xtrailman

Oria Fridge Thermometer, Digital Freezer Thermometer with Indoor Temperature Monitor, bought from amazon. When not on tour I use it to monitor both freezers at home. Very happy with it. It also gives a local temperature reading which is useful.

The cable or link is suppose to break if the caravan becomes detached, its purpose is purely to apply the caravan brakes.

I was thinking the same. Test the hitch after hooking up by lifting the rear of the car using the jockey wheel, make this a part of your checks and its unlikely that you will get a detachment anyway.

To charge the caravan battery you need both a fridge supply and a permanent supply, so as mentioned previously check you have these before looking further. A solar panel if fitted will certainly help, so fit one if its not standard.

The gadget I fitted didn't work, it could have been faulty, in the end I wired a 6mm cable in parallel with the existing 4mm (which Sargent claimed was 6mm), virtually removing any voltage drop in the caravan, and I also took a shorter by 2m route to get to the fridge. Its defiantly made a difference as I now remotely monitor the fridge temperature and freezer from the car, but I need around 14.3 v alternator charge to overcome voltage drop in the car and the trailing lead.

So you carry out your weight lifting exercise on site before departure?

My cheap towsure gauge and bathroom scales bought read around the same as the Milenco, but I use the latter since I bought it. The ops idea isn't practical in my opinion, but I have seen the towing tests using something similar, but the Milenco is much easier to use especially on site before departure. My caravan NW always shows a different weight after a tour, mainly because the fridge is empty and the wine has gone.

Dampers make a noticeable difference towing with an Xtrail, towed a caravan with and with out, and the latter could have a very uncomfortable pitching motion over rough roads, but not sway. Tyres if I remember correctly were 215x17x60.

I believe Lutz has a degree in aerodynamics so probably has more idea about the subject than most?

Easy tee has contributed sound advice from towing with an xtrail, all you have contributed is stuff that has zero benifit for the op given his rig is NOT riding nose high.

I prefer a level ride height myself, but even then experience has shown that the ideal nose weight has to be found for each car. I've also carried out tests to determine what difference the nose height makes to the kg reading, it does change but not as much as you might think. Trick is to test your NW to around the height that the towcar rides when hitched, with my Tiguan it tows high so i place a wood packer under the milenco gauge. I've recently got my Tiguan to tow more stable running at max load pressure to the tyres which is 45psi to the rears and a 95kg NW, now's runs more stable. Not the original one's according to the above post?

T31 came out around 2008. Original tyres were Dunlop sp20 which I always found very good for towing, fronts would wear on both edges despite running just above the recommend tyre pressure. Rear overhang was longer than the T30 and suspension was softer. Two different cars will always tow differently.

With the 2009 xtrail I had it required 90 to 95kg nose weight, it wasn't as stable as the earlier model which was happy at 80 to 85kg.

Having driven a 5 pot xc60 and a 5 pot golf I wasn't impressed with either, just the opposite, same with the Subaru boxer engine. I'm more than happy with 4cyl. Is that inverted badge snobbery?

I'd like one like that, mine is the VW black painted type, I'd did have an Alko bolt on ball that didn't rust which wasn't painted, had it on numerous cars for years until it became too worn.