Towing caravan with 3” IRO lift.

[pmac]

Now I’ve gotten rid of the diesel Patrol, I need to start using the GC for everything, which includes serious offroading and towing the van to where we do our wheeling if it’s a weekend trip.

With the Patrol, I could sit on 120kmh and not even know the van was there. With the Jeep, I’m scared to go over 80 because of the sway it develops.

I believe the IRO lift may be causing this for two reasons. One, because of the Castor adjustment, the steering is very twitchy and with very little wheel input the car is going in every different direction. Very tiring to drive by the way, even without the van, as you have to concentrate much more than before.

Secondly, the springs seem very soft. Great for flex, but the back sits down considerably when the van is attached.

What would you suggest to fix? Cheapest is best by the way at the moment. Would adjusting the castor a couple of degrees to have more of an angle alleviate/reduce the problem? Might bring back death wobble though.

Would getting ride levellers improve it? Maybe air bags??

I don’t know the ball weight, but van is about 1500kgs, so it’s not that heavy. It’s 14ft single axle if that makes a difference.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[willys]

A WDH will help as it transfers the weight evenly front to rear..As for the lift kit I don't know if it would contribute to any towing woes.Towing at 120klm Hmmm.

[pmac]

Originally Posted by willys

Towing at 120klm Hmmm.

Not a regular thing. Was in a 110kmh zone, and it crept up going down hill. As mentioned, was like it wasn't even there.

[hemijeepy]

I towed over 5000kms on my last trip to Exmouth and the coral coast in W.A.

I towed a 2T boat with my roof rack on and that had the swag, tent, camp chairs bla bla and there was 3 people in the car and camping gear, food and booze for 3weeks and it didnt miss a beat, when over taking R/trains on the flat we we're sitting on 130km/hr sometimes and the car sat like it was on rails... I was very impressed with it...

Imho alot of your long trip driving will be dictated on weight distribution and having the car/ trailer set up correctly... I have said it a 1000 times the IRO 3' kit is the best value for money Kit for the WJ's - If your worried about sway ect just run off set rims and some decent rubber to give you a sure foot print on the road....

Hemi

[chrisk]

I would have to agree with willys, a "Weight Distributing Hitch" would help you. You mention that the vehicle sits down quite a bit in the back and as Willys mentione the sole purpose of the WDH is to transfer weight back to the front wheels and therefore return the car back to near it normal balance. Have a look at the Hayman Reese websit they have hitches for all weight loads. I have an oo WJ V8 & tow a 16' off road van weighing around 2000kg with easy 150kg on the ball and with my WDH I can easyly tow at 110kph. If I didn't have the WDH I rekon I wouldn't go over 80.

[turbomart]

As others said a load dist. hitch would help alot.
For the 'twitchy' steering ,a lot of that is actually from rear wheel steer caused by steep angle of short rear lower control arms ,soft springs & weak anti-sway bar.As body leans in corners (excacerbated by springs & swaybar) control arms move in opp directions ,meaning one side gets longer the other shorter causing axle to 'turn'.
Stiffer sway bar wil help correct this as will reducing ball weight.

[MRGC]

Im going to suggest differently, airbags does wonders.
When the rear sits lower than the front, your front becomes very sensitive, with the airbags you can pump them up so that the jeep sits level and the front behaves as it should, the other thing you can add is thr front HD swaybar and since the jeep is raised make sure your links are at the right height.