Hi. I want to make my own nose weight guage, and have a sturdy broom handle ready to saw, but how long do I make it?
Many thanks.
Many thanks.
Making own nose weight guage
- Thread starter CrewOVtwo
- Start date
It depends on how you plan to Mount it. The aim being to measure the noseweight at the hitch height that the caravan will be when hitched to the car towball.
You'll get a very good approximation by just putting the scales under the jockey wheel and lifting all the legs - you could do a bit of arithmetic to make it more accurate, based on the horizontal distance from hitch to jockey wheel centre and hitch to road wheel centre.
When on the scales the end of my pole is the same height as the tow ball.
Works fine for me and is more accurate than my Milenco bouncy gauge🫣
Works fine for me and is more accurate than my Milenco bouncy gauge🫣
I tended to use a pole and scales for the first weighing. Then used my Milenco gauge to see what it reads. IE used the scales to calibrate the Milenco. After that I would there after use the Milenco at home or sometimes in site.
Unless a "calibrated " nose load gauge comes with a certificate of calibration and information regarding its limits of uncertainty from a recognised test house and a date for next calibration it is not "calibrated" in any meaningful way.
Tests carried out in the past have shown how inaccurate consumer grade compression spring nose load gauges can be, and in practice domestic bathroom weighing were also far from ideal, but were better than nose load gauges and more consistent over time.
Because compression spring nose load gauges by their very nature compress (shorten) when loaded unless by coincidence the load auge happens to match the tow hitched load height, the gause is not reporting the actual nose load applied to the tow vehicle.
For mechanical reasons the rate of change of applied nose load relative to the height of the trailers hitch, is not a linear relation ship, And the rate of change of applied nose vs height for a twin axle outfit is very much greater than for a single axle trailer.
To avoid the danger of trying to use a broom handle stood on the top of bathroom scales, use the caravan step and back issues of PC magazine to raise the scales to the required height to support the hitch. Always chock the road wheels and release the brakes.
Or use a hydraulic bottle jack on the top of the scales to raise the hitch to the correct height. (Don't forget to subtract the weight of the jack from the reading. - or some scales can be tare'd)
Tests carried out in the past have shown how inaccurate consumer grade compression spring nose load gauges can be, and in practice domestic bathroom weighing were also far from ideal, but were better than nose load gauges and more consistent over time.
Because compression spring nose load gauges by their very nature compress (shorten) when loaded unless by coincidence the load auge happens to match the tow hitched load height, the gause is not reporting the actual nose load applied to the tow vehicle.
For mechanical reasons the rate of change of applied nose load relative to the height of the trailers hitch, is not a linear relation ship, And the rate of change of applied nose vs height for a twin axle outfit is very much greater than for a single axle trailer.
To avoid the danger of trying to use a broom handle stood on the top of bathroom scales, use the caravan step and back issues of PC magazine to raise the scales to the required height to support the hitch. Always chock the road wheels and release the brakes.
Or use a hydraulic bottle jack on the top of the scales to raise the hitch to the correct height. (Don't forget to subtract the weight of the jack from the reading. - or some scales can be tare'd)
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