avondale dart 556/6, what towcar do you use?

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

what towcar do you use with your avondale dart, or what could we use with ours?

thanks

 

[Nigeeandjojo_5041182]

hi jo anne

we also have a avondale dart 556/6 (2005) we bought her brand new from reads caravans blackburn(very helpful place) and when we picked her up she was our first van so we decided to book up at blackpool 4 a couple of nights to get used to her we towed with a ford mondeo 2.0 ghia petrol w(2000)model she towed like a dream on the way home we encountered rain hale and snow and it was late at nightabout 8ish took us about 4 hours to gethome about 180miles but she carried n as if it was a fine sunny day.we have now replaced the mondeo and got a renault espace because of growing family it is a fantastic towcar worth a look tows like a dream overtakes in fifth most of time on motorway hope this helps ualso if you get the 7seater you can take out the 5 rear seats for more room also the front 2 seats are captain seats which can swivel round so u can use the car while havin a pick nik.good luck with your new van and hope you have as much enjoyment with yours that weve had with ours

mr noodles

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

hi mark and jayne, thanks for the info. i just wanted to ask you the nose weight of the van is 91 fully loaded so how do you manage to tow it with the mondeo and renault when the max weight you should put onto the tow bar of a renault and mondeo is 60 - 75 ( how do you manage to get the nose weight down to that, please tell me your secret). i know the cars can tow that weight but the avondales are so nose heavy there are only a few vehicles than can carry that nose weight.

we had a 307 sw 2.0 hdi that could more than tow the van but the max tow bar weight that you could put on the back of the car was i think 72. so the car went and we bought a 4 x 4 for safety and insurance reasons.

the dealers screens even tell you they are a good match but its the nose weight thing again.

i even phoned up the caravan club last week to see what other cars could tow my 556/6 they said a seat alhambra and a vw sharan or a 4 x 4 because they are so nose heavy.

they even sent me a full list of max tow ball weights on every car possible, i was shocked.

thanks

jo-anne

 

[busman1]

hi jo anne,

we recently bought a new dart 545-4 which also has a very heavy nose, I found that by removing the gas bottles from the side locker and stowing the awning and some heavy bags just behind the axle carrying nothing at all in the front that I got the nose down to 70-75kg toing with a mondeo tdci 2 ltr hatchback.

We have just returned from a 1200 mile round trip and did not have any problems with stability

will

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Jo-anne,

It is you that has control over the nose-weight of your caravan - more careful loading will solve the problem of excessive nose-weight.

For instance, let us suppose that your caravan has an empty nose-weight of 50 kg and you pack in another 50 kg of stuff, then if correctly loaded over the axle you would still have a nose-weight of 50 kg.

But if you stuffed all 50 kg in the front locker, then the nose-weight would approach 100 kg. Similarly, packing it all in the rear of the van would reduce the nose-weight to almost zero.

Put simply, nose-weight has very little to do with the dealer or the manufacturer, but a great deal to do with how you place stuff in the caravan.

Robert

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

theres only a few tools in the front locker nothing really heavy. we put stuff under the dinette seats and stuff including the awning on the bunks. theres sleeping bags under the front seats but thats it.

we would love to go back to a car or mpv. our last trip to cornwall we did 1600 miles and used 350 of diesel.

the caravan club have said the only mpv that would carry our nose weight is a alahambra or sharan as the towbar weight is 85 and we could lose the 6 as our nose weight fully loaded is 91

 

[Jo-AnneFairway5402010]

theres only a few tools in the front locker nothing really heavy. we put stuff under the dinette seats and stuff including the awning on the bunks. theres sleeping bags under the front seats but thats it.

we would love to go back to a car or mpv. our last trip to cornwall we did 1600 miles and used 350 of diesel.

the caravan club have said the only mpv that would carry our nose weight is a alahambra or sharan as the towbar weight is 85 and we could lose the 6 as our nose weight fully loaded is 91

the awning, chairs, tables, etc etc are all on the rear bunks.

 

[Nigeeandjojo_5041182]

the awning, chairs, tables, etc etc are all on the rear bunks.

your awning if like ours is quite heavy, as such should be as low as possible and over the axle,caravan publications show a guide for loading which you might find useful, lightweight only at each end, heavy weights low and central, dont forget to load evenly across the axle as well as front to back, check the nose weight and make very small adjustments one at a time keeping to loading principles and you wont have a problem. never had a problem that meant we had to move gas bottles, surely their proper locker is the safest way to transport them. happy hols.