Tow Ball Height
I had a Tow Bar professionally fitted to my Skoda Superb in January and have towed my Bailey Pageant Provence several times since then. I noticed that the plastic Alko jockey wheel was broken after the 1st outing so bought a pneumatic wheel and winding mechanism which also got damaged. I now remove the jockey wheel when towing as I believe that it's grounding even when raised to its highest position.
I have subsequently checked my Tow Ball height as the caravan seem to tow very nose down. The centre of the Tow Ball is 380MM which is in the 350 to 420MM specified in the EC Directive but this is with the car empty not laden.
I've not measured it but would imagine that, once the car was loaded, the Tow Ball height could easily drop below the 350MM minimum height.
According to the paperwork I got from the dealer when I bought the caravan, the Tow Hitch height is 415MM. If the Tow Ball height does drop to 350MM when laden that means a difference of 65MM or possibly more when the caravan is hitched to the car. Ideally I think I'd like the Tow Ball to be 50MM (2 Inches) higher. That way I believe I'd still be in the legal limits, the caravan would still be slightly nose down for stability and I'd get a bit more clearance before the jockey wheel grounded.
Anybody got any ideas, views or suggestions on how to go about this?
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I would start by speaking to the person who fitted the tow bar.
Bear in mind that tow bars are, by law, type approved and any modification will likely infringe that approved status.
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I think the jockey wheel is not being stowed correctly. On my Bailey all that can be seen once it is "up" is a bit of the tyre, and for that to be hitting the road surface the bottom would have been worn off the towball first.
On winding up, the two lugs that support the axle should engage in two slots in the outher tube and be wound in until tight. Then when the tube is loosened the wheel can be turned using the tube so it points roughly to the rear and can be raised almost out of sight, and clamped up to stay put.
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it has already been established that the towball hight is within limits with the car unladen.The fact that it sags when under load would suggest that.....(a)the vehicle springs are weak.....(b)the nose weight of the caravan exceeds the specified limit for the vehicle.The only cures are (1)replace the vehicle rear springs with heavy duty items....(2)reduce the caravan noseweight to the specified limit......there is no modification that can be made to a towbar to reduce the "sag".
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"there is no modification that can be made to a towbar to reduce the "sag"."
That wouldn't stop some people trying! Hence my post.
You forgot (c)the car is overloaded.
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The nose weight is within limits. On my recent trip to Arran there were only 2 of us in the car with very limited luggage. The jockey wheel is being stowed correctly, the arms that support the wheel are fully engaged in the slots when the mechanism is wound up as far as possible. I have raised the jockey wheel as far as possible, the wheel fouls on the A frame. The car, as Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI 4x4 does not have soggy suspension that sags.
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Don't know what sort of rear over hang your vehicle has. When we towed with a Mondeo estate the jockey did occasionally ground, particularly on significant changes in gradient. You mention Arran above, the changes on ferry ramps can be particularly severe. Large road humps were another problem area. As these obstacles are only navigated at slow speed, the only damage we suffered was slight scuffing of the jockey wheel. If it is grounding in normal use, something is definitely amiss.
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Then i would change the car for something more suitable!!!
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I bought my Skoda because reviews said it was a good tow car. This website suggested it was a good match with my Bailey Pageant. I asked for advice or ideas and most people seem to realise this. I'm even happy to take constructive criticism, pity others can't contribute like that.
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You got there before me Husky! My OH isn't that convinced that the car is the best possible match for your van. Doesn't give you a lot of load weight to play about with in all honesty. Simple try out. Measure the rear wheel arch gap bottom to top of tyre. Hitch up van then measure it again. If it is significantly different, spring assistors could help. Also, aim to load it level, rather than nose down. Nose down is good, but level towing is better. These are cost free try outs, as is actually weighing all the stuff you carry in van which might just give you a surprise.
We had a van that we had to take jockey wheel off as it caught, but that van was very old and very low slung. Despite towing with a Jeep Wrangler and height adjustable tow hitch, it still caught, so taking it off was easier than faffing about winding up and down, especially as we caught ferries often with a steep incline.
Hope you get things sorted.
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I see that you have a 4x4 Superb. Maybe the wrong towbar was fitted - that of the non-4x4 version? There are sometimes differences in towbar design even for one model. Often cars with and without self-levelling suspension have specific towbars, for example. Perhaps worth checking.
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Everybody who has posted advice has tried to help......including a change of towcar.There is no cause for you to take offence!!!!
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the wheel fouls on the A frame.
The wheel should pass up through between the A-frame members and not touch them. It should stop only when the lugs reach the bottom side of the clamp.
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I agree with the comment above about the amount of jockey wheel showing - it should be quite minimal.
I also agree that, if your jockey wheel hit the ground while towing, there must be something seriously wrong - it should be nowhere near the ground.
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Until this time last year I towed with a Mk II Superb estate and even with an 84kg mobility scooter in the boot and a 75kg noseweight I never had problems with the jockey wheel hitting the road. My towbar was a Witter removable which was sort of U shaped when fitted and I could, if I drove a little too quickly, catch the top of a steep speed bump as the back of the car 'bounced'.
I now drive a Mk III Superb hatchback 4x4 with the factory fit towball and again, with a mobility scooter in the boot and 85kg noseweight have had no problems at all.
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If you haven't set the Jockey wheel as Navigateur suggests then the explanation by Lutz may be the answer. These cars are consistently mentioned in Tow car of the year awards so I just can't believe there is an inherent problem with the jockey grounding
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That's uncalled for, Graymee.
I'm out!
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I have contacted the company that fitted the Tow Bar, I'm waiting for them to get back to me. The car (Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI 170 4x4) and the caravan (Bailey Pageant series 6 Provence) come up as a reasonable match on a couple of car/caravan matching services. The only down side was the 84% weight ratio which would not affect the tow ball height as far as I can tell. I didn't ground the jockey wheel on the ferry as I'd removed it. I did I believe ground it travelling from Lincolnshire to the York Beechwood Grange Caravan Club site and to the Abbey Wood Caravan Club site. I don't believe there were any particularly bad changes in gradient that would have cause grounding. The car is quite sporty with quite taught suspension and don't think it's soggy and needs spring assisters. The jockey wheel does seem to mount very low on the A frame, I don't think there's much I can do about that. I suspect that the bracket that joins the transfer beam at the rear of the vehicle to the tow ball could be the wrong on/too short and could be swapped for another approved one.
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I have just been out and set my 'van on the steadies and wound the jockey wheel right up. There is only three and one quarter inches of wheel protruding below the A-frame in the fully stowed position. I measured A-frame as the plastic skirts can differ. A decent forum would alow an easy photograph upload.
My 'van is an older Bailey, but what matters more is that it is an Alco chassis as that's what the jockey wheel is part of. I know from past experience that if I lower the 'van on the jockey wheel when it is alligned to go into the storage position it goes right down to the ground at the tow hitch.
Hope this helps the OP get a resulution to his problem without going down too many dead ends. Only other thought is to hitch up a different caravan/ftailer and watch what happens.
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As the jockey wheel was already aligned in the stowage position (i.e. pointing to the rear) I wound it down today with the steadies up. Once it was fully retracted the tip of the A-frame was so close to the ground I could not slide my hand underneath. Were the towball fitted it would have been sitting on that.
Does make the water run away much better from the sink at the rear!
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Most of the possible problems/cures have been covered, but there is obviously something basically wrong here. The Skoda Superb is a good tow car with a hard (ish) suspension and you should not have this problem as you should get minimum suspension drop when you hitch up. You say nose weight ok and not overloading the car so I would go back to the TOW BAR fitter with caravan attached and get him to have a look at it. You really should not need to fit any suspension alterations to your car.
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Interestingly enough, someone else has just opened a thread about fitting a suspension kit to a Skoda Superb. May not be the same combination of course, or Skoda model.
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I recently bought Skoda Superb 170PS 4x4 estate (2104) 24k miles, and had Witter detachable towball fitted. I have used Witter detachable towballs on some of my previous conventional cars (Mondeo Gen1 and 2, Saab 9000 CSE) and none have been as low as on the Superb. I don't have a problem with grounding the nose wheel during normal towing although I haven't been over any speed humps yet. I do have a problem getting the outfit off of the drive where the bottom of the towball will ground as the car comes across the pavement lift. None of my other conventional cars have done this. But the variation in distance between wheels and towball on each model of car could account for this. I have spoken to Witter who confirm that the towbar and towball are the correct ones for the car. At its recent service the Skoda dealer checked the ride height unloaded and it was spot on. Measured heights with the car unloaded and half a tank of fuel are tow ball centre 385mm, and tow ball base 200mm. The car's noseweight limit is 80kg and I try and load it to 70kg. I have even bought a roof box so that I can move the load more over the centre of the car, thus negating such a lovely large boot. The car does tow very well and is stable, but I would like some more clearance under the base of the towball if only to avoid having to take the caravan off of the drive on the mover and hitch up in the road, and for clearance over speed humps/ferries.
Unlike others who have posted I don't consider the Skoda Superb to have stiff suspension as its made more for comfort than sportiness. I am considering replacing the rear springs with heavier duty ones which have a more progressive compression characteristic, if I can find any that are suitable.
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My car is also the 170 BHP 4x4 but the hatchback version. The centre of the towball is 380MM with the car unladen and a part filled tank. I have tried emailing, phoning and texting the company who fitted the towbar. They have not replied. They were recommended by the dealers we bought the caravan from. I intend to phone the dealer to ask if they have gone out of business and if not to suggest they don't recommend them any more. There are a couple of towbar fitters in Lincoln so I think I'll visit them to ask for some advice.
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I did some checking and measuring tonight. My tow ball is only 395 MM from the ground to the centre of the ball with the car empty, no luggage or passengers and only 1/4 of a tank of fuel. Pictures 1 & 2 shows it in that condition. Pictures 3 & 4 show the caravan hitched. Looking at the rear wheel arch the suspension isn't too compressed yet the tow ball centre is only 353 from the ground and the jockey wheel is only 140 MM or 5.5 inches from the ground. I guess I'm just going to have to keep removing the jockey wheel before towing.
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