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Post by brenten on Sept 21, 2016 15:05:23 GMT 10
yes i agree i have towed about 5,000 kls. pot holes and dame speed bumps ...brenten
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Post by strugglebrook on Sept 21, 2016 16:11:14 GMT 10
Dear Mr Cobber you have answered you own question.Using a dolly setup with the small vans is very much over kill, in fact I would say dangerous.
As you say dolly wheels came about when sedans had soft rear suspensions.Mum and dad Cobber had the boot loaded to the gunnels with little Cobbers with more gear loaded on the back seat along with mum and dad Cobber in the front with the road maps, sandwiches, drinks and the rest of the essentials.
With driftwood you would have 2/3 of 64kg on the dolly and 1/3 of bugger all on the car. The dolly wheels would spend more time in the air than on the ground.Looking at the hitch angle in the picture the situation would be worse.The Newcastle van would be more suited especially if you loaded it with a front bias.
Torsion bars are not the holey grail either as they put a twisting moment on the tow bar which puts more stress on the bolting points. On an FJ sedan probably 1/4 inch bolts and washers clamping to light gauge metal.
JD.
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Post by thegeneral on Sept 21, 2016 16:16:36 GMT 10
Hi Cobber the three of them do make a great couple l think.  l need some too my van is 135 kg dry on the hitch but they out date my rig 135 kg is too much for my soft spring's even with helpers. Graeme . |
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Post by Koala on Sept 21, 2016 16:45:34 GMT 10
Hey Cobber, great to see that you have sorted the dolly wheels. They look better than when they left my place  I tend to think that if you have insufficient caravan tow ball weight then the dolly will tend to jack knife. This could potentially be dangerous in situations where you have over ride brakes on the van and are braking heavily and there is a hump in the road which would tend to lift first the car then the dolly then the van..........sort of a wave effect which could affect the weight distribution and be most dangerous when the weight is transferred off the dolly wheels. The most severe potential problem with a light van could be for the front of the van to continue upward lifting the dolly wheels off the ground, and I think that I will stop at this point . Let us know when you have completed your research Koala Just a thought, it appears that the early Henderson Dolly did not have the stabiliser bars. Is it possible that the bars were added in later years not so much as stabiliser bars as we now know them but rather to stop the front of the van pitching up and taking load off the dolly wheels as described in my scenario above? i.e. when the van has a low towball weight Struth my brain hurts |
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Post by strugglebrook on Sept 21, 2016 17:07:48 GMT 10
Dear Mr General, you have the Brougham yes ?? Very soft suspension , best way for you is get a set of station wagon springs or ute and some nice new shocks, will transform the old girl to tow and stop it wallowing all over the road as they do .
JD.
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Post by thegeneral on Sept 21, 2016 20:15:25 GMT 10
Hi JD yes l can fix that easy l started my trip with pump up shock's but the sprung a leak.
l might put air shocks back on so l can adjust the ride height
also l will ad an extra leaf easy done " but" as Jennison was explaining at dinner that Friday
night in Canberra too much weight on the back of a car can do a lot of damage to the car.
My car has an extra long boot which make's it worse.
l will keep playing to l get it right.
Graeme
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Post by thegeneral on Sept 21, 2016 20:20:14 GMT 10
Hi Koala ice cream is a quick cure for sore brain syndrome  |
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Post by griffin on Sept 21, 2016 22:24:34 GMT 10
For me the jury is still out on my dolly wheels. Absolutely no need of them on my Olympic Debonair, two uplifter bars and it tows a dream.
I wasn't happy with them on the Astronaut to SWR earlier in the year, it just seemed hard slog with a van that weighed about the same as the Debonair. Less aerodynamics on the Astronaut? You could hardly call a Debonair aerodynamic though. Some test tows on a rough local road prior to SWR produced a lot of pitching and like the general I tend to think the later ones with bars were to reduce that. On good highways it was very smooth.
I've only had a relatively short tow with them on the big bondwood but I think they might prove their worth there for me as it's a heavier van.
Should we start a 'men and their dollies' group??
George
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Post by Jennison on Sept 23, 2016 9:05:49 GMT 10
Hey general
My Stato too suffers from a big long boot and even worse ( load carrying wise) a coil spring rear end! I recently put air bags on and it's great. Not so keen on adjustable air shocks. Shockies surely are for shock absorbing. Common problem with air shocks is they can break your shocky mount as the mount is in no way designed to actually " carry " the weight of the load. Springs/air bags are for carrying the the weight of the load
Jenno
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Post by brenten on Sept 23, 2016 11:02:45 GMT 10
jennison is 100% corect my 49 ford has been air bagged for 20 years not a problem i only use firestone air springs ...brenten
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Post by thegeneral on Sept 23, 2016 11:18:09 GMT 10
Thank's Jennison & Brenton will check them out.
Graeme
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Post by cobber on Sept 23, 2016 13:45:24 GMT 10
Thank you everybody for letting us know what you reckon about these Hutchinson Dolly Wheels, I think we are all on the same page,   they serve no useful purpose on vans that have a tow ball weight of less than say 90kg.  Tow ball weights above that they start becoming more useful as the tow ball weight increases up to a certain point when it becomes necessary to fit the load leveller bars that were supplied with the later model dolly. To read the patent application pertaining to this model dolly CLICK HERE Anyway, my Newcastle van weighs 120kg on the tow coupling so I thought it would be more inline with what the Hutchinson Dolly was designed to accommodate. When it was hooked up to dolly the weight on the dolly front coupling is 50kg so that is quite a reduction of load placed on the FJs tow bar (70kg), that allows it to stay pretty level and ride fairly smoothly. The chains to prevent jackknifing are clearly visible in this photo   Thing is, the weight of the van itself, still makes the poor old FJ puff, especially on a long uphill drag, so I will still use the Holden Captiva to tow the Newcastle van most times, and guess what ? The Captiva has automatic self levelling rear suspension. So for me this dolly just represents an example of the historic evolution of the way problems were resolved in vintage caravan days, I reckon. Cobber. |
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Post by strugglebrook on Sept 23, 2016 15:24:03 GMT 10
Looks real good Mr Cobbber, I found with using my Hendy dolly the heavier I made the ball load the better the dolly set up performs. Mr Sutcac followed us on some hilly windy stuff on the tour to the Nationals and was impressed how it tracked. You are right though the bigger vans make it hard for the older cars to keep up with traffic.
JD.
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Post by Jennison on Sept 23, 2016 15:30:16 GMT 10
No worries general.
Mine were about $260/$280 to buy and a little more than that again fitted. ( not a hard job but fiddly and a lot easier done on a hoist which I do not have!) They make them purpose fit for coil or leaf setups on cars. Look at most modern trucks....they use a combination of leaf spring/airbag suspension these days.
Regards
Jenno
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Post by Don Ricardo on Jan 22, 2018 21:34:08 GMT 10
Hi all, Here's an interesting little twist on the Hendy caravan dolly that Cobber posted info about here... The following photos of a 'Bendigo Caravan Dolly' were posted 'for sale' by Rhett Nankervis on a vintage caravan Facebook page on 21 January 2018:    Note that the Bendigo Caravan Dolly was patented and distributed by 'V P Buckland & Sons', 3 Hallam Street, Bendigo. Close inspection indicates that the Bendigo Dolly is identical to the Hendy dolly shown in Cobber's post, referred to above. In addition, if you follow the link Cobber provided in his post, it shows that the 'actual inventor' of the Hendy branded dolly was 'Victor Perceval Buckland'. So it appears - given that the 'sole distributor' of the Bendigo dolly was V P Buckland & Sons - that Buckland may have tried to market the dolly he had invented himself, and that perhaps he later let Hendy do the marketing and sales? Don Ricardo |
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Post by dolphin73campervan on May 10, 2018 20:24:57 GMT 10
Gidday Cobber, our 1952 VV Dorothea had Dolly wheels when we bought her in 1997, fine to tow with, terrible to reverse though, from what info i have of her history i think they with her from new. Unfortunately because we didn't use them, my wife sold them in a garage sale she had while i was away fishing. they were in excellent condition....... $20! Exocet You bought Dorothea? From an owner in Warburton Vic? I restored and used that gem for some years before selling it, from memory, to a buyer in Tasmania. I've missed it ever since! |
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Post by shesgotthelook on Jun 15, 2019 13:21:19 GMT 10
Hutchinson dolly wheels from the now sold '1947' caravan. Worked a treat & improved the travel of the caravan immensely. 1958 in Bairnsdale, owner & builder Keith Ryan standing in the doorway  Restored 2017  |
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wayco
New Member
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Post by wayco on Jan 7, 2020 15:09:05 GMT 10
An update for Victorian residents -Vic Roads advises that the dolly is classed as a seperate vehicle and there fore You cant tow anything on it as you are only allowed to tow 1 vehicle.
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Post by aussieute on Jan 7, 2020 18:35:59 GMT 10
Sorry wayco I have jones dolly wheel which was reg in Geelong 1.5 years ago there are 2 types of dolly wheels Vic roads love mine as it's part of the draw bar cheers chris
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Post by Roehm3108 on Jan 8, 2020 6:59:26 GMT 10
Don't know who's right, but it is an interesting point.
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Post by Rod mcmillan on Mar 26, 2020 10:41:55 GMT 10
I have found one have never seen before would like to post picture has been let go how do I post pics
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Post by shesgotthelook on Mar 26, 2020 20:34:32 GMT 10
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Post by Don Ricardo on Mar 26, 2020 22:15:12 GMT 10
Hi Rod, Sounds interesting. It will be great to see some photos. Let us know if you have any trouble posting the photos and we’ll help you.  Don Ricardo |
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Post by shesgotthelook on Mar 27, 2020 8:29:20 GMT 10
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Post by Jennison on Mar 27, 2020 12:19:47 GMT 10
Indeed Rod as the label says its a Jones dolly wheel. You'll find lots of photos and discussion on it in some of the earlier pages of this thread. They're great to tow with, very stable and the wheel is individually sprung with its own shock absorber, ideal for larger vans.
regards
Jenno
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they serve no useful purpose on vans that have a tow ball weight of less than say 90kg. 
