Twiñ axle v single axle

Of course the effort needed to turn a twin is going to be higher than for an equivalent single, but it's the towcar that has to match that effort and it can do that easily with bags of power to spare to overcome the greater resistance, so the driver is not going to notice any difference.

I still maintain that it's only the length of a caravan that makes it any easier, (or more difficult), for the driver to reverse because the response of a long trailer to movements at the steering wheel is so much slower than that of a short one.

We have a co.op in our parade of shops that is serviced by articulated lorries several times a day, and it is very noticeable that it always seems to take longer for the drivers to reverse and line up a single axle trailer than when two axles trailers are in use and the single axletrailers are shorter

likewise ......

I have actually reversed a twin axle horse box & found it far easier to reverse than large single axle caravan I had at the time. 🙄 (for all the reasons given above)

I drive lorry's for a living, Artics.

Single axle trailers are more twitchy to reverse, they get away from you more readily, the reason is they have very little rolling resistance.

Twin or tri axled trailer being reversed have high resistance as the tyres move sideways along the ground, giving that resistance which allows greater control, I suppose a kind of damping effect to inputs.

I'm imagining your arguement (Lutz) is this damping is a hindrance, where as in practice it isnt.

I'm not going to get involved in the discussion regarding reversing any more. Suffice to say I want to know in which direction the caravan is going immediately as I reverse, without any time delay, so that I can react just as quickly. I find that makes it so much easier for me.

However, returning to the main issue of the discussion, the argument about space inside of a twin seldom applies really now that single axle caravans of around 8m length are quite common. In fact, no Continental manufacturer offers a twin under 1900kg, even most of their 2000kg caravans are single axle models. There must be a good reason for this trend.

Possibly, but I think the main reason is weight and cost reduction. A second axle is bound to increase unladen weight compared with a single axle model of equivalent size and cost more, too.