Rear Caravan Bumper Bar Additions

[Chonga]

G'Day,

I was tail escort to a very large farm implement that required escorts front and rear. A caravan caught up to us and eventually we got him through on wider stretches of road.

I remarked over the radio that the van had a box, a tyre and a jerry can attached to the rear bumper. The whole lot was shaking up and down about 100mm as the van hit bumps. The lead escort said wow!!!. We both speculated how long it would be before it all broke free and became a safety issue to other road users.

The rear of the van is also the part of the van that is most influenced by road undulations. The undulations tend to have a whip effect at the rear. The further to the front of the van you go the smoother the ride is.

It is not an uncommon practice to bolt heavy items to the rear bumper. Often this is done without the necessary engineering to adequately carry the weight. The effect on ball weight is also an issue as the weight of the extras at the back will lift weight off the ball at the front.

At registration times the engineering of such additions should be certified by a qualified engineer in the interest of safety. The fact that the boxes etc. end up being outside of the original size specs of the van should draw the attention of registration requirements. Unfortunately engineer's inspections aren't cheap. I recently had one done on my tow vehicle and it cost me $550 and took all of ten minutes and an engineer that was stretching time so that I would think I was getting some value for money. I am now confident that I have not given my friendly insurance company a reason to worm out of paying out a claim should one arise.

Cheers CHONGA

[TeddyGQ]

We have a Generator box (2.0 Honda) welded direct to the rear bar as wheel as the factory fitted spare wheel and a 20 litre Jerry can holder. All done by the previous owner, fortunately an engineer.

I do agree though that some additions/modifications to tend to beggar believe on how they stay attached.

And, yes, it would be a massive out for Insurance companies.

Take care out there.

[Frank & Brenda]

After doing a lot of research, I had attached a LARGE box to the rear of our old 15ft Jayco poptop, the ball weight was still at 129kg and the van weight 1340kg fully loaded (BTW the rego papers said 750kg tare, it actually was 1070 ) and we never had a problem with towing or stability.
I did see one day though a Millard 15ft with a 250cc road trail bike on a rack on the back of the van, it was on South Rd Edwardstown in SA, don't know how it would have gone on the open road at speed, but it had WA plates on it so I assume it came across the Nullabor that way

[geoff&glen]

We have purchased a new Jurgens Tooradin c/van I asked about a rear bumper bar their response was NO fit one no warranty all I wanted to do was fit the spare wheel to it and my fold up boat trailer to it

[Jay&dee]

We have a 23 ft Coromal Princeton and I have had the rear bumper bar reinforced with addition steel braces welded back onto the under frame chassis of the van. Then we added a large Tool Box and a generator box. The extra weight from these to additions is now well supported the the additional braces.
The spare tyre remained in the same position between both boxes.
Works well and no sign of any stress or risk factor to date. I believe that it will last the lifetime of the van.
Jay&Dee

[PeterD]

Deer oh deer oh deer, how often do we have to post this article to show people how silly it is to add weight to the ends of a van. - http://caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/caravan-dynamics/

[Jay&dee]

Just my observations ...Looking at the size of the van verses the tow vehicle, I think it was an accident waiting to happen
Jay&Dee.

[Cyclone]

Interesting. The rollover as mentioned in the photo caption did happen. But that's not the photo of the accident.
Sid

[Frank & Brenda]

Deer oh deer oh deer, how often do we have to post this article to show people how silly it is to add weight to the ends of a van. - http://caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/caravan-dynamics/

One of the many times where the van would have gone the way of that article, IF it was unsteady

a small bit of our blog to the west

onto Ceduna where our holiday nearly finished, just on the outskirts of town, the road from Streaky bay comes in at an angle to form a Y junction, behind me was a big 4WD and another behind him, a semi, who had just caught up, bringing up the rear, a 4wd and caravan combo was approaching from the left and as he came up to the give way sign we both noticed he didn’t even look to his right and came straight out at about 80KPH!!! If I hit he brakes I would have worn the guy behind me as a haemorrhoid and the two behind that finishing off the job, luckily the road there is a lot wider with a painted traffic Island and I was able t go around him, horn blaring, and avoiding the van and truck coming the other way with both drivers rather pale and shaking their heads, I stopped in town and got out of the car, to express my disapproval to the passing driver, later in the day the guy who had been second behind me stopped at the same servo I was in, came to me and said any closer and I would have taken a coat of paint off the van.

The way I had to jerk the van around should have been enough to tip us over, but it was steady

I had been in touch with Collyn Rivers and had spoken to him at length about the box on the back
As I said
"After doing a lot of research, I had attached a LARGE box to the rear of our old 15ft Jayco poptop,"

there are many vans out there that never have anythin g go wrong with them, don't tell me they never drive in windy conditions

Do your reasearch people, and check your weights and measures, if it all fits, do it

[Chonga]

G'Day,

I started this thread with the view of highlighting the lack of engineering capability of the rear bumper to actually SAFELY carry the additional load. The scenario I outlined was of a heavily weighted load on a rear bumper shaking up and down 100mm. As you know if you bend a piece of metal back and forth long enough it will eventually crack and/or break.

My own experience came from the manufacturer. My van was ordered and built with two spare tyres on the rear bar. The wheels and tyres were 4WD types and weighed more than the single smaller sized mag wheels that were standard. One day I was doing the usual round the van inspection and when I gave one of the rear bumper spares a shake a cracking noise was heard. Took off the spare wheel cover and traced the cracking noise to a crack that had developed in the tyre support. The manufacturer fixed this by adding two additional support bars from the chassis and strenghtening the actual support brackets for the tyres. I dreaded to think what may have happened if one or both of the spare wheels and tyres had fallen off into the path of vehicles behind or coming the other way.

Van stability is one issue and debris falling onto the road is another. Forefront on everyone's mind should be their safety and every other road user's safety. In other words make sure that a properly educated person supervises the additional weight that you add to your van's rear bumper.

Cheers CHONGA