If it's within the noseweight limit of your vehicle I would say yes. In my opinion it's always better to have slightly too much noseweight than slightly too little, as long as you don't overload the vehicle you are towing with. Too little noseweight can lead to an unstable tow and snaking.
If the recommended noseweight for the Rapido is 75 and you are currently at 80 I would leave it at that. It's ok to go a little over as long as the car can take it as yours clearly can, but I wouldn't go too much over.
Definitely don't go under. When I brought my current caravan home from the dealer I bought it from I just hooked up and drove off. It must have been too light as every time anything went past it swayed. Once I'd loaded all my usual bits and pieces in at home, and set the nosweight correctly, it towed like a dream. I was glad that dealer wasn't very far from home.
There are 3 'Nose Weight' figures to consider:
1) The vehicle will have a max figure
2) The Tow Bar itself will have a max figure
3) The trailer chassis/tow hitch will have a max figure
You should not exceed the LOWEST of the three figures!
In a great many cases for ordinary cars and/or modest caravans they don't differ that much, so it's easy to overload ALL of them! As bare bones factory supplied, my caravan exceeds it's own chassis figure! - only when I carefully load it does it fall within permitted limit, then I have to reach the even lower car tow bar limit!
From an engineers point of view, whilst an extra 5Kg doesn't sound much, it's actually an extra 7% load over and above the max permitted figure. There will be a safety margin for overload built into the equipment, and that is likely to be substantial, but that can come into play accounting for wear and tear, corrosion, degradation of materials over time with things like age enbrittlement due to many flexing cycles etc. AND the accelerated degradation from previous overloading! Overloading is a bit like a parachutist jumping out of a plane knowing his main chute is a bit iffy, but it's OK he's always got his emergency one to fall back on! .... doesn't sound quite so appealing or insignificant then, once your safety margin (emergency chute) also starts to be degraded, where do you go then!!!!! .... SPLAT in the case of a parachutist, if you were still wondering!
You will get away with overloading for a while, modest overloading probably for the life of the equipment, but it may bite your bum at some point, AND there is always the overloaded/non-compliance with specification 'Unsafe Vehicle' aspect if any authority figure is inclined to inspect (including insurance companies in the case of a claim)! A Kg or two is a arguable margin of error figure (but still chancy!), substantially more is negligence/wilful disregard.
Comments about heavier better than lighter nose weights are generally perfectly correct in towing terms, but only within equipment permitted limits.
When steel components are manufactured they are all stress tested at the research and development stage which the applied forces will fail at a given point during the test. This given point where the steel fractures or snaps is recorded and that's how they arrive at a figure that they declare as being safe and that figure should not be exceeded for safety reasons. This applies to forgings such as lifting hooks and towballs, steel fabrications where welding joints and seams are stress tested such as towbars including the fixing mounts on the vehicle. So when Monty15 (above post) refers to the 3 'Nose Weight' figures to consider:
1) The vehicle will have a max figure
2) The Tow Bar itself will have a max figure
3) The trailer chassis/tow hitch will have a max figure
You should not exceed the LOWEST of the three figures!
is right and exactly what he is referring to so if your noseweight is over the limit it's advisable to adjust it accordingly.
I guess op is just using his sense & seeing if others share his opinion. Noseweight varies all the time. You will get different weight readings with caravan standing in different places & using different gauges & scales. If an accident occurred any insurance assessor could hardly check the noseweight of the wreckage.
A few kilos each way is of no consequence. I rarely check noseweight on my caravan. I just load it correctly & leave it at that. On the odd occasion I do check it it is about right. I use wood & bathroom scales. Maybe if I bought a proper gauge It might read a few kg different ? I have no idea. Caravan tows ok & outfit is level.
As I pointed out earlier. The op’s outfit is fine as it is.
When you consider that when on the move, especially on rough roads, the nose weight must vary considerably a couple of kilos when stationary must be insignificant.
saxo1
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Topic: nose weight
via mobile 27/2/2022 at 12:10pm
