How to fix a floaty tow vehicle

After a few trips away in my 2020 Ford Everest, I decided that the suspension just wasn’t up to the job of towing my Jayco caravan, so what to do? Upgrade the vehicle or merely the suspension?

When I first bought the Everest it was with one main job in mind – to tow my caravan. That was its job, it sole raison d’etre if you will.

Previously, I’d had a Holden VF Commodore and that towed my old pop-top no problems, but after upgrading to a larger caravan with a bit more weight, I thought an upgrade of vehicle was necessary.

With a maximum quoted towing weight of 3100kg, I thought the Everest would make easy work towing my single-axle Jayco van which has a GVM of around 2000kg and a ball weight of just over 200kg.

The specifications of the Everest are, on paper, perfect for the job. It has a 2.0 litre bi-turbo engine with 500Nm of torque, a ten-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive and plenty of room in the back for all of my stuff when touring.

When I first picked it up, the Everest impressed me. It was powerful, very quiet on the road and had heaps of grunt. I was itching to get it out on the road to test out its towing capability.

My first trip away was a quick blast from Melbourne up to Moama on the Murray River, and overall I was impressed with the performance of the rig. I could happily cruise on the speed limit and have plenty of mumbo for overtaking trucks and the like – but it seemed a bit floaty…

I was getting reasonable fuel economy at about 14-15 litres/100km and was happy with the comfort levels, but still something wasn’t quite right.

My second trip with the van on the back was more disconcerting. Whether the suspension was a bit more run-in or whether I was more attuned to it, I don’t know, but we were heading down to Gippsland and the road down that way is worse than going north so that may have had something to do with it... the Everest wasn’t doing well.

It seemed to be sagging in the rear and sitting up and floating in the front-end. Rebound damping was atrocious and the springing seemed too soft. It was clear that it needed some help...

Rear end upgrades

I’ve played with the suspension on four-wheel drive vehicles I’ve owned in the past and I figured that the least I needed was some airbags in the rear.

I rang around some old 4WD buddies and got their opinions and came to the conclusion that I really had to junk the whole suspension and start again. You can’t really mix and match with suspension systems; it's best to have it all mated so it works in unison. You can’t have the shocks doing the job of the springs and vice versa. So I went looking...

I’ve known of 4WD suspension specialists Tough Dog for decades, and know that they’re an Aussie company and sell kits for our conditions.

So I gave my old mate John a call, and was glad I did because he started asking me questions about what I wanted – on-road or off-road use? Any bull bar or winch on the front? How heavy was my van? What’s the ball weight? (Luckily I’d just had the ball weight measured – you can’t trust what’s on the compliance plate!)

I told him that I wanted a comfortable set-up for around town, and that my serious off-road days were behind me. I wanted the ability to haul my van without it wallowing and me having to chase the front-end all over the road.

He said that he knew exactly what I needed and so I went with Tough Dog.

In the workshop

The Tough Dog system I chose comprises new springs front and rear, new dampers and a set of airbags for the rear of the vehicle.

The chosen system was a comfort system that would be great around town with non-adjustable shocks – you can get fully adjustable shocks and a higher and more serious set-up for extreme off-roading, but that wasn’t for me.

Tough Dog sent the kit down to my local TJM outlet in the Melbourne suburb of Pakenham and the boys there did a fantastic job of fitting it all up and getting me a full wheel alignment as part of the deal.

They asked me where I wanted the valves for the airbags and did a really neat fitment of those in the rear bumper. I dropped the vehicle off in the morning and it was right to go by the same afternoon.

On the road

The new suspension was fitted just in time for our annual holiday from Melbourne up to Queensland, and what a difference! The Everest sat flatter on the road with the van behind; it didn’t sag in the rear or poke its nose up at the front so as to blind other drivers with my headlights at night.

Gone was the ‘floating’ at the front end, and the whole rig seemed to work well. Cornering felt more stable as well, and it made for a more relaxing drive.

I did some measurements and found that I have slight lift all round of about 4-5cm. I used to get a sag of about 4cm in the rear when the van went on and the front actually used to come up.

I now have a measurement with the van on of 93cm from the ground to the guard in the rear and about 95cm in the front. But I can adjust the airbags to bring the rear of the vehicle up.

I’m currently running around 5psi when I’m running around town and 10-15psi when towing which I find comfortable.

Summing up

One thing that this exercise has shown me is that not much has changed in the 35 years since I have been in this industry – the standard of suspension in most of the vehicles we use for towing in this country is poor.

In my opinion, if you're going to be towing anything around two tonnes or more, get a decent suspension for your vehicle. It might cost a few bucks depending on what you choose to add or replace, but it will most likely be more comfortable, and result in a less stressful and, above all else, safer drive.