Trailer touring pros and cons

[zippo]

G'day again Zippo

Looks very similar to an old bike rack I have that attaches through the tow ball hole.

Ewwww!!! I hope not. It would be difficult to get sufficient rigidity with that sort of single hole mount compared to the method I used.

I've used single-hole mount brackets for mounting HF autotune antennas on a towbar tongue, and the rigidity leaves quite a bit to be desired. Ideally you would hollow grind the mating faces of the bracket and the tongue so the actual contact area is maximum when the bolt is pulled down tight.

But there's certainly a lot of scope to hang things back there.

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday Zippo

I agree about the multiple bolts being a good idea.

However, the bike rack I have was designed to take three full size (adult) bikes, and is very strongly attached, with a large circular 'foot' plate, and a tow ball sized bolt that attaches it to the tongue, at tow ball type torque (150+ ft.lbs). The adult bikes in those days weighed about 8-10 kgs each (steel frames etc), so the pole should easily support a 20 kg spare wheel, specially considering that the bikes were mounted rearwards of the pole, and one could possibly mount the spare forward of it. Even if not, the spare has far less drag, and would be more central over the attachment point than the bikes were.

[EDIT]

The rack has a 70 mm (D) x 12.5 mm (T) foot on it, with a ~45 mm post. I do recall that it flexed a bit with bikes on it, but we didn't lose any, even at highway speeds ... :iconwink: :lol:.

[end edit]

Anyway, I prefer to have these sorts of things in/on a trailer. Gets the weight off the vehicle's wheels and suspension. The trailer axle, suspension and wheel bearings are far stronger and more robust than those of my Forester ... The trailer is engineered around a GVM of about 1,200 kgs, and by law cannot weigh more than 750 kgs gross; the coupling is rated to 2,000 kgs; so well and truly over-engineered.

As we have discussed before, the decision to tow a trailer or not is very much a personal decision. For me, it comes down to being safer and more comfortable with less strain on my vehicle, with some occasional inconveniences as regards parking and taking some hit on fuel economy.

I am also too old and buggered to rough it now, and it's far easier and far quicker for me to erect and pack my trailer tent than it is to erect and pack my 2.6 x 2.6 m Crusader tent. The trailer tent is also infinitely more commodious and comfortable. That's all very important at my age ... .

 

[Venom]

Towed a Forester out of Big Desert (won't discuss here) and couldn't believe how easily it was done. That was deep sand and dunes. Crawled below 1500rpm for most of it, trickiest part was maintaining tow rope tension of course and not an issue for a trailer. Eye opening for me personally. Nowhere near trailer territory myself as a single bloke but for a future brood I wouldn't hesitate. A little offroad one though not one of those 800kg things.

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday V

Towed a Forester out of Big Desert (won't discuss here) and couldn't believe how easily it was done. That was deep sand and dunes. Crawled below 1500rpm for most of it, trickiest part was maintaining tow rope tension of course and not an issue for a trailer. Eye opening for me personally.

That's a bugger . What went wrong? Will you be recounting the details in a trip report sometime?

It is amazing how much easier it is to tow something on its own wheels rather than carry it on one's back ...

Nowhere near trailer territory myself as a single bloke but for a future brood I wouldn't hesitate. A little offroad one though not one of those 800kg things.

A 6' x 4' box trailer and tent to fit would be my choice. But I had the 7' x 4' trailer already ... Being bigger has made fitting the tent I bought more difficult than it would otherwise have been.

It takes me about 3-4 minutes to set my trailer tent up, and very easy for one (old, weak and feeble) person to do. A bit longer to set up the annexe. A bit longer again to set up the annexe walls and floors, or part thereof.

Packing away is similarly easy and relatively quick for one person.

Both processes are quicker and easier than setting up/packing up a small and light tent (for me, anyway) I originally bought the Crusader tent to replace my Primus (Terka) tent that I could no longer erect or pack!

All up weight of the trailer with tent, fuel, water, tools, recovery gear, etc is about 500 kgs. Roo2 doesn't even notice it being there. With your H6, this would make even less difference.