Hi folks,

On another forum someone has posted the following:

Quote:

We have a 2014 Bailey Twin axle towed with a 2013 Freelander 2.

In 25 + years of towing we have never suffered any incidents UNTIL travelling back from the Ardech on an Auto-route, fortunately up hill and no traffic and no side winds without warning there was a horrendous vibration and the car came to an almost stop in the inside lane of the motorway

I managed to get onto the hard shoulder & I had suspected we had suffered a blow out but car and caravan were fine ! ( we had been brought to an extremely rapid stop )

Then I realised that the ATC had fully activated ( I suspect though it completed start up cycle )

The caravan has been fully inspected and brake adjustment checked at the dealer and my Land rover dealer spent several hours checking the 13 pin electrics but couldn't fault the system.

How can I be assured it wont happen again ? The van and car were extremely stable and very lightly loaded and perfectly balanced with no movement in the van whatsoever and the road surface had been super smooth.

I have serious concerns as to why it triggered and what appears more dangerous is that the brake lights don't come on when the ATC is triggered and had an Artic been behind us the outcome may of been very different !

We have one or two suspicions, one is that we had travelled approx 470 miles so did the system do a full reset ! is it too long towing ?

We had some friends of ours with a similar van and ATC and they experienced a horrendous vibration and rapid stop and found a Renault inside their caravan totalling their van whilst in Europe ! now I'm beginning to think that did the car drive into the rear of their van or was it the ATC triggered that caused the car to go into the rear of their van ( completely inside it ) The driver of the car was very surprised at the time that it had happened and the van was being towed at 60 mph + so Im beginning to think had the ATC triggered on that occasion as well !

The interesting part is that they had also driven an extreme distance that day !

I wish I knew the answer but should the ATC have a way of triggering brake lights ??

I'm now in Limbo as Landrover says there's no problem with the vehicle electrics & the dealer says the van is fine ! but if it does it again I might not be so lucky if the Auto-route is busy !

Anyone else experienced this without realising that it could be the ATC triggering with full avengence or resetting

ATC is a completely independent system fitted to the caravan and only requires a permanent power supply from the car via the plug/socket. Any problem like that will only be caused by the ATC itself and if it lost its cars power supply it just wouldn't work. I suppose there is always a chance that a cars brakes could operate without the driver wanting them to but surely a fault code would have been logged.

I wouldn't want the ATC to operate the brake lights, imagine it doing its job and applying braking force to both wheels to stop any snaking and keeping the unit stable for crappy drivers or discreetly operating in very windy conditions for good drivers, it would be like flashing fairy lights on the road.

as EY says its a seperate unit so the electronic hand brake would not effect it

I am purely guessing as i have no manual for ATC in front of me, but if the ATC lost power, say to a loose connection, i guess it would just stop working, not apply the breaks, as that scenario would be the same as uncoupling it, the caravan then moves ok etc

the FL2 would have done this though, if the driver or his passenger pulled the electronic hand brake by accident, but they would have to have held it up also Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

If it loses power then power is resumed it will Self Test again, deploying the breaks momentarily, its not rare, I was stood behind a customer at our local caravan centre, he was reporting a similar thing happened to him, the ATC Deployed at 50mph and would not release, had to disconnect the actuator rod to get moving again.
No fault found when checked by Alko.

"We have one or two suspicions, one is that we had travelled approx 470 miles so did the system do a full reset ! is it too long towing ? "


of course it is , more vaner road danger woes, ban the damn things now At work
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"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

Could be an earth problem

thats right an earth problem,caravans on mars would be another problem altogether At work
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"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

You could be right if you put all caravans on Mars problem solved!Did not see CG reply,great minds think alike!

I think ad210538 is likely to be correct. It's probably been a power loss to the ATC permanent feed then a re-connection.
As an Alko trained caravan engineer, in my opinion, this potential issue is the main flaw with the system. Movementary loss of power then re-supply and it goes through it's self text - as anyone who has it will know it's a slow full-travel application of the brakes and slow release. I'm surprised reports such as this aren't more common.
As a caravanner myself I have always thought the system a little overkill. Some people claim it's rescued them from disaster and wouldn't be without it but surely with good loading and driving a hitch stabiliser is sufficient ? FL2 2007 57 GS
D2 2005 Td5 - gone and not missed
FL1 2005 Td4 - gone and missed

Rescued them from disaster, as you have said, good loading and driving, shouldn't have put themselves in the position of needing rescuing.

Ok......I'll ask the stupid question.

As a non-caravanner, I ask purely out of ignorance.........what is ATC?

AL-KO ATC Trailer Control System: "An emergency system, ATC automatically safeguards against many critical driving conditions by monitoring for instability and applying the caravan’s brakes as and when necessary to sensitively bring your caravan under control."
From AL-KO website.

The AlKo ATC is a very expensive fudge fitted to trailers and vans with a cheap breaking system. Should the trailer or van be fitted with a proper electric breaking system as in Oz or the US then this problem would never arise my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Spot on, the atc is very problematic, when i researched this system i could not believe the amount of problems people are having. As i understand it if the memory gets full it goes faulty, this is caused by long journeys with many activations (generally when going around a bend). If u get voltage drop or an interuption in power it fails. If your brakes are finely adjusted then yet again the system fails and am i right in understanding that the system needs 12 hours to reset, thats useful when insurance stipulates that it has to be operating if fitted.

I am glad i dont have this system.

You could not make it up ,

dont tow without a safety feature but dont buy the safety feature as it is dangerous,

I suggest its time to wake up and smell the coffee
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"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race