brakes ! what brakes ?????

[surferboy]

gday everybody,
picked up an anti sway bar leveller thingy, went to fit it. it didnt fit !looks like ive got a small trailer coupling & the "D" shape bit hits the caravan "A"frame thingy.. went to the caravan shop to replace coupling. Now i'm looking at fitting a mechanical brake coupling AND fitting a brake system as the van has no brakes at all.( i like to feel safe)
old caravans seem to be like old cars....... one small job becomes one BIG job $$$$$$$$$

[trev and carrots]

you know what they say surferboy ...if its got wheels or ti .......um... tail lights, its gunna cost ya... ;D

[Deleted]

yeah surferboy .......brakes do come in handy .......Jen & I very nearly had a "nasty" on our way to Brookton back in March ......travelling along Wanneroo Road in the FC with "Joker 11" in tow when an idiot in a 4WD turned directly in front of us at traffic lights ......if it wasn't for the very effecient vacuum brakes on old "Joker 11", the scene would have been very untidy.......the FC's drum brakes had no chance of stopping the whole show .......and seat belts .......what seat belts? ......certainly frightened the shitter outta me ......and Jen only recovered from the close call after a few chardonays up the road at the Karragullen Tavern !!! ;D

[belinda]

We had the identical problem with our sway bars. If you look at the instructions they recommend adding a plate to bring the coupling forward and give clearance. If you walk around the streets and check out other people's trailers you'll see this is done often.

It is definitely worth getting the sway bars working. We put them on our 300kg plywood van and it makes towing it much, much easier.

[trev and carrots]

hi belinda 300kg is a very light van. what size is it? what do you tow it with? what age is it?...?....?....? ;D

[belinda]

Ours is a plywood three-berth van, probably from the early fifties. This was the weight when it was measured for registration - it didn't have the cushions or luggage in it.

It gets towed with an Austin 1800 and the equaliser bars were fitted both to stop the Austin sinking in the bum and the van bouncing around.

The great thing about such a light van is that it's easy to push around the yard and put back in the shed.

[surferboy]

i'm confused !!! (but thats not hard to do )
ask a simple question about couplings or brakes to 6 people in the industry & get 50,0000000 options & variations on whats best to do.
so i,m doing what i do with the FC , i,m going to drop it in to perth caravan repairs ,tell them to do whatever they think is needed & and then tell me how many zeros to put on the cheque !
(ps, apparrently anti sway bars arent anti sway bars.... there just called anti sway bars ?)

[Deleted]

Trev ........Belinda's van is the one on the Members Photo Album entitled "Belinda's Pride & Joy" ...

I will post a pic sent to me on Tues of the van coupled to the Austin ..........

Mark

[WILLAND LYN]

WHEN I FIRST PICKED UP MY 52 TEARDROP I PUMPED UP THE TYRES AND TOWED IT HOME I SPENT ABOUT 30 HOURS WORKING ON IT INTERNALLY THEN I TOWED IT TO A CAR SHOW TRADE DAY
I WAS SHOWING IAN THE AXLE CONFIGURATION WHICH WAS INSIDE THE BODY AS WE LOOKED AT IT I NOTICED THE NUT HAD SPUN OF AND WAS HOLDING THE WHEEL ON BY ABOUT TWO THREADS MY EYES NEARLY POPPED OUT
HOWS MY LUCK THE TRADE MEETING WAS AT LEADER TRAILERS IN BAYSWATER SO 6 OF US PICKED UP THE TEARDROP AND CARRIED IT INSIDE WHERE IAN FITTED THE NEW EXTENDED AXLE IT WAS ALMOST
WHEEL ! WHAT WHEEL?

[trev and carrots]

surferboy...the trick is, look like "you"know what is needed when saying do what is needed. confused now ?? haha.