Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Peter Connan wrote:I could be wrong about this, but I suspect that by the time you are exceeding the angular travel of the standard hitch with a typical overlanding trailer (which tend to have fairly high centres of gravity) you might well be in trouble anyway?

Oom Mac (Kagiso) sort of half-rolled his trailer on Van Zyl's pass a few years ago. I could be wrong here, but I reckon if he had one of these couplings, both trailer and car would have ended up lying at the bottom of the mountain, bacause the standard hitch caught the trailer before it could get any momentum built up?

Peter -- in my case - no, it was almost leve ground where the caravan [Jurgens Oryx] toppled over -- because the one wheel went over a large rock on the track - Main culprit was the fancy Jurgens ALCO [ADCO??] suspension which was worn out.

Back to the coupling -- it was the normal "goose neck on ball" as we know it. After the "omdonner" he van was still coupled to Boezman - and after we winched it uprifght - it was still coupled to Boezman .. I just drove on

So I think the coupling as we have in SA is good enough for most any thing we can throw at our trailers -- I have the fibre waentjie -- it has followed me - Swaziland / Lesotho / Nam / Botswana / Richtersveldt / - And the XT 140 also has been pretty way out places

THUS - oompi thinks the standard coupling is O K - even for eavy off roading

Peter Connan wrote:I could be wrong about this, but I suspect that by the time you are exceeding the angular travel of the standard hitch with a typical overlanding trailer (which tend to have fairly high centres of gravity) you might well be in trouble anyway?

Oom Mac (Kagiso) sort of half-rolled his trailer on Van Zyl's pass a few years ago. I could be wrong here, but I reckon if he had one of these couplings, both trailer and car would have ended up lying at the bottom of the mountain, bacause the standard hitch caught the trailer before it could get any momentum built up?

Peter, I suspect you are right on the first part. A bit of reading tells me that many RSA trailers with overrun brakes have 360 degree horizontal plane coupling anyway and that some are capable of up to 30 degrees in the vertical plane. It is perhaps only when navigating a steep sided, deep narrow donga that more may be required? Even then, would it be an issue?

On the second, the other school of thought is that it prevents the trailer pulling the car over when the trailer rolls. Again, not sure exactly how best to consider the matter.

Kagiso II wrote:

Peter Connan wrote:I could be wrong about this, but I suspect that by the time you are exceeding the angular travel of the standard hitch with a typical overlanding trailer (which tend to have fairly high centres of gravity) you might well be in trouble anyway?

Oom Mac (Kagiso) sort of half-rolled his trailer on Van Zyl's pass a few years ago. I could be wrong here, but I reckon if he had one of these couplings, both trailer and car would have ended up lying at the bottom of the mountain, bacause the standard hitch caught the trailer before it could get any momentum built up?

Peter -- in my case - no, it was almost leve ground where the caravan [Jurgens Oryx] toppled over -- because the one wheel went over a large rock on the track - Main culprit was the fancy Jurgens ALCO [ADCO??] suspension which was worn out.

Back to the coupling -- it was the normal "goose neck on ball" as we know it. After the "omdonner" he van was still coupled to Boezman - and after we winched it uprifght - it was still coupled to Boezman .. I just drove on

So I think the coupling as we have in SA is good enough for most any thing we can throw at our trailers -- I have the fibre waentjie -- it has followed me - Swaziland / Lesotho / Nam / Botswana / Richtersveldt / - And the XT 140 also has been pretty way out places

THUS - oompi thinks the standard coupling is O K - even for eavy off roading

Thank you - that pretty much says it all then.