Anyone here using a Brian James RS3 trailer?

[DarioT]

Whilst in Spa last year i saw a BJ RS3 trailer like mine, but the owner had modified it to use a caravan manovering system (system which uses motorised rollers to press against the wheels and turn them via remote control to move the trailer)

i am considering doing the same to mine, as where i park the trailer on the drive way of my home can sometimes be quite difficult to reverse on to (when too many cars are parked near the entrance to my drive).

so if you are that person who has done this and want to share your expirences, can you give me a PM please or post in this thread.

cheers

Dario

[splitpin]

DarioT said:

Whilst in Spa last year i saw a BJ RS3 trailer like mine, but the owner had modified it to use a caravan manovering system (system which uses motorised rollers to press against the wheels and turn them via remote control to move the trailer)

i am considering doing the same to mine, as where i park the trailer on the drive way of my home can sometimes be quite difficult to reverse on to (when too many cars are parked near the entrance to my drive).

so if you are that person who has done this and want to share your expirences, can you give me a PM please or post in this thread.

cheers

Dario

Dario; Like both of us, Nick has a RS3 and I recollect that he was about to or recently had invested in something along those lines to ease manoeuvring; doubtless he be reading this shortly and will respond accordingly.

[nick997]

Hi Dario

I've bought one of these http://www.purpleline.co.uk/Hitchdrive/Main.html, fitting it on Friday before going out in the car on Saturday. Hopefully it will be good enough to turn the trailer by myself, will report back next week. They regularly come up on ebay, at £100 rather than the £££'s that the electric one's go for I thought it worth a punt.

Nick

[DarioT]

nick997 said:

Hi Dario

I've bought one of these http://www.purpleline.co.uk/Hitchdrive/Main.html, fitting it on Friday before going out in the car on Saturday. Hopefully it will be good enough to turn the trailer by myself, will report back next week. They regularly come up on ebay, at £100 rather than the £££'s that the electric one's go for I thought it worth a punt.

Nick

Nick do you think that will be man enough. i tried to weigh the downward pressure on the jokey wheel of my RS3 and when the bathroom scales got to 140kg i estimated the downward pressure at somewhere near 200-250kg.

it would be intresting to know how you get on!

i'll wait for a few more answers yet, but i have put in an enquiry to powrwheel for their chassis fitted batter driven version for teh rear axle. (apparently you can install a pneumatic jocky wheel and then use it as a tricycle to steer and move) we will see.

Dario

[nick997]

It's rated to 150kg nose weight plus an additional 150kgs (IIRC) weight on the platform - it's fairly substantial - so should be ok. My nose weight measured by a caravan nose weight gauge when the car is loaded (SR4) without jerry cans and spare wheels on the rack is 80kgs which is roughly where it should be for my tow car. Max caravan weight it is intended for is 1200kgs so roughly an SR4 plus RS3.

All I need it for is a three point turn in our driveway and occasional help with my awful trailer reversing skills - come and watch at the ROC day, gauranteed laugh for bystanders! If it's no good then it's going back on the bay, will let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Nick

[nick997]

Dario - hitchdrive wasn't overly succesful and ended up putting the standard jockey wheel back on. On my trailer the standard jockey clamping shaft is "ribbed" so that the clamp has something to bite into. The hitchdrive doesn't have this feature so there wasn't enough friction and the clamp slipped when trying to turn the trailer.

Movement backwards and forwards was fine but turning against the friction created by the double axles was too much and needed the front axle just off the ground. Ideal for a single axle caravan but not man enough for the trailer as you thought. Back on ebay she goes.

Have you considered these type of devices? http://www.shifta.com/shifta3/shifta3.html

Nick

[DarioT]

nick997 said:

Dario - hitchdrive wasn't overly succesful and ended up putting the standard jockey wheel back on. On my trailer the standard jockey clamping shaft is "ribbed" so that the clamp has something to bite into. The hitchdrive doesn't have this feature so there wasn't enough friction and the clamp slipped when trying to turn the trailer.

Movement backwards and forwards was fine but turning against the friction created by the double axles was too much and needed the front axle just off the ground. Ideal for a single axle caravan but not man enough for the trailer as you thought. Back on ebay she goes.

Have you considered these type of devices? http://www.shifta.com/shifta3/shifta3.html

Nick

I was wondering Nick on how you were going to get on. as for the shifta, i have seen these things before but the bum ache of where to keep it how to cary it with me etc, etc puts me off.

whilst i don't anticipate using a moving system away from home i can't rule it out. i remember a few years ago i booked a hotel in the center of Spa and the jolly chap on the phone taking my booking said whn i enquired of the garage " if you cant get it in there and turn it around, i'll do it for you"...... it was a nightmare and it was a much smaller trailer than this leviathan!

i'm still waiting for an answer from powrwheel about their system.

Dario

[chrissimp]

I have a similar difficulty in reversing the trailer up my driveway as the drive is uphill and the lane at the bottom is only single vehicle width which seriously limits the manoeuvring one can do. I have done it but there was a smell of burning clutch from the towing - or pushing in this case - vehicle. I solved the problem by installing a battery powered winch, as fitted to off road vehicles, at the top of the drive - in fact bolted to the floor inside the garage. This works well pulling the trailer up backwards, first with an A-Max 220 and now RS3. On the A-Max there were lots of holes in the rear chassis to attach shackles to but the RS3 needed U bolts fitted to each rear corner. It does need 2 people to operate the system; one to work the winch and one to push the front of the trailer from side to side to steer it as it goes up the drive.

On the subject of weight on the hitch, Brian James recommends that SR3s anyway are loaded front first so that the nose goes under the wheel rack at the front of the trailer. The weight should therefore not be excessive.

Chris

[splitpin]

chrissimp said:

On the subject of weight on the hitch, Brian James recommends that SR3s anyway are loaded front first so that the nose goes under the wheel rack at the front of the trailer. The weight should therefore not be excessive.

Chris

Depends which bit of BJ's website / brochure you read.

They say this on how to position a load >

"When loading a trailer it is absolutely vital that a POSITIVE nose weight is achieved. Loading cars of front-engined design means that the car should be driven up forwards onto the trailer until the tow vehicle's suspension just starts to settle. (Rear engined cars must be reversed up onto the trailer.)"

That means they think it's really important that a Radical should go on back end first ... except if they've got a BJ wheel carrier fitted towards the front when it
is suddenly OK for it go on nose first .... else it won't fit.... and they miss out on the sale of a wheel carrier?

TBH, with a featherweight Radical, it doesn't make a scrap of difference which way it goes on ..... some prefer / find it easier to do it forwards, others backwards !!!!!

[DarioT]

ive got the tyre rack, tool tray and secondary tool tray on my RS3 race shuttle so the direction of the car is predetermined by all that kit. but as has been said, it dont make a scrap of difference as the trailer is massivly biased toward the front loaded or not.

i thought i would play about with the loading of the ancillary kit which incidentially weighed (came to 470kg) and without taking the bloody thing apart its stuck that way and thats it!

[RedRad]

I travel my car front forward and the trailer tows just fine, a dream to pull. By the way, nice rear wing !

[DarioT]

RedRad said:

I travel my car front forward and the trailer tows just fine, a dream to pull. By the way, nice rear wing !

thats a point duncan, you pull yours with a 3 series don't you!

it it a 335d /335i touring?

if so you must have similar nose weights to mine, does it cause the car's rear to sag to the floor?

i'm pulling mine with a 3.0d X5 at the moment and need to rearange my fleet to accomodat my 17year old with a car.

if i could tow the trailer with the Coupe 335d then i am so sorted!!!!!! :-)

Dario

PS yes its a nice wing and marshy got the old one!

[RedRad]

Yes im towing with a BMW 330d Touring and its great. Looking at your photo you might be able to travel the car a little further back on the trailer, so the wing is only just clear of the trailer cover when you pull it down.

[DarioT]

RedRad said:

Yes im towing with a BMW 330d Touring and its great. Looking at your photo you might be able to travel the car a little further back on the trailer, so the wing is only just clear of the trailer cover when you pull it down.

Yes Duncan i can do that, and if i get rid of some of the accumulated $hite i tend to carr arround with me i can lower the overall weight of the trailer.

do you have a real idea of the nose weight of your trailer when loaded. by that i mean have you actually measured it?

when i got to the end of the bath room scales range i figured my was way in excess of 200kg if not 300kg, this is a serious concern to me.

is yours a factory towball?

[nick997]

I weighed it at 80kgs nose weight with just the car in the trailer and no spare wheels or jerry cans loaded on. That's with the SR4 as far back as it can go and still get the trailer to shut without hitting the rear wing - loaded nose first. Measured with a caravan nose weight gauge.

That said when I checked last weekend with 5 spare wheels on the rack it went above the 100kgs on the gauge. It didn't cause the car to drop down on it's suspension too much - S-Max tow car.

Nick

[DarioT]

nick997 said:

I weighed it at 80kgs nose weight with just the car in the trailer and no spare wheels or jerry cans loaded on. That's with the SR4 as far back as it can go and still get the trailer to shut without hitting the rear wing - loaded nose first. Measured with a caravan nose weight gauge.

That said when I checked last weekend with 5 spare wheels on the rack it went above the 100kgs on the gauge. It didn't cause the car to drop down on it's suspension too much - S-Max tow car.

Nick

thanks Nick, i think i'm going to get my self a gauge or one of those trick jockey wheels with the built in gauge. how do you get on with the 85% weight guidance?

[nick997]

Difficult one to accurately judge the true weight of the trailer and car what with all the junk that gets put in the car. Working on 800kgs for trailer, 500kgs for SR4 and 50kgs for 5 spare wheels gets to 1350kgs. S-Max is something like 1700kgs and I'm sure I put in another 100kgs with tools, lard arse drivers, jerry cans (should be on trailer really...)

All in all I think I'm safely under the 85% towing rule. But the main thing is I always take it easy towing after a nasty experience towing one of my race karts in a hired trailer years ago. Some 10 plus years later my best man who experienced the situation first hand remembered it vivdly enough to bring it up in his wedding speech for me!

[RedRad]

My BMW has a factory tow bar, one of these thats hides away when ur not using it.Im not sure what weight pressure is on the tow bar just know its been working fine for two years.

[splitpin]

Dario, I'm going to have to say what you know but would like/need to try to 'forget'? >

With a 6spd auto X5 3.0D (particularly the post 2003 facelift more powerful and x-drive model), you've definitely already got one of, if not the best darn fast tow vehicle in the whole World: as you know, absolutely nothing fazes it; with intelligent four wheel drive, self levelling rear suspension and active trailer stability control (if fitted with the detachable factory towbar), things like overall weight and nose weight are never an issue/never come to mind; it could tow a fully loaded RS3 with a Radical onboard at more than 100mph all day long, so pootling along at 60mph is an absolute breeze to the point where it is barely trying.

I've had mine from new since 2004 and I really cannot fault it; it can easily do and cope with everything I ever want it to/throw at it. It's averaged nearly 30mpg over 40K, can turn nearly 40mpg when not towing with cruise set to 70mph and still returns near enough 25mpg even with a fully loaded RS3. Have just changed the tyres for the very first time and am just about to change the front pads for the very first time; front discs are still OK, as are both the rear discs and pads; remember 40,000 miles.

Particularly now I've got the RS3 and the Rad, I really genuinely cannot imagine life without it ..... the only things I could conceive of genuinely possibly replacing it with at some point would be a Vito Sport X or possibly a GL420. But frankly, every time I contemplate it, it finishes up with why on earth bother when the X5 is that good.

3 Series are most definitely superb vehicles, but the X5 is considerably more strong, adept & accomodating for a Radicaler pulling his/her RS3 + Rad + all those bits we have to take along with us!

Pity you've got to part with it ..... boy, will you miss it! But deep down, you already know that.

[DarioT]

splitpin said:

Dario, I'm going to have to say what you know but would like/need to try to 'forget'? >

With a 6spd auto X5 3.0D (particularly the post 2003 facelift more powerful and x-drive model), you've definitely already got one of, if not the best darn fast tow vehicle in the whole World: as you know, absolutely nothing fazes it; with intelligent four wheel drive, self levelling rear suspension and active trailer stability control (if fitted with the detachable factory towbar), things like overall weight and nose weight are never an issue/never come to mind; it could tow a fully loaded RS3 with a Radical onboard at more than 100mph all day long, so pootling along at 60mph is an absolute breeze to the point where it is barely trying.

I've had mine from new since 2004 and I really cannot fault it; it can easily do and cope with everything I ever want it to/throw at it. It's averaged nearly 30mpg over 40K, can turn nearly 40mpg when not towing with cruise set to 70mph and still returns near enough 25mpg even with a fully loaded RS3. Have just changed the tyres for the very first time and am just about to change the front pads for the very first time; front discs are still OK, as are both the rear discs and pads; remember 40,000 miles.

Particularly now I've got the RS3 and the Rad, I really genuinely cannot imagine life without it ..... the only things I could conceive of genuinely possibly replacing it with at some point would be a Vito Sport X or possibly a GL420. But frankly, every time I contemplate it, it finishes up with why on earth bother when the X5 is that good.

3 Series are most definitely superb vehicles, but the X5 is considerably more strong, adept & accomodating for a Radicaler pulling his/her RS3 + Rad + all those bits we have to take along with us!

Pity you've got to part with it ..... boy, will you miss it! But deep down, you already know that.

yep, i do know what you are talking about, i once left Silverstone one evening and whilst going along wondered why the X5 was moving side to side ever so slightly, looked down at the speedo and was doing 90+, then looked in the rear view mirror only to be reminded that I WAS TOWING the RS3 et all.

the issure is that i dont have to get rid of it, its just that i wanted to keep the fleet at 3 cars and not 4. in the past i used to tow the trailer with an E270 cdi mercedes and that was not good. no self leveling suspension and always dragging its ass up the road.

if i could utilise the coupe 335d to do the job that would be best solution, i cant use the Z4 as that would be sill!

so it was an attempt to see what i could do and what other had done and still remain legal.

many thanks for your input

Dario