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#32
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
Well... For me as a longtime Saab driver, a Fiat would never be a first choce ;-) but I would prefer it over any Chevy or its compatriotes anytime The bottom line is that US cars are designed for US street conditions and US driving habits, which are very different from the European conditions and habits. It just happens that for this reason, any mid-size car in Europe has no problem towing sailplane trailers - nobody here would actually think about which car to buy in order to trailer, even though we also may drive fast and across mountain ranges Bert TW Sorry Bert I beg to differ, I am UK based and have nearly always considered the vehicles towing capabilities before buying a car. Rear wheel drive or 4 wheel drive are always my preferred options Audi 80 Quattro was good, Subaru Legacy Turbo better, My present car Lexus RX 350 is surprisingly good if a bit heavy on fuel. And saab and fiat shared a chassis for a number of years !!! Fiat Croma and Saab 9000 I did actually tow a 2 seat metal trainer from south of England to my club in the north of Scotland using a Croma I borrowed from a friend, did the job well enough. |
#33
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
I’m very pleased with the towing performance of my Mazda CX-5 twin turbo diesel, hardly notice the trailer, and get 10l/100km averaging 103 km/h.
(60 miles per hour and 24 mpg in primitive units) still perfectly stable at 160 km/h 100mph whilst towing. |
#34
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
On Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 6:26:21 PM UTC-6, Charlie Quebec wrote:
I’m very pleased with the towing performance of my Mazda CX-5 twin turbo diesel, hardly notice the trailer, and get 10l/100km averaging 103 km/h. (60 miles per hour and 24 mpg in primitive units) still perfectly stable at 160 km/h 100mph whilst towing. (60 miles per hour and 24 mpg in primitive units) oo-whoo-ooo-whooo ;) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEep67akIn4 |
#35
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
And the winner in the Olympics Of RAS Thread Drift is Mike C.
However, I had forgotten just how funny that song was when it first came out. |
#36
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
On Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 9:03:02 PM UTC-6, wrote:
And the winner in the Olympics Of RAS Thread Drift is Mike C. However, I had forgotten just how funny that song was when it first came out. ....And the crown roars in approval and chants in unison, Mike Mike Mike Mike!!!! |
#37
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
On Wed, 13 Mar 2019 09:27:23 -0700, Tango Whisky wrote:
It just happens that for this reason, any mid-size car in Europe has no problem towing sailplane trailers - nobody here would actually think about which car to buy in order to trailer, even though we also may drive fast and across mountain ranges. The only thing I've ever heard on that subject in the UK was advice to buy a Ford Focus estate (four doors plus full width rear hatch) rather a saloon was because the estate has stiffer rear suspension, so is more stable when towing. That it also lets me cart more stuff around is a bonus. -- Martin | martin at Gregorie | gregorie dot org |
#38
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
Tango Whisky wrote on 3/12/2019 1:35 AM:
Le mardi 12 mars 2019 05:14:15 UTC+1, Tom BravoMike a crit*: Yes, European cars tend to be smaller and lighter than US cars, but in contrary to the US we have engineers building them so that they drive well. The drivetrain is adapted to European conditions and drivers, and the cars are much more stable (people liking to drive fast on narrow and curvy roads) than any of the US cars I rent while on the wrong side of the pond. The cars you are likely to rent in the US are not the ones used to tow glider trailers, as they are typically noted rated for trailers over 1500 pounds. For example, my Camry is rated for a maximum 1000 pounds trailer weight. My understanding of trailer dynamics is the "stability" (pleasant handling when driven without a trailer) you are speaking about is nearly irrelevant to trailering stability. What I do think is important is the distance of the ball to the rear axle, and my impression is that distance is generally less on European cars than US cars in general. -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me) - "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation" https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1 - "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf |
#39
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
I think Mike was responding to the "primitive units" comment.* I'll just
leave it there... On 3/13/2019 9:02 PM, wrote: And the winner in the Olympics Of RAS Thread Drift is Mike C. However, I had forgotten just how funny that song was when it first came out. -- Dan, 5J |
#40
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Cobra Trailer Emergency Brake Experience
"...how many of you have had a trailer break away from
the tow vehicle and what was the cause?" My wife has thrown sailplane trailers 3 times (thrown as in had them completely separate from the vehicle while in motion). As I recall the first of her efforts was on the I-10 somewhere between Quartzite and Phoenix. The vehicle was an 18-passenger Ford van with the interior modified into a family camper of sorts. It had a step bumper to which the trailer ball was mounted. Unfortunately, the chains were also clipped to the bumper. The bumper was rated for a 5000 lb. trailer. I think a lot of our problems with sailplane trailers relate to their length and the resulting very high rotational moment of inertia about their axel. The loads on the hitch as the vehicle’s back wheels fall into a dip or go over a bump at high speed must be astronomical. At the very least, they exceeded the expectations of this particular bumper manufacturer. The bumper fell off. Responding to the resulting commotion my wife gradually applied her brakes.. The trailer caught up with the tow vehicle and the hitch, with the bumper still attached, nosed under the back of the van. The two vehicles decelerated together. There was no significant damage, except to the bumper, the mounting brackets of which showed clear evidence of fatigue. Good Samaritans helped park the trailer and bumper off to the side of the freeway, sending my wife on her way to get me. I didn’t hear about it until after I landed when she showed up without the trailer. It was a long weekend. Her second try was after leaving the gliderport, which is on a bumpy (washboard) dirt road. Just after turning onto the pavement the trailer departed from the tow vehicle, maneuvered off to the right side of the road, probably following the crown of the road, and pulled to a stop alongside her. In this case the ball on the tow vehicle was attached to a proper heavy-duty tow bar in a square receptacle welded to heavy bars which in turn were bolted to the frame of the vehicle. The tow bar slides into the square receptacle and is held in place by a lateral pin which in turn is held in place by a safety clip… only it wasn’t. In fact, the safety clip was nowhere to be found. I had hooked up the trailer at home hours before and I’m sure I put the safety pin in properly, but I am also certain a properly installed safety clip cannot possibly fall out. So there. Anyway, the safety chains were attached to rings on each sides of the tow bar so they departed with the tow bar. One of the other crews leaving the airport that morning stopped to help my wife hook the rig back together. They had a spare safety clip in their vehicle. Again, I didn’t hear about it until after I landed. My wife’s third attempt was by far her best. She’s driving a Suburban at 60 mph in the right lane of a busy four-lane undivided highway between Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms. In this case the cause of the separation was, as Charlie so aptly put it, “a worn imperial ball in a metric hitch”. I like that wording. It almost seems to absolve me of any responsibility for the subsequent events, despite the fact that I’m a mechanical engineer and the hitch had been banging up and down on the ball for years. The safety chains had fairly beefy cast iron hooks, such as are often found on safety chains. Those don’t work. They aren’t able to withstand a sudden, forceful jerk. The trailer turned to the left, probably driven off by the last of the two hooks to break, threaded it way across the other 3 lanes of traffic and wandered out into the desert. This time I did hear about it. I turned around and came back to land at a nearby airport. |
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