One of my 'duties' with my local St John is to help relocate the First Aid Caravan from time to time. Only local area and not worth getting the 4x4 from County HQ to do so. However when it comes to the hitching I find that we use the jockey wheel all the way down the screw on the slightest uneven ground.

So I wondered, what height is your towball of the ground?

From the Caravan clubs handbook, it says the coupling ball is 50 mm diameter and when measured from ground to ball centre should be between 350 and 420 mm (vehicle fully laden - but not with caravan attached) in accordance with BS AU 113c or ISO 1103.

Many many years ago, a shool friend's dad borrowed my dad's Citroen DS ('cos it had a tow bar) to tow his caravan with. He loaded the car, hitched the van, started the engine and, of course, the Citroen gracefully lifted itself on its air suspension to "cruising height". This lifted the nose of the caravan to the extent that the back edge of the caravan was almost scraping the road! Remedy ... unload the car, and stash all the luggage in the front of the caravan to make it nose-heavy, set off and hope for the best! He got there ... and back again :D

Just measured my towball height (per Grahams spec.) at 500mm on my unladen 2" lifted FL with 29" dia wheels. Guess I won't be towing any caravans, then ;)

Stick a big drop plate on it!!!
It makes a wonderful plough!!









Hat on, just leaving....................

i wondered about the height of the towball i tow a caravan but i want to lift my freebie and put bigger 29" wheels for offroad but keep my standard wheels for towing which are 16" would this then lower my car enough to tow safely ??????????? also robin could i fit the 29"wheels without lifting the freebie ???????????? do i have to have spacers ???? [drve] [drve]

A 215/80/15 or 205/80/16 tyre is about the biggest you can go without lift / spacers, but will in my experience rub on the inner wing on a full lock. Wider tyres (I am currently running 225/75/16 AT's) will require spacers otherwise they'll rub on the suspension struts.

Sticking the bigger tyres on without a lift will only lift the vehicle about an inch, so your tow ball should be "within tolerance" still.

Bigger wheels also affect the gearing. This doesn't matter so much in my auto, but it does take more "welly" to get it rolling. Dunno how this would be in a manual - particularly hauling a caravan.

:D

Robin, that was from experience, but from from the stabiliser mounting!!

Took it off last night and cleaned/degreased the tow ball, as we are collecting our new van on Thursday. It is a brand new Adria Altea 360DT and comes with the new type clamping ball, so "shouldn't" need the old blade stabiliser.

Llanigraham are you getting a alko or winterhoff stabilizer if its the alko one remember you will need a 4x4replacement top lever or you will have to take the spare wheel off to get the stabilizer on/off a friend of mine had the alko one were i have the winterhoff and have no problems he had to change the top lever arm for a special 4x4 one hope this helps [drve] [drve] happy caravanning

Depends on tow bar. The LR removable for example is fine with the alko ( red common one?) But the witter removable is to far back,, at least an inch or two. you can remove the screws and just take the handle off, but the wheel is in the way.

Interesting to know you can get a 4x4 handle.

New caravan collected and it's back to the old greasy ball. Adria don't fit their small vans with the Winterhoff coupling!!
Have to get a special clamp mounting plate if I want to fit the stabiliser, but after coming up the M5 on Friday averaging over 60 (slapped wrist!!) I might not bother. The van was very stable, but I suppose with a MAM Of 1050kg behind the Freelander I shouldn't really be suprised.

Thanks for all the replies guys, I'm glad it brought out a decent discussion and some very useful info :D