Base station weight distribution bars
- Thread starter goldie24
- Start date
You have asked a question that will divide the nation here...
People will either use airbags or weight distribution hitches or nothing at all.
I use a WDH and love it. For me it stabilizes the entire rig as I drive down the road. I drove once without it and it felt as if I had to work harder to maintain that control which ultimately meant I was slowing down more often going around corners and slight bends to keep that control. I have also driven where the WDH was not set up correctly when I switched between my old 16 to the new 18. The tow ball side was too high. That too destabilized the entire rig.
So as far as I understand it, there is no legal requirement and no direction from a governing body in terms of what is required. I know there are car manufacturers out there that do / do not recommend them as well as the type of tow bar to use. So check your manual.
I am sure someone else will take you through airbags,
People will either use airbags or weight distribution hitches or nothing at all.
I use a WDH and love it. For me it stabilizes the entire rig as I drive down the road. I drove once without it and it felt as if I had to work harder to maintain that control which ultimately meant I was slowing down more often going around corners and slight bends to keep that control. I have also driven where the WDH was not set up correctly when I switched between my old 16 to the new 18. The tow ball side was too high. That too destabilized the entire rig.
So as far as I understand it, there is no legal requirement and no direction from a governing body in terms of what is required. I know there are car manufacturers out there that do / do not recommend them as well as the type of tow bar to use. So check your manual.
I am sure someone else will take you through airbags,
Welcome @goldie24, I use both wdh and polyairs which works for me especially as the Paj has not much suspension travel. Like Brad said would also depend on tow vehicle as well. I imagine with a base station it would make a lot of difference with ball weight and handling whether you had toys in the back or not.
If you were to do extreme off road where you get crazy angles happening between your car and van then you need to remove them for that part of the trip. The forces would be too extreme. But then you would not need them anyway for that type of extreme off roading cause you would not be traveling fast anyway.
For simple dirt road basic track type of stuff, leave them on.
For simple dirt road basic track type of stuff, leave them on.
Well, we did our first trip from bundaberg to kenilworth with the motto, the van felt a little unsettled until we checked the tyre pressure, trip went well, had an awesome week end although day 2 we went into amamoor near the mary river and just touched the bitumen with the back corner of the van very minimal damage but lesson learnt. seem to have trouble with the solar, plugged it into the anderson switch and no light on so not sure what the go with that was, it worked with the aligitor clips on the car battery, but we are getting there, next trip in two weeks to the beach at the sunshine coast
First time I have ever used the bars, I definitely need it for the BS, we have upgraded suspension in the cruiser but after a little bit of fiddling the van and car sit nice and travel nice. I have used them offroad too, not bad may need to back them off one link if you are in really tight places....
When we towed the 17ft'r with the Triton all we used was the airbags, then when we towed with the cruiser nothing. But the BaseStation is a whole different ball game. Personally I wouldn't tow the big girl without em.
When we towed the 17ft'r with the Triton all we used was the airbags, then when we towed with the cruiser nothing. But the BaseStation is a whole different ball game. Personally I wouldn't tow the big girl without em.
Yep the Base Station is a seriesly big Van, this is the main reason we went the WnP.
