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Topic: Cycle Carriers -v- Noseweight?

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ben_notts

12/10/2008 at 3:54pm
Location: Nottingham
Outfit: Zafira 1.8 + Abi Celebration

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Hi everyone : )

We are going away in a couple of weeks and I am taking a carrier for the first ime (The tow bar type)

We put 3 cycles on the carrier (2 adults + 1 childs)
The manufacturer has set a max weight of 50kg for the towball and i believe that the total weight of the cycles fall below that limit (just!)

Basically..... How does the laden cycle carrier affect the caravan nose weight?

any advice would be appreciated

regards

Ben

David Klyne

12/10/2008 at 4:03pm
Location: Milton Keynes
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My understanding is that you must add the caravan nose weight and the bikes together so it seems unlikely that a towbar rack would be suitable, if also towing. I have the Witter tow bar cycle rack but my vehicle has a nose weight allowance of 112kgs so no problem. Have you thought about putting them on the roof?

David

neil and lena

12/10/2008 at 4:04pm
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I think the weight of the bikes and the carrier if it is bolted the flange has to be taken into the equation for your nosweight

MartyM

12/10/2008 at 6:15pm
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The actual reason for having a noseweight limit on the car is to avoid overloading the rear axle of the car, if you look in the car handbook in the weights section you will see maximum rear axle weight. Obviously if you load bikes onto the towbar you are adding even more weight at the extreme rear of the car. the only way to check is to find an axle weighbridge somewhere & weigh the rear axle in loaded trim.

You can of course load the caravan to decrease its noseweight to give you more allowance for the bikes but not a good idea as reducing it too much will cause stablity problems.

-------------
Sell my camper? I'd rather eat school semolina!

ben_notts

12/10/2008 at 7:46pm
Location: Nottingham
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Thanks for the good advice folks

Looks like I have quite a few issues to ponder

Kind Regards

Ben

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