughts?

Or am I just being over cautious?

Yeh your being to cautious the wind won't be an issue I've never noticed mine doing owt different on a windy day, it's not like a caravan,
Just watch out for the other muppets out there.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Au contraire, I find engine breaking usually results in a fairly rapid halt.��

That's because you're not driving a Prius...

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Au contraire, I find engine breaking usually results in a fairly rapid halt.😏

[willk]

Originally Posted by Poly

I hadda pick one and run with it...

[MatFromPoland]

if you have AT (Automatic transmission) :

1. do you change shift gear from D to 3 when towing on hills or modern AT can manage it (on D position) without any problem ?

2. When pull out from the Sea
- do you turn off ESP
- change gear to 1
(this point was some advice from more experience "boater" than me)

[mick]

Originally Posted by Poly

Aye it does http://youtu.be/H8c0tDzyKlA

[Adam and Hayley]

First part of the journey over

Horizontal rain on the m5 but towed ok

(No snaking unlike some of the caravans overtaking us.)

[jyasaki]

[QUOTE=MatFromPoland;710312]if you have AT (Automatic transmission) :

1. do you change shift gear from D to 3 when towing on hills or modern AT can manage it (on D position) without any problem ?{/quote]

I don't going uphill. Going downhill, if I need to keep gravity induced speed down, I'll drop a gear or two depending on speed reduction required.


[quote]
2. When pull out from the Sea
- do you turn off ESP
- change gear to 1[quote]

Again, I don't, though to be fair, I've got full time unlocked 4WD. If it's really slippery, I'll lock diffs, but that's really rare. I pull the boat out at just-off-idle speed, which is not fast enough to get it to shift to second, so I see no advantage in shifting to low.

YMMV, depending on slips, vehicles, and weights involved.

jky

[paintman]

Originally Posted by MatFromPoland

if you have AT (Automatic transmission) :

1. do you change shift gear from D to 3 when towing on hills or modern AT can manage it (on D position) without any problem ?

2. When pull out from the Sea
- do you turn off ESP
- change gear to 1
(this point was some advice from more experience "boater" than me)

30 year old 3.5EFi Range Rover with ZF autobox. No ABS, traction control or anything else electrickery.
If the box can't make it's mind up or for a particular situation I'll select what gear I want. Same for going down steep hills - for the hill into the village where the usual harbour is I descend in low box as there's a 90 degree bend at the bottom & getting there with fading brakes wouldn't be a good idea.

Reversing trailer into harbour low box 1st with difflock engaged - it's a steep slip & you can slide when it's wet, although you'll stop when the boat hits the water.
Recovery the same.

Whilst you can just stick an autobox into 'D' you miss a lot of their capability.
As far as Land Rovers are concerned the autos are very popular for serious offroading as they are virtually unstallable - bought my eldest one of the 'Red letter' type days offroad training & the school vehicles were both TDi Disco autos.
My first auto was a Mini Clubman (1972) & that had 1,2,3,4 selectable. For traffic light drag racing it was just about unbeatable - I WAS in my late teens!