Trailer towing

It would depend on what is in the trailer and how tightly loaded they are.

I think 50 is fast enough with a load - especially cattle as when they turn they have the ability to affect the stability of the towing vehicle.

With sheep you could get away with a bit more speed as your main cobden would be a side wind.

80 km/h

Wouldn’t cross 30mph with cattle behind me on the roads round here anyway.

Would keep under 50 then with an empty trailer.

Kinda need to take the road and conditions into it.

50 to 60 km is plenty. You get the general feel from the vehicle what's what when it comes to the load and speed.

Its like driving in snow or frost you can be as careful as you like but it's the ejit your meeting around the bend the problem.

I'd always keep ahead of the lorrries, 100kmh on the good roads and whatever on the bad roads. but I never have cattle in the trailer

A lot depends on the condition of tyres, and the capacity of the load to move around.

How many would replace tyres when they're 7 years old, regardless of how much they are worn? How many park the trailer in the same exposed position to sunlight? How many overload a trailer?

Good gear, proper tyres, no overloading, should be able to tip on at 80k without issue..

As you say, it depends on the load.

Livestock is one the more unpredictable loads that anyone will carry, in comparison to gravel etc

IMO 80kmh is to fast for a jeep and laden trailer

Traveling at 22 metres per second, things can go wrong rapidly.

Especially with the drawbar trigonometry set up on a jeep/car trailer. On a jeep or car the coupling point is behind the rear axle by a few inches, this distance affords the trailer greater leverage over the towing vehicle and unstable loads like livestock can exaggerate the trailers movement on the towing vehicle.

The 5th wheel on a lorry is the only safe coupling to travel at that speed with a load on. The coupling point is forward of the towing vehicles axle.

100kmh isn't fast, A trailer loaded right is more important. The hilux wouldn't even know a trailer was behind it. I see farmers with a jeep and trailer with cattle doing about 50kmh, They're not breaking the law but they're doing their best to cause an accident. We've great roads around here, a trailer isn't safe if there's a fear of it swaying. shoudn't be on the road

Maybe asked before, are the trailers you see in US with hitch in bed of crew cab type jeeps legal here? would love to try one

Anyone seen this in use?

Yes - I've just been looking at them. There is a version that looks like a hand held vacuum cleaner on top of the hitch which is supposed to do the same thing - I think they are effectively brake pads working on the tow ball. With the state of the tow ball on some of our jeeps the pads would be struggling for grip.

Fancy caravans now seem to have automatic trailer control which brake the trailer if it detects snaking. I don't think any of these are an option on livestock trailers yet.

Our caravan has an Alco hitch as you described above. When you hitch it on the handle presses down and clamps each side of the tow ball. Hard to know how good it is but never had any problem towing.

caravan is very stable up to 95kph. Particularly on continent we would stay in inside lane and match speed of trucks who would all be sticking to limiters. Saves them passing us or us having to overtake, makes for more leisurely drive around 90kph.

having a truck pass or passing a truck with the caravan isn’t nice, if they pass too close the caravan is drawn towards the truck significantly which can be disconcerting.

Once it starts snaking, it's difficult to stop it, It's important to use a gate in the trailer for half loads. our 12ft trailer is deadly behind the car, ball hitch is too low and the trailer is balancing on the front axle.

OH was driving on teh motorway in England when a volvo 240 estate passed passed with a caravan, he pulled in in front of us and immediately started snaking and ended up jacknifed with the car on its side. We got something in his car to prise off the ball hitch and pushed the caravan off the road and rolled back the car and pushed it to the side too. He said he wouldn't have had a clue what to do and was relieved to get it off the road

Just started driving, went in VW jetta (1980version ) and 8x4 2 axle timber cowbox for 2 bullocks from mart. A car came out of T junction in front of me ( I was on straight road doing 40 - 50 mph ) and had to swerve slightly to avoid, trailer started weaving and came off hitch ending up on side. Cattle were fine ( father was in car and had wanted to get haulier to move them in first place ! )

On a back road fully loaded with cattle or sheep I'd do from 40 km/h to 55 km/h. If on a main road or motorway 80 km/h. I find a trailer that's only half loaded has a higher chance of getting into a wobble vs a trailer that is fully loaded.

Had a very close one with a trailer last week. Have an 10 yo landcruiser which i bought new, had 6 cattle in the trailer - 13ft. Have done a good bit of hauling over the years, factory mart etc. Anyway long story short the hitch snapped off with the cattle in the trailer. Was very lucky. Was not far from home, slowed down for a junction and then started accelerating and heard a bang… the trailer then ran under the jeep and did a bit of damage but now much. I cant even begin to describe how luck i was… The bit that gets me is that in my wildest dreams i would never have seen the hitch as a point of weakness. I even had the safety chain around it but as it snapped clean off that was useless. I’ll try and put a picture up to show you what happened.

Depends on your jeep and trailer, your load and your driving style

Id have a heavy right foot in general

I’ve done 120kph with a 14ft fully loaded with sheep and no problems.

Also done 60k with half a load of cattle on the same road.

That's why a weekly walk around for 5 minutes is important, very seldom steel just sheers and more than like had a stress crack in it that you didn't spot, maybe it did sheer but highly unlikely, no harm to be replacing stuff like that every so often, a hitch with 10 years heavy towing done is looking to be replaced, lucky it ended the way it ended tho

Are they cast iron or cast steel?

The key is any trailer over 750kg mam should have trailer breaks fitted. As you lift the accelerator the trailer pushes into the slowing tow vehicle and tue trailer break is activated, the result is to pull tue whole outfit back into a straight line while slowing.

The hitch is worn and the only solution is to replace. How you know is when you put a trailer on a ball if the latch you release with your thumb is sitting up against the top of the stop its time to replace.

I'd suggest it may be your neighbour. The hitch casting is softer than the hardened towball. All hitch heads have wear indicators. The casting is softer than the hardened steel towball. Decoupling is most commonly caused by excessive wear on the head. There's a tolerance allowed as they're spring loaded to meet the towball. I've seen more than 5mm wear on the head. Ive rarely seen more than 0.5mm on the towball.

Quite common is failure to correctly engage the head on to the ball.