Towing with a minivan

CavemanCharlie wrote:
My girlfriend (or whatever she is) has a full size van, now it's a older one 1985 I think, but I don't like the way you have to be a contortionists (sp) to get in and out of the thing. I really don't feel all that safe with nothing in front of me. (no hood, engine, etc.) Do the newer vans have any safety equipment? In the old days they had very few.

I'm planning on taking my family travelling for 6 months. I've been researching for two years. My last employer had a fleet of trucks and vans from all three major American manufacturers. I've driven them all.

The Ford and GM vans are body-on-frame. The Dodge vans are unit body. All three vans are very, very tall. You sit higher in them than you do in a 1/2-ton pickup truck. You are sitting above the engine rather than behind it. The vans weigh over 5000 lbs empty.

The Ford and GM will use any smaller car they hit as an "air bag". Any collision with a smaller vehicle will be a mis-matched collision. The van's ladder frame hits the smaller unit body car high up. Wheel well deformation and engine pushback are less likely to trap your lower legs in the van because you're are so high up. The frame will bend, but it won't crumple like a unit body car (the smaller unit body car you hit is the van's "crumple zone"). This is why you see cars totally immobilized in an accident that a van/truck drives away from.

If you hit an immovable object, like a bridge abutment or a tractor trailer rig, the ladder frame of the van will transmit more force into the passengers (remember, no crumple zones).

Vans and trucks do poorly in roll over accidents compared to unit-body cars. But are infinitely better than any motorhome.

All passenger vans today come with electronic stability control. They had serious problems with roll-over accidents when fully loaded with 15-people. The right side aisle made everyone sit to the left of the van. This combine with a huge rear overhang on the Ford and Chrysler vans concentrated weight on the left rear tire. Underinflation of the rear tire would lead to blowouts. Inexperienced drivers would then roll the top-heavy, tail-heavy van. Computer yaw control and tire pressure monitoring systems have pretty much solved this problem.

Is the van safer than a sedan? It depends. If I'm going to be in a collision with another car, I'd want to be in the van. The van is heavier, has a ladder frame and is higher up. If I'm going to drive into bridge abutment, the crumple zones of a unit body car are safer. If it rolls, the van is vastly safer than a motorhome, but worse off than a car.

All late model vans will have 3-point seatbelts in every seating position and LATCH for childrens' safety seats in many positions. Is the van safer than a the newest, largest Mercedes sedan. No. Is the van safer than a class-A or class-C motorhome? Absolutely yes.