Nose Weight

[ProfJohnL]

Just a general note.

Some caravan manufacturers will quote a nose weight figure for their caravans, but it is only ever the caravan's ex works nose weight, becasue as soon as you add anything to the caravan (i'e Gas bottles, battery, flush water in the loo yet alone your personal effects such as bedding clothes food drink, unless everything is loaded directly above the axle which would be physically impossible , the balance of the caravan around its axle will change and that will affect the caravans nose load.

It is an essential part of caravanning or towing any trailer, the driver of the outfit is responsible for making sure the load in the trailer is not excessive, and is placed to minimise instability factors but also to create the necessary nose load for towing. There are guides about how to load a caravan, to best effect, but they are only guides and not prescriptive.

The nose load is likely to change every time you load the caravan differently, so don't think it's a one off job to check it.

Both the trailer and the tow vehicle will have individual maximum nose load limits. In every case if there is a difference between the trailers and cars limit the lowest value is the limit for that particular outfit.

 

[OnlyFoolsAndTouring]

Thanks everyone for the advice, it is appreciated certainly as a newbie. I'm just quite shocked the nose weight seems this heavy as it seems to go against everything we were told in the dealership, but I guess that's the way it goes in a sales place 🤷‍♂️

As per the advise, I've moved everything apart from the gas bottle and leisure battery towards the very back of the van (as over the axel didn't make a difference), by everything I mean our: sun shade awning (very light weight), two fold our chairs, small camping table, aqua roll, waste master, alko wheel lock, 22" tv, some camping gear (battery lights, spare guy ropes etc.) and this has bought it down to about 85kg from about 90kg's.

So if I go and add more weight to the rear to try and bring it down to near 75kg, my fear is will this start to cause it to snake with all this in the back, or will it be ok if there is 75kg on the front nose?

Thanks again all!

 

[otherclive]

Thanks everyone for the advice, it is appreciated certainly as a newbie. I'm just quite shocked the nose weight seems this heavy as it seems to go against everything we were told in the dealership, but I guess that's the way it goes in a sales place 🤷‍♂️

As per the advise, I've moved everything apart from the gas bottle and leisure battery towards the very back of the van (as over the axel didn't make a difference), by everything I mean our: sun shade awning (very light weight), two fold our chairs, small camping table, aqua roll, waste master, alko wheel lock, 22" tv, some camping gear (battery lights, spare guy ropes etc.) and this has bought it down to about 85kg from about 90kg's.

So if I go and add more weight to the rear to try and bring it down to near 75kg, my fear is will this start to cause it to snake with all this in the back, or will it be ok if there is 75kg on the front nose?

Thanks again all!

Sounds as if you’ve made progress but it’s impossible to answer your question because instability can be a function of so many things when towing a big lightweight bluff sided box. But moving stuff further back doesn’t necessarily mean right at the back. Just start my moving stuff little by little until you achieve the desired noseweight figure which is around 5.5% so within the recommended band. The car, it’s tyres and tyre pressures, suspension plus it’s load all have an effect on overall stability of an outfit. Plus of course the driver and their actions. What I can say though is that Lunars had a good reputation as caravans for towing, so it’s really a case of getting weights and noseweight to were you want it to be and then take the outfit out and see how it feels. If you’ve not driven an outfit before it will initially feel strange but quite quickly you get used to the van- car interactions. Things that will promote instability in a poorly matched or poorly loaded outfit are driver actions (speed, rapid steering changes) road undulations (tram lines) side winds as you pass cuttings, HGV bow waves and particularly car transporters, going too fast or overtaking at speed downhill, very fast high speed overtaking traffic. This may sound horrendous but these are things that experienced towers become aware of.

I’ve never had instability and a snake, but there have been times when I’ve become aware of increased car- van interaction and looking in the mirror the van was moving sideways more than was normal. So I just eased off and the outfit settles almost instantly. But my last caravan had to be weighted much more to the rear than previous vans but towed as well as if not better than some of my others. Now you are seeing vans fitted by the makers with rear external bike racks……. 30-40 kg right at the back end. So you’ve a way to go yet. From your pictures do you have a slope on the drive or is the vans hitch at tge same height as it would be when hitched to your car? It looks quite low at the front.

Good luck.

 

[Buckman]

Be very wary of adding too much weight to the very rear to achieve your nose weight as you may end up with the tail wagging the dog. Generally the guideline is that nose weight should be between 5-7% of the MTPLM of the caravan.
MTPLM of the Lunar is 1350kg so minimum nose weight is about 68kg and maximum about 95kg.

 

[otherclive]

Be very wary of adding too much weight to the very rear to achieve your nose weight as you may end up with the tail wagging the dog. Generally the guideline is that nose weight should be between 5-7% of the MTPLM of the caravan.

The OP is within the 5-7% band and the main concern is how to get the caravan down to a 75kg noseweight without promoting instability. That’s what this thread is all about because as a new caravanner that’s what is a concern. Hence why several posts have advised to carefully move load around from the axle rarewards but not to just put it right at the back. My last van could have up to 40 kg towards the back end if I included aqua roll, waste container, loo/ flush water, and possible holdalls and tool bag. But it always towed rock steady at motorway speeds. But when I first had to load it to get the noseweight down it too concerned me. But the tow cars were always well loaded too.

 

[Buckman]

Our single axle 2004 Lunar CSI had a nose weight of about 100kg. Our twin axle 2005 Lunar 640 was about 120kg and also our 2011 Lunar Delta had nose weight of about 125kg.

 

[otherclive]

Our single axle 2004 Lunar CSI had a nose weight of about 100kg. Our twin axle 2005 Lunar 640 was about 120kg and also our 2011 Lunar Delta had nose weight of about 125kg.

What noseweight limit did your car have fir the 2004 Lunar as your experience could be useful to the OP who is trying to achieve 75 kg limit on the car.

 

[Buckman]

What noseweight limit did your car have fir the 2004 Lunar as your experience could be useful to the OP who is trying to achieve 75 kg limit on the car.

It was the 1997 Volvo S80 2.4D so cannot remember and at the time did not belong to any useful forums as probably exceeded nose weight limit anyway. However it was with the single axle that we had a very bad snake on the M5 and we had some light stuff stored under the bed which was right at the rear, but awning was over axle. I now know a lot better. LOL!

 

[ProfJohnL]

...As per the advise, I've moved everything apart from the gas bottle and leisure battery towards the very back of the van (as over the axel didn't make a difference), by everything I mean our: sun shade awning (very light weight), two fold our chairs, small camping table, aqua roll, waste master, alko wheel lock, 22" tv, some camping gear (battery lights, spare guy ropes etc.) and this has bought it down to about 85kg from about 90kg's.

So if I go and add more weight to the rear to try and bring it down to near 75kg, my fear is will this start to cause it to snake with all this in the back, or will it be ok if there is 75kg on the front nose?

Thanks again all!

Somethings not right here. If moving all that gear has only reduced the nose load by 5kg there must be something else that causing excess of nose load.

May I suggest that if you have a friend or family member who caravans that you ask them to come and look over what your doing. Failing that the Caravan Club offers short courses on how to tow which includes loading advice, and some other quite useful information for new caravanners.

 

[Buckman]

Somethings not right here. If moving all that gear has only reduced the nose load by 5kg there must be something else that causing excess of nose load.

May I suggest that if you have a friend or family member who caravans that you ask them to come and look over what your doing. Failing that the Caravan Club offers short courses on how to tow which includes loading advice, and some other quite useful information for new caravanners.

I agree as putting over 50kg to the rear of the caravan should make a difference. Just moving our electric cable which is on a reel to the rear can make a difference. The further back the bigger the difference.

 

[bertieboy1]

Hello

I'm new to caravanning and picked up our first caravan ( a Lunar Eclipse 19/4 2014) a few days ago.

I bought a cheap nose gauge and it read over 100kgs, so bought another one and it was also reading about 95kgs, I've now used a set of bathroom scales which confirmed they were about right at 97 kgs.

Our tow car nose weight is the limiting factor at 75kgs. However, my problem is I'm getting this reading with absolutely nothing in the van, no gas bottles etc in the locker and I also took everything stored in the front.

So I'm confused as to why its reading this high, are Lunars well known for a much heavier nose weight?

Thanks in advanced for any advice.

One our previous van was noseweight heavy,we moved things (books dvd's etc) back towards the back of the van.It's amazing what difference this made.