Can any body help with tow ball weight limit advice? I have an ABI Manhattan 490/5 (2000 pappilon. MPLW 1200). The van has been a god send providing most weekends with a little bit of sactuary for both my wife, me and our two children, oh yes and one in the oven. We have it sited at Bryn Gloch which is an outstanding site, highly recommended. However my problem lies with my new tow car.We now have a 307sw HDI90. According to tow safe its a good match for the van in terms of the Max tow limit 80% and Kerb weight 86%. However the towbar match is a wopping 140%. Am i still safe to tow with this high towball match. We are both teachers so the summer regulary means five weeks in the south of france and i would go insane if this was out of the question. I do use a bull dog stabliser but would be greatful of any other advice and guidance.
tow ball nightmare
- Thread starter loftyboy
- Start date
Hi Tony, are you sure on your 145%?. Peugeot 307SW HD190 has a kerb weight of 1390kgs and a max towball weight of 60kgs. If your ABBI's MTPLM is 1200kgs towball weight is advised as 7% = 84kgs some 40% up on maximum advised. Does seem that Peugeot's advised 60kgs is a bit a light side and could present a problem with rear suspension. Regards Graham
Tony, Can you explain the 140%? Do you mean the nose weight of the van, as measured by yourself rady for the road, is above the car or towbar limit or that the noseweight is above the caravan manufacturers upper limit? In either case you can propably get within the limit by some careful redistribution of the items you carry in the front locker. Don't despair I'm sure it can be sorted.
go ahead enjoy your caravan if towsure say its ok go for it dont get to technical with numbers keep your nose weight about 75k have a happy holiday
Tony, I am sure there is help for you but perhaps you need to explain your problem a little bit more clearly. When you say, "However the towbar match is a wopping 140%," it isn't quite clear what you mean. Graham correctly points out that the Peugeot recommended towball weight (the weight that the caravan puts on the towball) is 60Kg. Are you saying that your caravan puts a weight of 144Kg on the towball??? If so, your van is very badly loaded. Or do you mean that the towball weight is 84Kg - about 7% the weight of your carravan? If this is the case then not all is lost. You will need to redistribute the loading of the caravan and, in particular, double-check what is in the front locker and ask if it needs to be there. I moved my spare wheel from the front locker to an under-floor carrier and immediately lost about 10Kg noseweight. Some people carry two heavy Calor Gas containers in the front locker but it would be much lighter to carry two Camping Gaz cannisters. Is there anything that can come out of the locker and be carried in the car instead? Double check under the bunks and make sure that the heavier items are closer to the axle than they are to the front of the van. Get yourself a noseweight guage (or a piece of wood and a pair of bathroom scales) and experiment. I'm sure you will be able to get closer to the 60Kg mark than you appear to be at the moment.
Hello Tony, I dont quite follow your % figures however the law is absolute. If the car manufacturer states a maximum tow ball load of 60Kg, if you load above this figure you will be illegal and your insurance will be invalid. keep the imposed load below this figure.
dont understand your post fully and suspect you may be pulling the you know what. however incase you are not here is my experience of the towsure data, with my last car the data was incorrect, the car kerb weight was wrong! so it followed all the calculations were also. ignore it find out your car kerb weight try to work to 85%, do not exceed the car man' max tow weight or the 60kg nose weight, which by the way from experience is perfectly ok for a well balance van of your weight, the 7% is a ideal, quite often an impossible figure for many cars rear suspension, hence the move to a xtrail in my case to get a max 100kg nose weight option.
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