Caravan snaking

ralphy123
ralphy123 Forum Participant Posts: 4
edited August 2015 in Towcars & Towing #1

Fellow Caravaners

I have a 2011 Lunar Clubman SB caravan which I tow with a 5 Series 530d Bmw Tourer the caravan is fitted with an Al-Ko ATC Trailer Control System an Al-Ko Stabiliser and an Al-Ko Jockey Wheel
with a Nose Load Gauge.

On several occasions when towing at about 55 MPH the caravan has started snaking, on a journey last week It snaked quite violently which was very frightening.

The steps I have previously taken to try to ensure that the caravan does not snake are.

  1. When the caravan was serviced at approved service centre earlier this year I asked the mechanic to thoroughly check all the components that are fitted to the caravan to prevent snaking, after the service he confirmed that everything was correctly adjusted
    and no defects were found.

  2. Each time before towing I ensure that the load is correctly distributed, the nose weight is within the recommended limits, the tyre pressures on the caravan and my tow car are correct and the ATC warning lamps show the correct colour when coupling up to
    tow car.

  3. I suspect that although the warning lamps are functioning correctly that there is a fault with the ATC actuator?

  4. I base my suspicions on previous experience that I have had.   My previous caravan was a Bailey Senator fitted with an ATC braking system, with this caravan if I stopped mid journey and checked the caravan brake drum temperatures they were usually quite
    hot indicating that the brakes were being applied even though I had not been applying the brakes on my tow car. With my present caravan stopping mid journey on the same route the brake drums on the caravan are quite cool indicating that the brakes were not
    been applied to the same extent by the ATC system, I have checked this on several recent journeys.

  5. If any of you have experienced a similar problem and was able to resolve it I would be very grateful if would state what repair / adjustments or replacement parts were necessary. It’s getting to stage where I am worried about towing my caravan.

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