Caravan Stabiliser

The short answer to this question would have to be no. We don’t NEED a caravan stabiliser and they should never be used as a replacement for careful driving and towing but they can add an extra layer of safety and comfort while towing high sided trailers like caravans.

If you are new to towing a caravan and have taken time to get all the parts of towing a caravan right then you should never really need a caravan stabiliser but when towing there will be external forces acting against you that these simple and relatively cheap items will protect against or at least reduce their effects of your caravan.

Yes only three, that is all it takes to ensure you have better caravan stability and one of them is not to add a caravan stabiliser.

• One Make sure the car you have is not only capable of towing the caravan but is safe to do so. Many small cars are more than capable of towing larger caravans but when other factors are included like high winds or steep hills then they are just not safe enough to be pulling something bigger than themselves.

• Two Load the caravan correctly. Heavy things should be ideally in the boot of the car but if you must have them in the caravan ensure they are low down secured and on or near the axel of the caravan.
  

• Three Tyre pressure. Sounds simple I know but you would be surprised the number of people who rely on the garage to check their tyre pressures, even on their cars. Before any long journey home or away you should the tyre pressures.

If you take head of these three simple points then you may be forgiven for asking why we do would we waste our money on buying a caravan stabiliser. While it is true that these three points will help improve the stability of your caravan while being towed there will be external forces that no matter how much towing skills and experience you have will cause your caravan to rock and sway. It’s these type of incidents that a caravan stabiliser was developed, so using this as an extra layer of safety is the best way to consider caravan stabilisers.

There are 4 different types of caravan stabilisers on the market but only two of them are really popular. There is the friction blade type, the tow-ball acting type, the trapezium type and finally the self centring type.

In general you will find the best friction blade types are made by bulldog although there are other manufacturers such as Staymount and Towsure who produce equally good stabilisers. The best tow-ball acting types are generally considered to be either the Alko Stabiliser or Winterhoff and although there are a few others on the market these two manufactures seem to dominate the sales. These two are the most popular types of caravan stabilisers with Bulldog and Alko just piping the others to be the most popular manufactures.

The trapezium stabilisers are probably the most underrated caravan stabiliser as unfortunately they are not suitable for some caravans. They also can be a little disconcerting in the way the caravan still seems to move about behind you although you feel nothing in the car. They way these stabilisers operate is rather confusing to us lay people but this caravan wiggle is totally safe and natural for the trapezium and the best way it was described to me was it acts a little like an articulated lorry, the car and caravan are separate forces acting together.

The self centring stabilisers are a relatively new concept in the world of caravan stabilisers. They work using gas filled dampeners instead of the traditional pads which gives them an advantage straight away. These stabilisers are made by Trapezium Developments who as the name suggests are the brains behind the trapezium style stabilisers.