Single or double axle caravans

Hi Shameem,
I am planning on doing the same trip. I have a 80 series and ended up buying a 17 foot single axle. It it nice and light(1100kg's unlaiden) and tows extremely well. I also looked at tandem's but settled on a single as it was lighter, cheaper and we found the van layout for the price we could afford(secondhand). It did take us nearlly 12 months to find the right van and ended up being only 600m from home. The van I bought is a coramal seka and has a slightly bigger pop up top than normal. This brings the van down to the same height as the 80(2" lift and roof rack) which I thought would help.
Hope this helps
Matt

My Rooster insisted on this one.

Our previous van was a small single axled wind-up.

Advantage - could spin it round by hand if stuck in a tight spot.

Disadvantages; stuff was tossed from one side of the cupboards to the other (we travel off the bitumen frequently), damage to fittings, milk bottles and cartons leaking from the bottom from the bouncing. I wouldn't even try and take eggs! His reasoning had more to do with safety in case of a blowout or losing a wheel, and general stability of the unit. There is also less thrust up and down on your tow hitch with the van stable on dual axles.

We now have a tandem axled caravan, and everything rides smooth. I am well and truly convinced.

I bought a tandem axle Concept Belmont pop top van a couple of months ago while on a holiday about 600km from home - hubby and I had been looking but this one came up while I was on my own. I towed it home by myself and hardly knew I had the van on the back of my car (Prado). It's 18' with a Tare weight of 1500Kgs. I had towed a single anxle of a similar size for a friend and from a woman's point of view - definitely the double. Also once towed a horse float (double axle) and had a flat tyre in a place where it was impossible to pull over, the double axle was a god send for about 10 kms until I could find a place to off-load the horses and change the tyre.

Check my post from last year re broken Spring
ThreadID: 33574

Also a Tandem Axle will give a better ride , more stability

Some people think dual axle vans are more stable than single axle models. They are definitely harder to maneuver at low speeds. However, at speeds of over 20-30 km/h the fore and aft wheels are too close to provide any directional stability. Both a friend and I have had single & twin axle vans of similar size - neither of us have noticed any difference in towing stability.

PeterD

I am about to order the smallest van I can get in dual axle - 15 feet . I want a dual axle because if I have a blow-out on the van , it does not "do me in" and because it will be more stable at rest.

The biggest downside for me is that the wheel arches will take up more space from the interior , which is a problem in a little van like this .

Cheers ,

Willie .

My experiences have been in very rough conditions the Dual axle set up can actually be worse, depending on which set up you have.
Rocker axle set up can , when hitting a large hole or bump, actually force the second axle harder into the obstacle & often causing axle failure. (single axle just rides each obstacle)
A round Australian trip we did some years ago we encounter some 5 dual axle vans with broken axles as against single Nil.
(But suspension set ups have change since then)
For what it's worth,
Fazz

Hi Shameem!
We have recently upgraded from a single to a tandem, bought second hand but in VG condition. Recently did +3,000km as a 'test run' before doing another 'biggie' next year. Fuel costs were very similar to towing the Jayco Penguin Outback (single), but stability when towing the Windsor Outback (tandem) was quite a deal better, and the van contents were not shaken around nearly as much. As said previously, manoeuvring at very low speeds is easier with a single axle van, but +99% of the time we are all going forward, and at slightly more than 2kph! To date, definitely the tandem for us. Good luck! WW

Tandem here for us as well. The advantages outway the disadvantages, well at least for us.

Cheers

D

We have needed to maneuvre out of some tight spots and have turned (3 plus point turns) with the 18' dual axle and turned in near as small a spot as the tiny single axle wind-up.

From time to time we read about caravans losing a wheel, and in one case with a single axle, it wrote off the van.

We had a 4 wheel trailer, and once we got a flat with a load of goats on board. We usually had the trailer wheels matched to the vehicle, but not on this occasion and we had no spare. Just took off the flat and continued the journey with three wheels.

As you say you are new to caravanning, before you take on the big trip, try a few short trips with different types of rigs - hire if you can.

Hi
shameem
Had both single and double axle poptops, when going from single to first double had a petrol pathfinder and used a extra 2 lts per 100kms. Had a 17ft tandem Windsor wincheater that tare`s at 1100kgs. By the time you load a caravan with gear on single axle every thing will be near max weight, which asks for trouble at some stage.
Cheers
Chass

According to my research on rough-road capable vans over the last year (will order something in the next 12 months) it seems that 4 wheels are better than 2, for both braking and stability (especially in the case of tyre failure). As soon as you get over a certain length and weight, the manufacturers switch to tandems anyway. If I was in that "middle" area, I'd go the tandem, because I'm a conservative, cautious old baby boomer (that's what we do :-o).

Another thing to consider with the single axle vs. tandem axle debate.
When I last lived in Sydney, there was a difference in the toll fee on some of the toll roads depending upon the axle configuration of the towed item. A single axle trailer attracted the minimum fee, same as if it was a two axle car only. A tandem trailer attracted a higher toll/fee. Once, a sympathetic (rare) toll attendent only charged me the minimum fee when I towed me 7'x4' tandem through an attended tollgate. When using an automatic toll gate, the sensors in the road do detect that I had in excess of three axles, and charged the (correct) higher fee.
In a further experiment, I removed the wheels from the front axle of the trailer and drove through the automatic toll gate, it obviously only detected one axle from the trailer and I was accordingly only charged the lower fee. However for the purpose of duping a toll gate, it is not worth the efffort in removing two wheels from your caravan.
I don't know wether this is still the case in Sydney, I have not driven on Sydney toll roads since permanately leaving there in mid 1995. I also don't know wether a similar sliding scale for tolls on towed items apply on all Sydeny toll roads, and indeed other states that have toll roads.
Now the above should not be the deciding factor on wether to purchase a single or a tandem axled caravan, but something to be prepared for if you tow on toll roads.
Can someone residing in Sydney confirm wether this is still the case. This was on a relatively new tollway (for the mid 90's) that lead West through Penrith into the Blue Mountains out of Sydney.

Cheers,
Dion.

Well, I don't have a caravan so I should not fall into the 'I have one of these so it must be best' trap. But I do have some experience with towing a variety of trailers of different sizes and configurations.

In my experience tandems are more stable to tow and have less tendency to sway. Four brakes is generally better than two. IIN a panic stop, or if a tyre is blown, I'd feel much better with four wheels.

Weight is distributed over four wheels rather than two, so less weight on each tyre. An example of this. My Hilux has a GVM of 2780. That's an average of 695 KG per wheel. The Hilux needs 112 load rated tyres (from memory). If you have a caravan with a quoted TARE of 1400KG, it is more likely to be 1500kg or more in reality (see above). Add all your stuff and you will be towing at least 1700KG and probably more. With 2 wheels, thats at least 850 KG per wheel (probably more). That's a lot of weight. I'd be looking to get that down to not more than 750KG if possible.

And finally, a dual axle caravan or trailer is much easier to load. With a single axle, load balancing can be difficult and changes during a trip can be hard to manage. For example emptying water tanks can change the tow characteristics quite a bit. This is much less of a problem with a dual axle.

Of course, there is a size point at which a dual axle will not offer enough advantages to make the cost worth while. People with more knowledge than me can debate the finer points of that one, but when I get a van, it will be around 17 or 18 ft and it will certainly be a tandem. 15 ft and below, single is probably fine, but dual still might have some advantages (I have an 8ft long 2 tonne box trailer which is tandem after all). Anything in between is a matter of judgment.
That's my view anyway.
Norm C