Honestly this is absurd. These death machines shouldn’t be legal in europe. That thing doesn’t even fit in the parking space, even though the parking lot has the biggest spaces in the whole city. The Golf Polo is so small in comparison, it could even hide in front of the engine hood of the truck.

EDIT: It’s a Polo and not a Golf, I don’t know my cars, sorry for that!

  • @[email protected]English
    0•1 year ago

    I’d be surprised if the tongue weight alone doesn’t lift the front wheels off the ground.

    80kg max. That’s why you want a Kombi if you want to pull actually heavy loads on single/twin axle trailers (up to 3.5t, then it’s lorry territory), a Q7 has 115kg because wheels further apart than anything a compact could have.

    I can very well imagine that European trailers put much more weight on the wheels as opposed to the tongue, the US sites I looked at speak about tongue weight as a percentage of trailer weight, not an independent value. Here, 3.5t trailer, practically zero tongue weight.

    • @SkelectricianEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      Are trailers with that front dolly axle common in europe? We practically never see setups like that aside from slow moving farm equipment, or you’re pulling two or more trailers as a train

      • @[email protected]English
        1•1 year ago

        Not terribly, no, they’re harder to handle as in reversing is a bitch because of the additional point of articulation and a twin axle is plenty to transport a mini excavator and if you have a mini excavator you’re probably not towing it with a Golf but at least a minivan (Chassis. Could be a flatbed). If you’re hauling bricks then probably with an actual lorry. It’s a middle of the road solution. You also need a license, no matter the weight they’re not included in the default one.

        One application I see them used in is delivery of beverages, they can handle uneven weight distribution way better than twin axles, you don’t want to have to double-check tongue weight every time you take out a crate from the back.

        The “More weight on the wheels than tongue” thing is also about the placement of the twin axles, they usually are dead centre over here so it’s easy to position that excavator so it has no leverage.

        • @SkelectricianEnglish
          0•1 year ago

          I’ve pulled empty hay wagons that have a front and rear axle it starts fishtailing if you try to go very fast. They had the orange triangles on them, haha.

          I pull something like this https://cheyennecampingcenter.com/inventory/2022-forest-river-cherokee-grey-wolf-23dbh-bunkhouse-travel-trailer-439

          With a truck like this https://www.edmunds.com/gmc/sierra-1500/2011/review/

          comfortably on flat ground at 100km/h if there isn’t a lot of crosswind.

          We don’t really worry about calculating tongue weight every time the load changes because we tend to tow with vehicles that are designed with towing in mind and have ample power. I guess that’s the difference between German and American engineering, one designs things to be as efficient and conservative as possible, the other builds something far heavier and larger than what the average person needs.

          I’ll agree that trucks could be smaller. I drive 79 series Landcruisers for offroad use in a mine and they are tough little machines. It would have no trouble towing but they’re not considered road worthy here and can only be imported as offroad vehicles. We’re not hard up for space in North America so pickup trucks aren’t really seen as a nuisance here like I suppose they are in Europe.