Nose weight and loading

[Ian_374359846]

I have been caravanning for around 30years including long winter and summer tours in Europe with no problems recorded.

I now have a 407 SW as a tow car which has an indicated tow ball weight of 65 kgs and a towing limit of 1500kgs. My caravan an Amara 500/5 weighs in at max 1460kgs. The nose weight limit is a problem because to keep down to the 65kgs I have to load a lot of weight in the rear of the van with ver little in the front bed lockers and only one 6kg gas bottle in the locker. As we all know having all the weight in the rear is not advisable as it can create a pendulum effect in certain conditions.

Any suggestions, can I increase the nose weight on the car to say 95kg safely?

Ian

 

[RogerL]

A "limit" is a figure which must not be exceeded.

If your 407SW has a noseweight limit of 65kg, then you must restrict the caravan's noseweight to 65kg.

This is a problem for cars with low noseweight limits but towing heavy caravans.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Ian

A bit of a dilemma.

Have you spoken to Peugeot Technical advice people to see if the rear end can be beefed up? Also can they recommend a method of strengthenning the tow bar mounting points to accomodate the extra weight.

Lastly you will have to check with your tow bar manufacturer to see what they can do to increase the max nose weight.

Your current tow bar should have an EU plate giving the designed max nose weight permissible.

Cheers

Alan

 

[Lutz]

There is no way of uprating the noseweight. It would theoretically be possible to design a fix to do so, but the manufacturer would have to test it first before giving his approval and it is doubtful this would be an economical proposition, bearing in mind the low volumes involved.