Noseweight Help !!!!!

[IanLea]

HI Guys,

Can anyone help / advise

Changed my car to x type jag 2.0d sport caravan is Charisma 550 dealer special, only just found out the nosewieght needs to be down to 60kgs,

Been on whattowcar.com and the outfitmatching is around 92% I am happy with that as I am quite experienced in towing

Is there any way to get the noseweight down to 60kg or can I run with my nose at 75kg with van loaded correctly

If not would spring asssistors help to keep the car rear up

please help !!!!!!!!

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi nose weight is governed by the lowest figure either car or van and must not be exeeded under any circumsances.
try emptying the van especialy the front locker and see what the base figure is then just take it from there

 

[ProfJohnL]

Just a bit more to what Colin has stated,

The nose load is statutory limit, thus you are illegal if you run with more than the limit allows. as the driver you are responsible for ensuring all limits are adhered to.

You always have to trim your caravan to aceive the deised nose load by adjusting the position of items in the caravan. To reduce nose load move heavy items out from the nose (with the exception of gas bottles and battery which must be carried in the proper locker) towards the rear of the caravan.

Some times it may be necessary to introduce additional balast to achieve the correct nose loading.

As regards the Towsure and other similar web sites and services, do not take their results at face value. It is known that most of these sites do contain erroneuous data which means that some of thier results are wrong. The problem is you don't know which data is wrong and it might be yours.

Its not difficult to do teh neccesary calculations, the trick is to find the relevat information about your car and caravan. For this onlty rely on the cars data plate, V5 documantation or the relevant hand book for your vehicle. In the absence of those check your the supplying dealer or manufacture by quoting the vehicel or trailer serial number .

 

[Steve L]

As John say's, you are responsable as the driver to ensure your trailer is within the cars tow capacity and correctly loaded to achieve the hitch weight of either car or caravan, whichever is the lowest figure.
I had a twin axle van that was very nose heavy. I ended up putting the awning in the rear bunk room lockers to get the weight right. It isn't ideal to put weight right at the back of the van but sometimes you have little choice. If you do this keep the weight at floor level as this will reduce the pendulem effect of swaying.
My current single axle van has a huge double fixed bed locker at the back of the van. It is very tempting to fill this handy cavern. But doing so reduces the nose weight to 20Kgs.
Basically what you need to do is follow the PC safe loading guide and experiment with moving the weight around. When your loaded correctly IE at 60Kgs nose weight. Make a plan so that you can get the loading somewhere near each time. Also don't forget to check the weight everytime you tow the van.