Caravan ABS coming

Not content with snaring the lion’s share of the Australian caravan stability control market, leading industry component supplier Al-Ko now has its sights set on introducing related safety technology into the RV market – anti-lock trailer braking.

In the two years since it launched its electronic ESC, Melbourne-based Al-Ko has been the lone local supplier of the device that stops caravan sway by selectively applying the van’s electric brakes when the system’s black box ‘accelerometers’ detects excessive sideways movement.

Many European and British caravans come equipped with an anti-sway control, that performs a similar function, but in Australia Al-Ko has cleverly wedding its ESC to its electronic caravan braking system, effectively locking other suppliers out of the market.

Al-Ko ESC is now an option on almost every caravan and pop-top weighing two tonnes or more and according to Al-Ko, around 50 per cent of Australian-built caravans are now leaving their factories equipped with it.

Al-Ko claims that by taking the fear out of tail-wagging, older travellers are likely to buy larger vans and travel further, while women will be more encouraged, and confident, to share the driving.

Some manufacturers and dealers are passing on the cost to customers via their option list for between $750-$1250, but many dealers are including ESC as a deal-clincher.

Since they launched it, Al-Ko has been lobbying behind the scenes for a form of ESC to become mandatory on towed vehicles weighing two tonnes or more, just as trailers of this weight by law now have to be fitted with an independent breakaway braking system.

“ABS (anti-skid braking) is the next frontier,” Al-Ko’s Technical & Manufacturing Manager, Rob Funder (pictured), told caravancampingsales at the launch this week of its latest boat trailer brake system.

“It’s the direction we have to head in and we are already well down the road.”

Funder believes that its trailer ABS could be launched in as soon as two years’ time.

“While it addresses similar issued such as trailer control, its quite different technology to our ESC, as we have to deal with a wide range of drum and disc brake systems,” he said.

“A lot of development work and testing is still required, but imagine the demand if you could assure caravan owners that their trailer brakes would not lock up on a wet road, or when panic braking on a corner or cambered road!”

Funder also has another idea for greater caravan towing safety that may not be as welcome to Australia’s many grey nomads: caravan licences.

“If you look at the average tow vehicle/caravan combination you have a vehicle with a total length of up to 13-14 metres and a combined weight of 4.5 to 6 tonnes,” he said.

“Yet anyone is allowed to control a rig of this size with no special training and many people who do this in retirement have virtually no experience to equip them for this challenge before setting off on a long holiday, often driving eight or more hours a day.

“Logically, some form of caravan towing test and an appropriate licence endorsement must be on the radar.”