Camber of road at driveway scrapes steadies

[terryr]

Hi guys

I have been putting up with this for nearly 25 years and now my wife has had enough. When we return from a trip I have to reverse the van into our drive. We live in a hilly area where the camber of the road at our drive is considerable (no kirb). At the pont where the vans wheels are in the gutter the back steadies scrape on our drive. We have tried putting down plamks of wood etc to lift the van with very limited success. Any ideas out there apart from digging up my drive?

Thanks again
Terryr

[Graham (Ponty)]

Hi Terry,

It might help if you could post some pictures so we can have a look at the problem.

[Abbeyman]

Dont you have a mover?
If you had one, you could set the A-frame right down on the jockey wheel; lifting the rear end up! that will help. Even a jockey wheel type would allow you to lower the front of the caravan somewhat, maybe just enough to keep that steady from touching the ground.
But with out pics its hard to say. Is the gutter deep? you could make a suitably shaped block of wood to keep the wheel up.
just a couple of ideas i thought i'd throw in!

What about the angle of attack? are you at an angle when its at this point? maybe a change of the angle might help! either the angle that the caravan is on as it reaches this point, or getting the car and caravan straight as you go to reverse in?

[terryr]

Hi guys, thanks

I will take some pics today and post them, though I am not sure howto do it

Terryr

[Craig & Sue]

I have a similar problem with one side. Driver side wheels on the drive, off side go up the kerb later because I back in on an angle to start. I have a 3' strip of checker plate that I put a shaped wooden block under to give it a gradual lift, now no rubbing. I've also had the same problem leaving some servo's after filling up. Next van will have 6" chassis rails and 15" wheels insteat of 4" and 14".

[Rikijohn]

Yes there is not a lot you can do other than Craigs comments above where you raise the blocks more than you are doing . The other thing that helps if the width of the driveway allows, is to pass over the gutter area on an angle just enough to get one wheel climbing out of the kerb/ gutter while the other one enters.

[Surfer01]

Originally Posted by Abbeyman

Dont you have a mover?
If you had one, you could set the A-frame right down on the jockey wheel; lifting the rear end up! that will help. Even a jockey wheel type would allow you to lower the front of the caravan somewhat, maybe just enough to keep that steady from touching the ground.
But with out pics its hard to say. Is the gutter deep? you could make a suitably shaped block of wood to keep the wheel up.
just a couple of ideas i thought i'd throw in!

What about the angle of attack? are you at an angle when its at this point? maybe a change of the angle might help! either the angle that the caravan is on as it reaches this point, or getting the car and caravan straight as you go to reverse in?

If it is that steep, I doubt whether a motor mover would be any good.

[beejay]

Originally Posted by Craig & Sue

I have a similar problem with one side......
Next van will have 6" chassis rails and 15" wheels insteat of 4" and 14".

Will that help?
The axle will still be mounted below the bottom flange of the chassis so the ground to stub axle dimension will not change. Owing to the aspect ratios of suitable tyres there may be no gain or even a loss of height by changing from 14" to 15" wheels!!.

As an example:
185 x 14 radius 12.8"
195/60 x 15 radius 12.1 " .......a loss of 0.7"
195/70 x 15 radius 12.9"....... a gain of 0.1"
205/65 x 15 radius 12.7"........a loss of 0.1"

[Craig & Sue]

Hi beejay, I understand what your saying but its the rails that make the difference.
The tyres on mine are 195R14C8PR LT with a profile of 5". Most vans here use light truck tyres for the weight. Diam 13".( Pic 1)
The bearers that the floor and frame are mounted to are on 4" rails ( Pic 2,3 )
Having 6" rails, which is an option when you get one built, you have lifted the van and corner steadies 2",so now they don't hit the ground and by going to 15" rims and tyres to suit, they fill the guards. ( Pic 4,5 )

[DaveA]

Originally Posted by Surfer01

If it is that steep, I doubt whether a motor mover would be any good.

With a motor mover you could maybe, move the van forward up the drive and park van other way round, if that's possible.