On Tuesday I needed to call into CameraHouse in Toowoomba. CameraHouse is located in a busy street but a few blocks up the street there is parallel street parking so in order to get there early enough to claim a parking place for my car and van I connected the tug to the van the Monday night and just needed to disconnect the power and water etc in the Morning.
I drove from Ipswich to Toowoomba arriving at 7:15am., in plenty of time to claim a parking spot and conducted my business with CameraHouse and then set off to St. George.
Along the way I had a serious caravan instability episode when evading some quite deep pot holes. I expected my anti-sway systems to prevent the instability, it had previously on the Newell Hwy. near Dubbo.
Anyway, on unhitching the van at St. George I discovered that both cables were not connected. I distinctively remember connecting the Anderson plug as I needed to turn it over before inserting.
I began to doubt myself but while waiting for CameraHouse to open I wandered around taking photos of the old houses and buildings in the area and as I walked back to the car I took some photos of the car and v an.
In the photos you can clearly see that both cables are plugged into the car.
So how did they get loose.
Anderson plugs take quite some effort to remove. the same applies to the 7pin trailer connector as it latches.
Someone suggested that someone in the dealerships I was parked in front of resented a Victorian registered vehicle and van occupying their usual free full day parking spots and decided to exert a little revenge or joke.
I can see no way where both plugs would disconnect by themselves.
Tje van had no operational brakes, yet I drove several hundred kms with only that one episode. Of course I drove very cautiously, slowing down early for the floodways and causeways, but still surprises happened. Modern car braking is excellent, absolutely dead straight. After all it was developed for driving in Europe and northern North America where winter conditions are treacherous.
I have had my 12-pin plug come loose. The latch underneath wasn't on properly or got knocked loose. The 12-pin and the anderson cables are joined up except at the end so if one comes loose, so will the other one.
I think it's way more likely that things just came loose than that there is some psycho who thought that disconnecting your plugs would be some sort of revenge for being from Victoria.
Strange things happen. We parked our rig in the carpark near the beach in Broom for a couple of hours and then left town. Later on that night after we made camp some distance away I noticed one of our WDH bars were missing. Strange I thought how could that unhook its self, and then did not think any more about it. Next day when we stopped for morning tea something felt strange and when I checked the toe ball was lose. It had never come lose before and has never come lose since and is allways checked before leaving home. Strange.
-- Edited by landy on Sunday 25th of September 2022 11:09:49 AM
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In life it is important to know when to stop arguing with people
and simply let them be wrong.
Years ago I took my Ford Ranger to be serviced at the local Ford dealership. It had the D shackles attached to the tow bar when I dropped it off. After the service, I drove straight home & parked in my garage. The next day I noticed that the shackles were missing. I contacted the dealership & they knew nothing.
Most have a phone with a camera. Regularly photograph everything. One of the reasons why I installed 6 dashcams around my car. I didn't care how much it cost, I didn't want the bastards lying. I got caught once. Not again if I can help it.
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50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
Most have a phone with a camera. Regularly photograph everything. One of the reasons why I installed 6 dashcams around my car. I didn't care how much it cost, I didn't want the bastards lying. I got caught once. Not again if I can help it.
Could you not feel that the van brakes weren't working whilst leaving Toowoomba ?
I had owned this Pajero Sport exactly 22 days.
I had just installed a WDH for the return trip to Melbourne to compare with the northbound trip without a WDH.
I always drive conservatively in built up areas, slowing down early when I see traffic slowing or stopping ahead of me.
At 8:30am in Toowoomba there is not a lot of traffic and only a few traffic lights where I had to stop.
The Pajero has built in electronic sway control which has been demonstrated to be an effective mitigator of sway instability.
So no, I didn't notice any difference in the braking. From Ipswich to Toowoomba is mostly uphill and so when required it was mostly engine braking and very little brake pedal.
And from Toowoomba to St George is very flat for most of the way and the gps mapping warned me of intersections where I needed to slow down very early so I very nearly coasted towards them with minimal braking.
Seems weird, but a new car with completely different ride and braking.
jegog,
I would prefer to see your cables looped above the hitch, not below. It's no fun repairing scraped, broken cables if they've been damaged by something on the road - but I'm not negating the fact that your rig has been tampered with.
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Warren
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If you were walking back to your vehicle when you took that photo then that would suggest to me that when you drove off your cables were intact. That doesnt rule out someone disconnecting them when you stopped on your journey home but there is a possibility that the cables were entangled on something and restricted in length whilst turning a corner.
I once connected a box trailer on my car early one morning and clearly remember going though the full connection procedure. I have a habit of once starting a procedure like this that I do not stop, no matter if someone interrupts me. I live on a hill with four turns to get to the bottom. A few hours later I drove down the hill and as I slowly rounded the second corner my trailer slowly rumbled along the road towards the kerb. No damage done.
I was very lucky that day and now I check my connections every time I get back into my vehicle after a stop.
There are muppets around who think it funny to do things like pull out the cables or interfere with the tow hitch.
I have made it a habit to have a quick walk around and a double check everytime I go to get back in the car after a stop.
