Pitching and seasickness when towing
We have collected our new caravan and experienced a somewhat 'bumpy' ride which I think is called pitching. It made us feel seasick and wondered what we can do to improve the situation. Our car is a 2015 XC60 AWD with a D5 engine. The caravan is a brand
new Coachman VIP 575 (1615kg), We have an 83% weight ratio towing match so should be ok. The feeling was awful and now worried about towing long distances. The van was empty, being new - maybe things will improve when properly loaded? Any advice please?
Comments
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Does the car have self levelling suspension by any chance ? as this should counter the pitching motion.The reason i ask is because i tow a coachman 1750kg with an XC90 and there is never any piching motion and i put this down to the suspension setup and ofcourse correct loading with the full 90kg on the towball.I should add its a t/a van and this can make a difference IMO.
v9
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Hello volvoman9, yes, I think so. When Volvo fitted the tow ball, they mentioned something like that but will check with my hubby. The caravan also has ATC control so we were surprised. Your car is obviously
bigger and more powerful - maybe that is why you have no troubles? We have bought a noseweight gauge and will be using that once we are loaded up for our first trip to ensure we are within the permitted limit. We both felt unwell on our 50minute journey home
and are worried. We can't to change either vehicle now:-(0 -
Yes i dont know the weight of the XC60 but the 90 weighs in at 2190kg.Have you towed any other vans with the XC60 or is this the first ?.Has the pitching only just started or has it happened before ? AFAIK pitching is not a common problem with most caravanners.
v9
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Just read this, and it brought back a few memories! Only time we have experienced "pitching" and that seasick feeling was when we towed our long caravan with short wheel base Land Rover and Jeep. Both were well up to towing weight, but we never cured it,
laden or unladen. Didn't affect OH, but to me it was awful, enough to have me throwing up!Hope you get it sorted. Your car doesn't appear to be short, so possibly not the same cause.
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Just come across this thread, same car?
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An empty caravan can be a bit "lively"and if not having towed before could seem "uncomfortable",especially if the layout of the van has a tendancy to be rear heavy(do not know your model),once loaded you will find after a couple of trips you should not notiice,
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If someone could make my link live, there is some good information. Sorry, I can't do it
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Just come across this thread, same car?
Write your comments here...
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I used to tow with an XC60 D5 and found things improved considerably once I`d ditched the factory fitment Pirelli tyres for ones with a stiffer sidewall (I fitted Nokian zLine SUV tyres and they`re great) and ran them at 39psi.
The Pirellis were awful in my opinion.
A higher nose-weight helped too. I used to keep it around 85kg.
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Be interesting to see whst Nellie says as he has just moved to an XC60
Definitely not noticed any excess pitching, although we've towed with a full caravan, not an empty one. We have Pirellis on and am running them at 39psi on our XC60 D5 Automatic.
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Hi Revellers
I have just bumped a similar thread on an XC 60 from a few months ago in this section
i remember as i considered an XC 60 and this concerned me...
Steve
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Revellers, Your combination does seem to have a bit of a history! But hey, lets be positive about this. You have a good car, and a very good caravan. I have a similar caravan and it is excellant, so what we have to do now is make the most of the situation, and arrive at the position whereby you get the very best start to your caravanning!
It is important to realise that a lightly loaded caravan is always going to feel much more lively on tow, than one loaded ready to take you on holiday!
It is essential that you load your rig properly, with the really heavy items in your car boot. Now load your caravan with the rest of your gear stowed low down and with only light weight items aft of the caravan axle. DO NOT stow heavy gear under the bed space, only lighter stuff like clothes lines etc. Stow items like the aquarol and waste master and 25 metres of cable forward, and ensure that you carry one or two gas bottles in the front locker. You need to aim for a nose weight approaching the maximum for your car.
I am confident that once you have addressed these points that your Coachman will prove to be well behaved. Remember too that even for an old dog like me, with over 35 years of caravanning behind me, the first outing of the year with the van in tow always feels a little jiggely for a while but you soon get used to it. So you as a relatively new comer is bound to feel it even more so. Stick with it but get that loading right!
TF
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Revellers, Your combination does seem to have a bit of a history! But hey, lets be positive about this. You have a good car, and a very good caravan. I have a similar caravan and it is excellant, so what we have to do now is make the most of the situation,
and arrive at the position whereby you get the very best start to your caravanning!It is important to realise that a lightly loaded caravan is always going to feel much more lively on tow, than one loaded ready to take you on holiday!
It is essential that you load your rig properly, with the really heavy items in your car boot. Now load your caravan with the rest of your gear stowed low down and with only light weight items aft of the caravan axle. DO NOT stow heavy gear under the bed
space, only lighter stuff like clothes lines etc. Stow items like the aquarol and waste master and 25 metres of cable forward, and ensure that you carry one or two gas bottles in the front locker. You need to aim for a nose weight approaching the maximum
for your car.I am confident that once you have addressed these points that your Coachman will prove to be well behaved. Remember too that even for an old dog like me, with over 35 years of caravanning behind me, the first outing of the year with the van in tow always
feels a little jiggely for a while but you soon get used to it. So you as a relatively new comer is bound to feel it even more so. Stick with it but get that loading right!TF
I can only agree with the above as the only time I have experienced this kind of problem was on picking up a New Caravan and towing it in an Empty Condition and with no Gas Bottles in the dedicated front locker. All leading to a tail-heavy/tail-happy trailer.
As soon as it was loaded correctly, ><5%-7% of the actual weight when towed (but not exceeding the MPTLM or Tow-bar max) as a nose weight bias, all was fine ever after. I do agree that if the Tow Car is fitted with tyres that have particularly flexible/soft
side walls this could also be the cause of the problem as can suspension problems.I hope for your sake Revellers that correct loading is the fix as this is a no cost solution,. whereas a tyre change or suspension problem is likely to be somewhat expensive.
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We have had the same caravan whilst using three Land Rovers.
Freelander, Disco and now a Range Rover, all tow well when the van is loaded and the higher the nose weight, the better it feels. However when we take the van in for service, we take out all that is not needed and it tows very differently. Much like you are experiencing, fully loaded should be much improved. As we have Pirelli tyres, the comments above are very interesting. I also like the tyre pressure as low as possible (usually 35psi) to give a softer ride which under load seems fine, 39psi would probably firm up the ride as described above.
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Just swapped an XC60 D5 for a V60 D4 Cross Country.
Towed with it the first time on Tuesday and home today, we did note the ride is smoother than the XC60, but nothing major.
We enjoyed two happy years with the XC60, covering 42000 miles in total, about 5000 ish towing.
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Just swapped an XC60 D5 for a V60 D4 Cross Country.
Towed with it the first time on Tuesday and home today, we did note the ride is smoother than the XC60, but nothing major.
We enjoyed two happy years with the XC60, covering 42000 miles in total, about 5000 ish towing.
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Hi revellers
Have you sorted your towing isuue?
We had a similar problem with Coachman VIP 575 and the main reason for the rough ride was the brakes had not been set up, in fact one brake was not working at all, once set up the ride improved considerably
Regards
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