4 Wheel Drive & Caravan Electrics
Hi all. Please allow for my basic questions. We are complete Newbies to Caravanning albeit we have been planning this for about 5 years but we have bought our first van only on Friday (Easter) and want to go out on our first experience mid April. Although experienced with 4x4's and own my thrid Mitsubishi Shogun, am I right in saying that unless the road conditions are wet or slippery, there is no need to engage 4 wheel drive when towing as you can suffer diff wind up if used un-neccesarily which can be extremely costly if not checked. Secondly, what switch positions should your van be set at when travelling using the grey plug, hooked up on site or just using the van battery. I have a 2003 Swift Conqueror 645 Lux and the rocker switch above the door only has two positions. Up appears to be 12v as it says so but down doesnt actually tell me what Im set to. Again, I apologise for sounding like a child but I really want this to work for me and my family.
Comments
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What's your manual say? Depends if there's a diff front to back as well as on each axle. My 4 wheel drive doesn't have the option of not being in 4 wheel drive.
Without seeing your 12 volt switch I couldn't say, but my fridge & charging do so when I connect my 13 pin plug ..... I just need to remember to switch the fridge on. On site on 240 I just select mains on the fridge and the charger just does so without the
need to switch anything. When on just the battery, I have a switch that's labelled car/off/caravan and select caravan to power the caravan. The car position is for when the caravan is plugged into the car and the caravan's battery is flat ..... so not often
used. My caravan is a 2002 Lunar Delta 520/20 -
Mitsubishi recommend selecting 4wd for towing irrespective of conditions. Reasons for this include evening out the stresses on the chassis and suspension joints and to increase stability. We always used 4wd when we towed and no harm was done to anything.
The Shogun has an intermediate differential and there is no danger of locking the transmission whatever the conditions. As MM says, check your handbook.0 -
....as long as it is a full Shogun and not the Shogun Sport (I had one before the last 2 disco's, loverly car, 3l V6 petrol, it drifted like a dream in 2WD
) which does noty have a centre diff.0 -
Hi all. Please allow for my basic questions. We are complete Newbies to Caravanning albeit we have been planning this for about 5 years but we have bought our first van only on Friday (Easter) and want to go out on our first experience mid April. Although
experienced with 4x4's and own my thrid Mitsubishi Shogun, am I right in saying that unless the road conditions are wet or slippery, there is no need to engage 4 wheel drive when towing as you can suffer diff wind up if used un-neccesarily which can be extremely
costly if not checked. Secondly, what switch positions should your van be set at when travelling using the grey plug, hooked up on site or just using the van battery. I have a 2003 Swift Conqueror 645 Lux and the rocker switch above the door only has two positions.
Up appears to be 12v as it says so but down doesnt actually tell me what Im set to. Again, I apologise for sounding like a child but I really want this to work for me and my family.It depends how old your vehicle is, you must check your handbook as it would be unwise to select four wheel drive on tarmac in an older Shogun
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http://www.swiftgroup.co.uk/help-and-advice/more-information/handbooks
You can download a caravan handbook here, which may help if you have any problems.
Click on archive and select the year .
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Thanks all of you for the responses. Ive only just seen them, lol.
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I use a Mitsubishi Shogun 2007 model for towing my Bailey Unicorn Cartagena 2015 model. I always use 4 wheel drive for towing as recommended in the instructions. I switch to two wheel drive when solo.
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Before becoming a vicar I spent 30 years in the motor industry and this is a bit of a hobby-horse for me so please skip it if you've read similar from me before. 4x4 only needs to be engaged in slippery conditions, otherwise you're simply using more fuel
and wearing more tyres. The larger tugs like Discos and Shoguns have a central diff as well as one on each axle. Some of the "part-time" systems don't have this and there can be a chance of "wind-up" but it mostly just wears the tyres. Don't be fooled by
the "part-time" title by the way, it's all still revolving down there whether you're driving the second axle or dragging it along. Short answer - stay in 2-wheel drive unless absolutely necessary!0 -
from one "service industry" to another!
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Before becoming a vicar I spent 30 years in the motor industry...
Can I deduce from your avatar that you are more 'happy clappy' than 'bells and smells'?
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Before becoming a vicar I spent 30 years in the motor industry...
Can I deduce from your avatar that you are more 'happy clappy' than 'bells and smells'?
Write your comments here...from my what?
somewhere in the middle I'd say. I keep meaning to ask cyberyacht, your face is familiar, did you go to Portchester School?
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See my post on the previous page, Geoff. I guess there will always be disagreements even between those who know what they're talking about. Above all, I believe you should follow the manufacturer's instructions, especially if the vehicle is within its warranty
period. If Mitsi place a sticker in the car saying to use 4wd when towing, then it surely makes sense to do so.0 -
See my post on the previous page, Geoff. I guess there will always be disagreements even between those who know what they're talking about. Above all, I believe you should follow the manufacturer's instructions, especially if the vehicle is within its warranty
period. If Mitsi place a sticker in the car saying to use 4wd when towing, then it surely makes sense to do so.Write your comments here...
Fair point - I suppose it makes sense that when only one axle is pulling a van, it doesn't need the extra weight of all that 4x4 engineering to drag along with it. I'd probably do the same as you, follow the manual. (Trouble is not many ever bother to read
them in the first place!) My real beef as I've said before, is that in our case we only tow about 6 times a year, we use Club Sites which usually have tarmac drives and hard standings, we have a mover on the van, so do we need a 4x4 with all that extra engineering?
The trouble is they make vans so heavy these days a lot of us have to buy 4x4s simply to get the weight ratio right. Save the planet? Hmm0 -
If you lived on the hill that we do, Geoff, you'd want a 4wd car regardless of towing a caravan! We still have one now even though we no longer tow.
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If you lived on the hill that we do, Geoff, you'd want a 4wd car regardless of towing a caravan! We still have one now even though we no longer tow.
Write your comments here...
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Can I deduce from your avatar that you are more 'happy clappy' than 'bells and smells'?
Write your comments here...from my what?
somewhere in the middle I'd say. I keep meaning to ask cyberyacht, your face is familiar, did you go to Portchester School?
Good sound Calvinist eh?
Not me guv. Wrong side of the tracks - Paulsgrove although I live in Portchester now. 0 -
We have a 2011 mitsubishi outlander and it says to tow in 4wd in all conditions.....Guess it's optional but we have the model where the selector is a dial with 2wd, 4wd and lock as options. So 4wd is not locking the centre diff on my car and not causing
wind up. If I selected lock.....it would. Not sure how this relates to shogun mind.0 -
I would have more than a few worries if I was driving about in a vehicle that I thought was going to tear its chassis apart because it was towing using one drive axle instead of two.
Perhaps with all the electronics now actually controling a vehicle now-a-days it is something other than the drive configuration that is changed when 4WD is selected? Fuel pressure, turbo boot points and pressure, throttle response spring to mind.
My Discovery 1 would drift magnificently in in its permanent four wheel drive, much to the consternation of drivers of hot hatches who could not keep up. It would also do spin turns in snow and ice. Sadly, the electronics in the Discovery 4 block such fun.
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Ours in normall driving conditions is front wheel drive with the weight where needed, but will go into 4 wheel drive if it senses a need, but can also be manually locked in 4 wheel drive
I note that the 2 wheel drive version has a lower limit on the hook
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I would have more than a few worries if I was driving about in a vehicle that I thought was going to tear its chassis apart because it was towing using one drive axle instead of two.
Perhaps with all the electronics now actually controling a vehicle now-a-days it is something other than the drive configuration that is changed when 4WD is selected? Fuel pressure, turbo boot points and pressure, throttle response spring to mind.
My Discovery 1 would drift magnificently in in its permanent four wheel drive, much to the consternation of drivers of hot hatches who could not keep up. It would also do spin turns in snow and ice. Sadly, the electronics in the Discovery 4 block such fun.
Hard to do a j turn with an electronic handbrake
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I use two wheel drive when solo and four wheel drive when towing. The manual says always use four wheel drive when towing. It's a 2007 model Mitsubishi Shogun Elegance.
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Before becoming a vicar I spent 30 years in the motor industry and this is a bit of a hobby-horse for me so please skip it if you've read similar from me before. 4x4 only needs to be engaged in slippery conditions, otherwise you're simply using more fuel
and wearing more tyres. The larger tugs like Discos and Shoguns have a central diff as well as one on each axle. Some of the "part-time" systems don't have this and there can be a chance of "wind-up" but it mostly just wears the tyres. Don't be fooled by
the "part-time" title by the way, it's all still revolving down there whether you're driving the second axle or dragging it along. Short answer - stay in 2-wheel drive unless absolutely necessary!In the wet, particularly in hilly, winding areas I often switch on the automatic 4 wheel drive on the X-Trail when towing.
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The handbook for my X-trail recommends the "auto " setting for towing, that's somewhere between 4 wheel drive and intelligent two wheel .
Certainly there are times when it makes a difference. As I say there are times that I do use it when towing. I engaged it prior to leaving the Lucksall Caravan Site (AS) as it was a steep slope up to the edge of carriageway and the road cambers down from
there. Don't want any wheelspin emerging onto a fast road with less than perfect visibility0
