Air bags and sway bars

chat · Member

Air bags and sway bars

Greg 1 · Guru

Pretty how long is a piece of string type question. Need to know a lot more about your van's ATM weight, tow ball weight and car weight weighed ready to go to make any sort of comment.

Are We Lost · Guru

When you say sway bars, do you mean Weight Distribution Hitch? What do you have? I would say almost certainly a WDH would be desirable.

But, as Greg said, without knowing your caravan specs and actual weights it's a bit hard to assess properly. Also, how much other stuff you will be taking and how you plan to load it. The Everest bi-turbo 4WD has 3100kg towing capacity but what limits you is the payload of around 650kg and rear axle load of 1750kg.

If the towball load is (say) 300kg that probably puts well over 400kg on the rear axle due to leverage before you put anything in the back (distance measurement needed to calculate). While air bags level the vehicle, that is little more than cosmetic and does nothing to transfer weight back to the front wheels to restore some tyre grip. When you are reaching the tow vehicle limits, the need for a WDH becomes stronger.

gdayjr · Senior Member

Here is a list of STANDARD inclusions on the Iveco Daily E6 van i will use as a towing vehicle.

Includes: ABS (Antilock Braking System),

EBD (Electronic Brake force Distribution),

ASR (Anti Slip Regulator),

MSR (Motor Drag torque control) Hill Holder (Assisted uphill departure),

HBA (Hydraulic Brake Assist),

LAC (Load Adaptive Control),

TSM (Trailer sway mitigation),

RMI (Roll Movement Intervention),

ROM (Roll Over Mitigation) & Crosswind assist

Four SRS airbags

Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS)

Possum3 · Guru

Welcome to the forum Chat, May I respectfully suggest that you download some free technical information at www.caravancouncil.com.au/ in order that you can better understand the dynamics involved to correctly determine your needs.

yobarr · Guru

Are We Lost wrote:
When you say sway bars, do you mean Weight Distribution Hitch? What do you have? I would say almost certainly a WDH would be desirable.

But, as Greg said, without knowing your caravan specs and actual weights it's a bit hard to assess properly. Also, how much other stuff you will be taking and how you plan to load it. The Everest bi-turbo 4WD has 3100kg towing capacity but what limits you is the payload of around 650kg and rear axle load of 1750kg.

If the towball load is (say) 300kg that probably puts well over 400kg on the rear axle due to leverage before you put anything in the back (distance measurement needed to calculate). While air bags level the vehicle, that is little more than cosmetic and does nothing to transfer weight back to the front wheels to restore some tyre grip. When you are reaching the tow vehicle limits, the need for a WDH becomes stronger.

Good information contained in this post.As far as weight transferred to rear axle goes,it is at least 440kg from a 300kg towball weight.MOST WDH systems increase this weight transfer because of the extra TBO,plus the actual weight of the WDH unit itself.The WDH unit sitting unused in the back of my shed weighs over 30kg by itself,which adds close on 45kg to the cars rear axle when fitted.In addition,the extra TBO transfers even more weight to that axle,meaning that before ANY nett benefit is made the WDH needs to have transferred 50kg. BUT it may be OK with the Everest in view of the lightweight rear axle.Cheers

-- Edited by yobarr on Thursday 6th of May 2021 02:31:23 PM