Hi all has anyone any advice, we recently bought an Abbey Melrose 1999 despite careful loading we cannot achieve a nose weight of 70g. With very little in the van and next to nothing in the front locker we had to resort to carrying the gas bottle home in the car to get the noise weight down to 70kg. This left only the spare wheel and two handles for the water bottles in the front locker in the caravan we had to move the bedding from under the seats to the bathroom we also placed the 2 water bottles and the waste bottle at the far back of the caravan almost in the bathroom. Even then we had to put a number of chocks that we carry in the car to level the caravan right at the back along with the jack and steps at the back door to get it at 70kg. This is our fifth caravan and we have never ever had this problem before. With everything where we would normally carry it in any other caravans it gives a nose weight of over 90 kg in the Abbey. I just don’t understand this. We even bought a second nose weight scale and it read the same as the original. Oh and by the way we even drained the boiler and water system to see if it would help. Any advice welcome.
what is the max loaded weight of your caravan? trying to achieve 70kgs seems very low is that more for your cars benefit or the caravan perhaps only having a max of 75kgs? perhaps perhaps giving a little more info would help but trying to place items at the very back of the caravan to "balance" things out is not a good idea, also could your secondhand nose weight gauge be faulty? try using the bathroom scales and a lump of wood way of measuring it just to be sure
Unfortunately, nose weight is something manufacturers dont pay enough attention to. They seem to be preoccupied with MIRO and MTPLM because that is what buyers look at.
Nose weight is a tricky thing for them to get right. The van wheels must be placed in exactly the right place. They design the van layout around the wheel position usually with something like the cooker or fridge over the wheel arches, then need a certain distance for a bed in front or behind and that must be on both sides of the van.
Only when they've built a couple of prototypes do they discover the nose weight is wrong. Changing at this stage is going to set them back a long way.
I'm not sure there is much you can do. I guess you have a chest of drawers in the front with flip over table. This was often an optional extra but seems to have a big impact on nose weight. Maybe you could remove it.
The spare wheel is heavy. That can go in a carrier underneath behind the door but they are awkward to get the wheel in and out of.
The nose weight should be between 5% and 7% of the van so if your van is about 1400kg the 5% is 70kg so about right, navver is correct a wheel is heavy so is usually better in a carrier under the van.
What noseweight gauge did you buy if its the spring type one with a scale sometimes they are not very accurate, a piece of wood on bathroom scales can be used but the height will need to be the same as your towball height. I invested in a digital one from Reich this fits onto the tow ball then you lower the caravan onto it, items can then be moved around as required to achieve the correct weight best £40 ive ever spent on a caravan accessary
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We had an Abbey Dorset 2 berth 1998 a while ago. Empty, the nose weight was 120kg!! Experimenting with loading I got it down to 90kg but never did get it any lower.
I agree with never. My Bailey had a noseweight of 103kg on collection from nes. The max for that chassis was 100kg. Add 2 gas bottles in the space provided and it was very nose heavy.
Does the Abbey Melrose have an end washroom layout?
If so then the toilet will be at the rear end of the caravan so you could try completely filling the toilet flush tank with water to counter balance the rear end slightly but don't attempt to only half fill as that can cause a bow wave in the flush tank. That's what I have to do to get my noseweight down to 75 kgs. which I can just about achieve. If I don't fill the flush tank I can add on about another 10 kgs. to the noseweight so by doing this it proves that it is achievable.
Quote: Originally posted by ash1947 on 30/9/2018
hi all and thanks, for those who asked the max nose for the car is 70 to 75 kg regards Ashley
Seems odd, normally a maximum is a single figure, not between two figures, I find in general too light of a nose weight causes poor towing, and too heavy puts the hitch too close to the ground, most caravans have both the A frame max and cup max at around 150 kg, so if under that, can't really blaim caravan maker, it does not need me to tell you how to make the nose weight less. What your asking is has the manufacturer made an error, and answer has to be no.
But with that 70 to 75 kg figure I would look again, is that the maximum or the ideal? But thank you I will go and check what my car is, since the tow bar has 4 holes so it can take a pin and eye type connector instead of ball, I suspect it is rather high, before when there were less rules, to help with high tow ball weight you could buy a combined spring damper which removed weight from the ball and put a resistance to turning to stop snaking, what I don't know is the legal standing of these old devices.
They remove 60 to 80 pounds from the tow ball but as to if the inspectors will allow that I don't know, I looked at the towsure snakemaster quick release caravan stabilised but it does not say anything about tow ball weight reduction, however fact that it lifts back of car up, it clearly does reduce tow ball weight.
I think it would be one of those let the court decide jobs, and I personally don't want to be involved in a test case even if I win.
Quote: Originally posted by ericmark on 11/10/2018
Quote: Originally posted by ash1947 on 30/9/2018
hi all and thanks, for those who asked the max nose for the car is 70 to 75 kg regards Ashley
Seems odd, normally a maximum is a single figure, not between two figures, I find in general too light of a nose weight causes poor towing, and too heavy puts the hitch too close to the ground, most caravans have both the A frame max and cup max at around 150 kg, so if under that, can't really blaim caravan maker, it does not need me to tell you how to make the nose weight less. What your asking is has the manufacturer made an error, and answer has to be no.
But with that 70 to 75 kg figure I would look again, is that the maximum or the ideal? But thank you I will go and check what my car is, since the tow bar has 4 holes so it can take a pin and eye type connector instead of ball, I suspect it is rather high, before when there were less rules, to help with high tow ball weight you could buy a combined spring damper which removed weight from the ball and put a resistance to turning to stop snaking, what I don't know is the legal standing of these old devices.
They remove 60 to 80 pounds from the tow ball but as to if the inspectors will allow that I don't know, I looked at the towsure snakemaster quick release caravan stabilised but it does not say anything about tow ball weight reduction, however fact that it lifts back of car up, it clearly does reduce tow ball weight.
I think it would be one of those let the court decide jobs, and I personally don't want to be involved in a test case even if I win.
you will find that most caravans a frames i.e 99% of them have a max of 100kgs, however the cars are much lower usually around 75kgs, its the lower figure you would use,
I struggled on my previous van. My solution was to buy a spare wheel bag and put the wheel in the van, over the axle, while travelling. It took less than a minute to pop it under the van once on site and improved the handling of the van considerably.
Much less faff than an underslung carrier if we ever needed it too.
A guideline is that the nose weight should be about 7% of the MTPLM, but the towing vehicle is another factor as in some cases the downward pressure on the towball cannot exceed the specification set up the manufacturer of the vehicle or possibly the towbar manufacturer.
In having same problem I've got a honda crv manufacturer says tow ball weight of 50 kg but caravan has nose weight of about 100kg in struggling to get it down also
50kg seems very low to me. I thought mine was low at 75kg. Is either the car or caravan new to you, as that seems quite a miss-match? All I can suggest is that you remove as much as possible from the front locker and try to relocate it over the caravan's axle(s). If you have a spare wheel, could it go underneath the caravan?
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Topic: Nose weight advice wanted
