Urgent Nose weight Question

[Val & Frank]

I will pick up our Caravan in a couple of hours time and I am just going through all the checks etc that I thought I would need to look at. One has come to light that I need a quick check on.

Toyota Max Nose weight 100kg

Tow Bar Nose weight 130kg

Bessacarr Nose weigh 100kg The dealer who I just phoned said around 100kg for the Bessacarr. Am I right in assuming I can lighten this nose weight by adjusting things around a little ??. The other point is will it be less stable at maximum nose weight when towing with the Toyota .

I can still walk away from this deal at a cost of a couple of hundred pounds, should this nose weight thing be critical.

Val & Frank

 

[RichardS1]

Frank, the rule is you must never exceed the lowest noseweight of either the car or caravan which in your case is 100kg. You will find when loading the van you can influence the noseweight by selective placing of items, ie weight over the axle will reduce the noseweight. In theory a higher noseweight improves stability but in reality the average person will find it hard to notice any real difference between say 75/85kg. I would suggest keeping the noseweight of your outfit between 90/100kg this will be easily achievable and will give you a very stable outfit.

 

[Clive-Cardiff]

Hi Frank,

The Caravan Club say that the optimum noseweight is 7% of the caravan weight. If you are a CC member you can access the technical leaflet online, if you are not you can let me know your email address and I will send you a copy.

Your maximum noseweight has to be the lowest figure quoted for the car, caravan and towbar, in your case 100kg.

I'm not sure why you think you will be less stable when towing with the Toyota. I would think that at 100kg you would have an ideal noseweight.

When you think about moving things around in the van to achieve the noseweight, take lots of care. If you just move heavy things to the back of the van you can create a pendulum effect and your van could start pitching up and down alarmingly.

The CC also do a leaflet on the loading of the van.

I saw a Cameo at our local dealer a few days ago and it looked great - should be ideal with the Landcruiser

 

[Val & Frank]

Thanks Richard/Clive/Rob/Lutz etc I am just starting to panic on have I done the right thing !!. I intended to buy a smaller van like the Indiana, but the loss over a year would have been around 45% so her in doors liked the Cameo so much, we went and bought it.

Now I have to collect it I just panicked a little over nose weight etc. Tomorrow we are going to a CC site about 25 miles from home just to see how it all goes. We have taken out membership of the CC. I find currently that when I ask for advice here I can sort it out. The technical leaflets are a little to technical for a straight novice.

Val & Frank

 

[Lutz]

Don't worry, Frank. All the advice here has been good, only the 7% formula is a bit anachronistic. It originated in the days when there were no limits specified by the manufacturers and the owner had nothing else better to go by.

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Frank,

I agree with Lutz, enjoy tomorrow and I'm sure it will go well.

Our Eriba Triton (typically around 920 kg when ready for a vacation) has a noseweight of just a fraction above the legal minimum - about 35 kg - and it is very stable.

The Bath University research report showed that increasing the noseweight increases stability by only a few percent - that's going from the legal minimum to the legal maximum.

As a comparison, if you use a stabiliser (ALKO or Winterhoff) then stability improved by 15% - about 5 times that of the total stabilising effect of changing the noseweight.

Eriba Touring caravans are a special (or extreme) case because the very good aerodynamics, long draw bar (coupling to axle distance compared to overall length), and very low centre of gravity place them very firmly at the ultra-stable towing end of the caravan fraternity.

Your van will have slightly different aerodynamics, probably a shorter draw bar, and certainly a higher centre of gravity. A higher noseweight will compensate for these destabilising issues - as will storing heavy stuff on the caravan floor above the axle.

I would guess that any noseweight above 70 kg would give you a stable, easy to tow combination - it's probably worth measuring the noseweight with a set of bathroom scales.

If you want to experiment and change the noseweight to investigate if you can detect any difference in towing stability - just reposition the heavy stuff slight infront or behind the axle.

Robert