Hi there, I was wondering if you guys might be able to shed some light on a small problem I have when towing our caravan. We tow a Lunar / Quasar 525 with a BMW 330D. Theres been a few times when we've heard the ominous grind of the tow wheel hiting tarmac. Also these worn out square speedbumps seem to be causing us havoc too. The car is fitted with low profile tyres so we have lost a vital inch or two from the towball height. Can it be assumed that the coil spring assistors will help? or can I adjust the height of the ALCO towball thats fitted to be higher?
have your springs checked first.i put spring assistors on my galaxy and make a difference to the bounce.your low profile tyres havent lowered the car the lower the profile the bigger the wheel rim.you can lower a tow ball but not raise it.you could just remove jockey wheel once hitched.
Any thought's on this?....when you look at the car from the side the back wheels are slighty hidden by the wheel arches and thats not even with the caravan hitched up. This is why I was asking about using a drop plate to increase the height by a few inches.Is there a reason why its not allowed?. Both back springs arent even a year old. I keep the nose weight to 65-70kg.
If I knew how to post a pic I would with this reply showing my car as it is.
On a Bmw check the body hight to see if the springs are shot but also have a lool at the rear suspension bushes, if they fail the result will be the same with some handling issues.
If all is well you could fit normal tyres and regain the height, spring assistors will help but I sispect they are a work around.
Spring assisters won't raise the height of the springs. We used them some time ago when a car we had had lowered rear suspension and we had problems with grounding. What they do is to limit the amount the spring gets compressed - so they help in situations where suspension movement is the problem, but they won't help as much where ground clearance per se is the issue.
I was worried they would make the ride too firm when driving solo, but that didn't seem to happen.
It's also worth looking at different shock absorbers - it depends how much money you want to invest in adapting the car.
Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated, ordering the the coil assistors tomorrow and taking the jockey wheel off in future. car has got the clearance just the odd cringe here or there if you know what a mean.
i have spring assistors and as said above they do not raise the height but do help with how low the car drops when towing and over bumps etc.
there may be a solution to many of your problems as i found out after towing with my dads car.
when they had a caravan hooked to thier car and if you stood back and looked from the side, the caravan was sloping down badly towards the towhitch, (with proper nose weight)
they has issues with those silly square speed bumps flattening the jockey wheel also, meaning him taking it it off each trip.
it was not good, so after looking i found out that most of these swan neck type tow hitches come in different lengths so if you have a low hitch at the moment then maybe as dad has done you could get a longer swan neck for the back. the van now sits level behind the car and tows much better.
btw, the reason i say the square speed bumps a silly is in our area there are 5 or six in a row very short distance between them and they are quite annoying BUT more importantly the likes of lorries, buses and motorbikes are unaffected by them yet are more dangerous to be hit by.
if they are here to stay why not make them full width of the road so all users are treated equal.
i have used riser plates on my old ball hitch before on a previous car which was used to pull a car transporter trailer and had no problems so wonder what the reason for outlawing them. they made things safer for me. and would still use one if it was needed.
i had some spring helpers from mad suspension they were easy to fix and lifted car about 2 in's and they don't affect the normal ride they only really work when there's weight on hope this helps Andy