Tow Ball Mass only 80kg ...deal breaker?

[retrodream]

Hi all

We've had dreams to have a little retro van for years. We are a family of 5 (3 young kids) and would like to be able to sleep all of us in van and do most of our living outside. Van's around 14-15ft seem to be minimum size I've found that will sleep 5. An e.g of what I've seen and liked was a Franklin Regent 14ft Family bunk 1969 van with tare weight 880kg. 

We are currently in the process of upgrading the family car to a smaller end 7 seat SUV. Most of it's use will be everyday city family driving but given I'd love to get a van in the next couple of years we want something that can tow. Hubby and I loved the new Skoda Kodiaq 2L turbo petrol. 320nm torque. It's towing is rated 2000kg max but the tow ball is limited to 80kg!  

Is this low tow ball mass a deal breaker? Anyone with similar vans know what weight they put through the ball? I spoke to one dealer who suggested it was very limiting and that a car with minimum of 100kg was necessary. Anyone know if weight distribution hitch would let us get away with it or if there are any cute retro vans around that sleep a family and have a low TBM?

[brenten]

hi retrodream my wife has a hucherson dolly behind her fx holden and only has 15 kgs tbm or you could load all the heavy items to the rear of your van to remove tbm but you would to buy your own tbm scale to check the weight every time you load it bit of a pain a better idea whould be to bolt lead bars under the rear of your van as long as this doesnt make your van to heavy for the tow car and you have 10 percent tow ball weight it will tow great (i have done this before) ....brenten

[Deleted]

Hi Retrodream,
If you want a caravan it's a deal breaker! Legally you must adhere to the towing weights of your car,a wdh doesn't take the weight off the ball,it just redistributes it.
Under no circumstances should you load up the back of the van either,that is an accident waiting to happen!
You could go for a modern Euro van with low ball weight,as that is what the Euro cars are able to tow.There must be other SUV that have higher ball weights.
Cheers
hughdeani

[gregh]

Yes I agree with hughdeani. Ideally the weight of the drawbar will be 10-15% of the weight of the van therefore your "tare weight" which represents the unladen weight of the van, already exceeds the allowable weight on the tow ball of the Skoda. Your loaded weight could be as high as 1400kg, but more likely around 1100kg. It depends on what the Gross Trailer Mass (GTM) is on the registration papers.

At 1100kg GTM, you want at least 110kg weight on the towbar. If your van weighs 1100kg, and your drawbar weight is less than 110kg, it would be wise to shuffle weight forward in the van to give you the 110kg on the tow bar - for safe towing reasons.

Greg

[cardygeorge]

This video is the best demonstration I've seen of the effects of weight distribution.
If you add in a tow vehicle that's a bit too light for towing a van it can lead to a tail wagging the dog situation that can literally throw you off the road.

[fordprefect]

hi Retrodream,
I have been thinking about your bunk caravan today, and if I am correct a single axle van with Holden hubs can't exceed a gym of 1000kg per axle, meaning a Millard at 1400kg would be duel axle.
I have a 13.5 foot viscount ambassador and it single axle.
It was fairly horrible to tow behind a falcon , which is a farly heavy car, at above 80km trucks passing would move you around a fair bit.
I tried lots of combinations of ball weight loading etc to improve tow ability, a d ended up upgrading the springs to a 1500kg set a d upgraded the tow vehicle to something more suitable.
now my car trailer is duel axle and is far more stable on the road even loaded up close to 2000kg.
we now use the van more and it's a lot safer to tow with.
please do a lot of research before committing to this vehicle / van combination as I think the van will be a lot heavier than you imagine.
If you are in Sydney and interested you can test tow my Van with your Skoda.
regards Alex