Noseweight guages

[weejock]

Having followed another topic hear I started to look for a guage and came acroos one that fits on the towball.

Has anyone purchased one of these and are they more accurate / easier to use than the normal type.

Thank you

 

[stevieg330]

Hi Slowcoach,

If it is the same one I have (AM Controller Caravan Noseweight Gauge) then I have to say I'm not altogether sure it is that accurate.

For a start I find it almost impossible to keep it vertical when it is on the towball and I lower the hitch onto it. So I wonder if that alters the reading in any way.

Also the markings are pretty small so I find it a bit hard to read.

Next time we go out in the caravan I'm going to take a set of bathroom scales and measure it that way.

To be honest I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Thats my view anyway

Cheers

Steve

 

[weejock]

Cheers Steve had tried with the batroom scales but kept getting different readings depending on where parked so that was why I fancied the tow ball one. Looks like I will just have to buy the standard ones.

Thanks

 

[ProfJohnL]

I have looked up the details of the AM Controller Caravan Nose weight Gauge, and it appears to raise the nose of the caravan whilst taking the measurement.

Raising the height of the hitch reduces the down force, and thus it will give a false reading - which will be lower than the actual force applied when towing.

The description claims the design was carefully calculated by three civil engineers to produce a quality nose weight gauge. It does not say weather they allowed for the apparent reduction in nose weight due to the raising if the hitch.

If you adjusted the nose weight to give you your maximum available as indicated by the guage, when the caravan was attched to the car you would be in excess of your allowance and thus illegal.

If such a nose load gauge is to be used, it would be wise to down rate your reading so that you do not exceed your limit. the problem is how much to allow for the height difference, and the inherent inaccuracy of the gauges measurement system.

My purely gut feeling is that you should allow at least a 10Kg difference, so if your allowance is 75Kg I would load to an indicated 65Kg - unless anyone knows differently.

 

[alunhve]

This is an interesting thread as I have been considering buying this type of noseweight gauge

as I keep my caravan secured on a hitch post and manouvering the caravan to be able to use a conventional noseweight gauge means moving the car off the front garden where it sits alongside the caravan. As the hitch post is lower than the towball on the car I suspect that using the towball mounted noseweight gauge would put it at more or less the same height as hitched on the car.

Alun