I suppose I can consider myself very lucky..... We bought our Troll 552 last May in Normandy, on the 1st of May to be precise, which is when the French give each other Lily of the valley ( Muget in France) as a good luck token. ( which is why we named her Lily, and possibly the reason for my good luck)?
We are new to caravanning but used to towing a large trailer and set of to the Dordogne where she now lives....without incident. This only helped to reinforce what I had read, namely that Eriba's being rated at 100kph tow like a dream. !
Come August and we set off for our holiday on the 'cote sauvage', having taken care to even out the load in Lily, check tyre pressures with the manual and even put some heavy items in the car to ensure stability......Travelling south on the Motorway from Bordeaux, flushed with all this confidence, I overtook a large artic at about 100kph and nearly came to grief....it all started to snake, to the point where I could hear tyres screaming ( not sure if they were car or caravanne) I am now convinced that we had lost it as it was steadily getting worse so I hit the accelerator and pulled it out of the sway, but then, of course I'm going even faster, so ever so gently I slowed down and made my way onto the hard shoulder. I got off at the next exit, pulled over and tried to stop myself shaking....I'm not afraid to admit it scared the life out of me.....and my wife.!
During our stay at a campsite I took the Alko tow hitch off and headed for a caravanne dealers where I had new friction pads fitted ( even though they looked OK.) The other thing that was bothering me was the tyre pressures, they did look a bit soft, so when we headed home the first stop was a service station where I put in more air ( from 35 psi to. 45 psi) and immediately it felt better.
My question (eventually) is, what pressure should I have in the caravanne tyres, and how do I know if the weight distribution is correct. ? I don't want a repeat performance.

It will depend on what type of tyres the last owner fitted, I have fitted light commercial tyres to mine as the normal ones in the manual are too close to the weight limit, another thing to consider is the weight limit of the van a normal troll will have an axle limit of 1000Kg an uprated one will have a 1200Kg axle.

Forget the manual and check the vin plate for weight to determine if standard or uprated and check the tyres to see what is fitted (probably not those listed in the manual) also look for a max load rating and max pressure limit

then this calculator will give a better idea of the required pressure

http://www.tyresafe.org/check-your-pressures/caravan-pressure-calculator/

With the tyres I have my Triton should run at 52psi on the tyres that I fitted (1000Kg axle)

Zitat

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Since then I have used the attached document to determine caravan my tyre pressures. I have a copy printed off and kept in the van.

Colin

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The chart in your PDF does not cover light commercial tyres when used in conjunction with a 1000Kg axle (unless I missed it but I don't think so)

Quote: Lily wrote in post #1

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My question (eventually) is, what pressure should I have in the caravanne tyres, and how do I know if the weight distribution is correct. ?

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Quote: hob wrote in post #3

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......a normal troll will have an axle limit of 1000Kg an uprated one will have a 1200Kg axle.

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Thanks Alan, not sure where my original info came from now.

This chart is from a 2004 manual

weights.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

And says 1200Kg

Guess they change things from time to time

That must have been scary, however it is advised to not hit the brakes in the circumstances and not speed up but to slow down to eliminate the snaking. I have only experienced this once or twice and very slight ant nothing like you mentioned as I felt it as soon as it started and my reason was to light in the nose as I had left me gas bottle run to and what I usually carried just inside the door I had removed. As soon as I packed it differently and had a heavy gas bottle all was well, but I found that with it being wrongly packed after 50-55mph she started to sway.

Also was told when I had my tyres changed on the Eriba to not go by the pressure not he tyre sidewall but to always follow the manual of the vehicle/caravan.

Zitat

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always follow the manual of the vehicle/caravan.

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But only if you have the same tyres mentioned in the manual and only then if the manual is correct to start with (Eriba got it wrong a few years back)

The manual is about 15 psi too low for my light commercial tyres

Thanks Hob, I will go and check what I had fitted, as they were the same as what came off it, so will look. How long ago was the manual wrong I have looked in my 2008 manual and on an English version I downloaded.

Randa posted a link further up to the latest chart (courtesy of the French forum)


Tyre pressure chart from a 2004 Triton manual .......... note the escape clause I highlighted underneath (not sure if those are wrong or not?)

pressures.JPG - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

I have checked and I had 185/70R13 and inflated them to 35psi. When I was looking at tyres, I cam across the info that aid usually the tyres wall strength is loaded and usually is around or just over half of the axle weight making both tyres add up to around the load.

The tyres I have do have a maximum load of 530kg and my Triton is a 1000kg chassis.