anto44
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I was working for VW when the t5 was released, we were told that they do this when I did the technician training on the t5.
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stuvy
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willie.macleod
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Did anyone question this at the time? I'm assuming we are talking nearly twenty years ago, the potential implications of your vehicle trying to accelerate away from you at the same time as the rear end is all over the place - lawyers would have a field day with that. What happens if there's a vehicle in front of you, what effect does hitting the brakes have to the engine, in a manual what is the result of the calling for more power when in the wrong gear, in an auto just how fast will it go before it calls it a day trying to power out of the snake.....
I'm not doubting what you were told, but I am wondering if the trainer was making it up as they went along. Do you have anything from your time with VW to confirm if any major changes were made to their TSP over the years, I am interested in this as I was in a friends T5 on Monday for towing duties and to be honest if it did anything like you mention that would be very scary indeed.
The earliest mention I can find of VW trailer stability documented online (like LRs, applies brakes/cuts power) is a copy of the 2016 VW website on archive.org - https://web.archive.org/web/2016062.../technology/braking-and-stability-systems/esc
anto44
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I was starting to doubt myself about this so I had a bit of a look into this. It does accelerate to counteract snaking. This system only works if the t5 is fitted with a towbar from the factory, to be honest I've never seen one with a factory fitted towbar, factory fitted towbars were a huge money option so everyone just ordered the Van's without a towbar and got an aftermarket one fitted.
Another interesting thing these Van's can do, unconnected to trailer towing is if they detect they're getting close to roll over point is completely lock the outside front wheel causing it to skid reducing the chance of it rolling. I've actually seen that feature activated once while driving myself when I had to make a sudden swerve one day at high speed.
I can't post pics of any of the actual training material on here.
If it had been the rear it would probably be a different story!
it would have been easier to control a blow out on the rear end
had a sprinter tyre come off on the back near side years ago, it was no big deal at all, I pulled over, ran along and got the tyre and put it back on with the 2 bolts I found (other 3 were snapped anyway)
ripped the tyre place a new one when I got home, obviously hadn't tigntend them up properly
8ob
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Eric the chicken
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Three or four years ago we were driving through Serbia on our way to Crete. We were on a main road through the mountains, single carriage way like a British A road and a main route for HGVs from Greece and Turkey to Northern Europe. The road's since been by passed by a dual carriage way. Any how the stretch we were on had Armco on the right with a looong drop down to a river. On the left was a vertical rock face and the road was fairly steep down hill. We were following a Serbian registered Vauxhall Frontera (remember them?) The Frontera was towing a large flat bed trailer loaded (overloaded) with scaffolding. The trailer started to weave then ended up hopping from wheel to wheel. The trailer took the whole outfit across the road until the trailer's rear end jammed about four foot up the bank and the Frontera's front hard against the Armco. Fortunately there were no vehicles coming up the road and I'd stopped well behind as soon as the trailer started to weave. The Frontera ended up with its tow bar ripped off and only connected to the trailer by the electrical wiring. The road was cleared by three or four lorry drivers who manhandled the trailer off the bank and got the whole thing parallel parked and then directed the traffic past. Unfortunately no dash cam and no photos.
You often see as bad on the roads over there - there are several different ball mount (the wood bit) sizes, and several different ball sizes - all, I guess, an attempt to stop you towing too big a trailer on too small a car . . . except of course, the larger trailer hitches will drop over the small balls - just don't necessarily stay there. So you see some quite scary accidents about to happen.Anyone seen worse?
I picked up a ball mount in a Lowes, trying to find one with a couple of inches more rise to get my ball higher
and discovered it was used and comprehensively bent! You would have thought the rear of the vehicle would have been rather distorted too, from the amount of bend in it!
Farside
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I recall Audi making a thing (about 40 years ago) about their negative offset wheels which helped to prevent post blow-out disasters. It seems that it quietly caught on with other manufacturers over the years, and possibly was on your van. I unrecall if it was a factor on the wheel design of the MkII Tranny I had, or even the MkVI later on, but I'd not be surprised if it was.
Farside
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Hah. I was overtaking an artic when one of the trailer tyres blew. I accelerated sharpish, but if it had gone really pear-shaped I don't know if I'd have got clear in time.
AVI_8
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Yes and no.
Depends on circumstances, accelerating will reduce the tail wagging the dog, that’s fact.
But if it starts to happen just when you’re going down a steep hill you’re going to be going faster quite quickly with a situation which is likely to repeat itself but at a higher speed, that’s not good.
If it starts as you approach an incline absolutely I’d accelerate then use the incline to reduce speed, it comes down to drivers knowledge and experience to take the correct actions given the road.
Firstly never brake, if you intend to slow down depress the clutch don’t touch the brakes and make minimal steering corrections to keep things going straight, meaning don’t over correct.
It‘s drivers dealing with a situation which they’re unsure of with causes them to over correct which results in a jack knife situation or an excursion into the central reservation.
And by saying that I’m not at all saying that‘s what caused this particular accident, it’s just a generalisation.
Modern drivers who have mostly front wheel drive experience and even rear wheel drive experience with their active stability control babysitting them in general are totally unequipped to have the skill set to deal with a car snaking down a road let alone having a trailer attached.
A few months of winter driving in an RS 2000 or 3.0 litre Capri is very good tuition. Unfortunately it’s not available to most folk now.
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I remember exiting an island broadside in a Lotus Sunbeam, the driver heading towards the island looked surprised
