Hitching 101. European-style

RobertRyan wrote:

Jerem0621 wrote:
think there is a market for Car Towable Caravans here in the states, it would just take a dedicated effort by the entire industry and a quantum shift in thinkin

Yes there would be and they much more durable than you would think, make the "Egg Campers" look very poor in comparison

You are right on. An under the radar market is the "Class B" market here in the states. In europe these are their Motorhomes... here we relegate them to barely above a conversion van... thing is, people are paying 70-100k PLUS dollars for these well crafted little motorhomes.

If couples are paying 70-100k plus for Class B's what would they pay for roomy, but still small, maneuverable, easy to hitch, easy to tow, high end, beautiful, and durable trailers? Nothing here is really available except the Airstream Bambi type trailers...

Now, if we could just get some tent trailers built like your trailers down under!!!

Thanks!

Jeremiah

SWD wrote:
13 pins??????????? Wow...what could you possibly need 13 when 7 is more than enough?

Different vehicle lighting codes from US DOT. Turn signals cannot share bulbs with brakes lights, rear fog lights are required on all vehicles, side markers are separately switched (on each side) to serve while parking along a street.

My SIL bought my compact truck when I moved to China, then shortly after he was moved to the UK and wanted to take the truck with him. Before the truck could pass MOT inspection it had to be converted to UK lighting standards, then on bringing it back had to convert it back to US DOT.

This has been going on for a long time. When I was in service 45 years ago, cars we bought in Europe had to be converted from German, Italian, UK or French lighting to US individual state standards. Germany was already using the rear fog lights, having that one installed and connected was illegal in almost every state. At least now they've harmonized the standards within the EU.

Jerem0621 wrote:
think there is a market for Car Towable Caravans here in the states, it would just take a dedicated effort by the entire industry and a quantum shift in thinkin

Yes there would be and they much more durable than you would think, make the "Egg Campers" look very poor in comparison

camp-n-family wrote:
Love the parking hand brake and sway control. Why can't we get that here?? Seems like such a simple thing to do. More genius European concepts that we're too stupid to adopt.

Hand brakes are common here in Australia. They use a friction demping device on European Caravans as they are pretty light. i.e being towed by a VW car Still they are easy to tip over if in a high wind situation

kellertx5er wrote:
I'll take what is available to us over what Europe has any day. Things like fuel less than $6.00/gal, big diesel trucks, big comfortable RVs, expansive state/national parks, college football, etc.

Yep, pretty much agree.

I spent four years of my life in Europe and it's pretty neat how things are done over there. My dad had a Big Car, A W123 Mercedes Benz....here it's was just a larger midsize car.

I say that to point out that vehicles here and there fit the environment. A 30 plus ft 8 ft wide TT would have a very difficult time maneuvering in Europe, let alone our 22 ft long trucks.

Everything tends to be smaller in Europe, what we consider "small" here is your average caravan over there. A small KZ Classic or Jayco Swift compares well in size to many trailers there.

It is interesting to note that two lane roads have a 50 MPH speed limit while towing and the highways have a 60 MPH limit.

I do like the "hand brake" on the trailers, and the twist lock connector, I'm not sure about the 13 pin part of the connector. The "ball stabilizer" is pretty neat, but I am not sure that it's superior to even a single sway bar...it would be a nice option for trailers with surge brakes.

I think there is a market for Car Towable Caravans here in the states, it would just take a dedicated effort by the entire industry and a quantum shift in thinking.

But the move here in the states is towards bigger, lighter, cheaper, and I'm not talking about the price we pay, but the effort towards quality that goes into our units.

Thanks,

Jeremiah

I'll take what is available to us over what Europe has any day. Things like fuel less than $6.00/gal, big diesel trucks, big comfortable RVs, expansive state/national parks, college football, etc.

I remember reading about an Australian member (IIRC) on the Wildcat forum who had to add a parking brake to his TT because of a rule there. He replaced one whole axle assembly (Dexter) with one that had the hand brake built in. I think it was aobut $600. Sure would be a nice thing to have.

Would never work on most of our American made campers. Our campers are too heavy. Weight Distribution systems would have to be re-engineered for our campers. Lightweight campers, yea, this would work. But how many are willing to swap out an 8 foot wide camper with double slides on both sides for a 7 foot wide with no slides in order to use a hitch system like this? Not me!

I'm always amazed at the differences between out setups and theirs. Here's the pinout for a 13 pin connector.

Indeed they are very tongue-light. 16 or 20 foot trailers have tongues so light you can lift them by hand! They tow them with much smaller vehicles than we do...

Anyone else notice the lack of safety chains?