Hi there the Admiral I have a pheonix 2 berth, and mine is the same! With nothing packed in the rear, it is VERY easy to make it sit up! When I'm connecting the motor mover I have to leave hitched to the car so I can go inside to put the mover key in. Never had a problem with any other caravan I've had! It tows brilliant but just seems a**e heavy!
Quote: Originally posted by bridgie on 26/12/2024
Hi there the Admiral I have a pheonix 2 berth, and mine is the same! With nothing packed in the rear, it is VERY easy to make it sit up! When I'm connecting the motor mover I have to leave hitched to the car so I can go inside to put the mover key in. Never had a problem with any other caravan I've had! It tows brilliant but just seems a**e heavy!
I think most caravans will tip up if you step inside without the corner steadies down or it still hitched to the car. Provided the entry door is at the rear of course. I know mine certainly would.
Adria might be the only manufacturer that has done something about this tipping issue.
They created a heavy gauge metal bump stop in both back corners so that if you go to the back of the van without steadies down and it tips up it hits the stops and not crashes the rear panel into the ground.
A simple but good idea methinks.
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Quote: Originally posted by blueexpo97 on 31/12/2024
Adria might be the only manufacturer that has done something about this tipping issue.
They created a heavy gauge metal bump stop in both back corners so that if you go to the back of the van without steadies down and it tips up it hits the stops and not crashes the rear panel into the ground.
A simple but good idea methinks.
Yes that does sound like a good idea. It would certainly help those whose main entry door is at the front like my previous caravan. With our current one with the door near the back, you can't get inside without it tipping if the steadies aren't down.
Quote: Originally posted by Squillian on 26/12/2024
Quote: Originally posted by bridgie on 26/12/2024
Hi there the Admiral I have a pheonix 2 berth, and mine is the same! With nothing packed in the rear, it is VERY easy to make it sit up! When I'm connecting the motor mover I have to leave hitched to the car so I can go inside to put the mover key in. Never had a problem with any other caravan I've had! It tows brilliant but just seems a**e heavy!
I think most caravans will tip up if you step inside without the corner steadies down or it still hitched to the car. Provided the entry door is at the rear of course. I know mine certainly would.
Considering my target nose weight is 70Kg (to suit car/towbar), I can take my near 90Kg bulk into the rear bathroom without a hint of see-sawing (unhitched, no steadies down)! Guessing axle is not centrally placed between hitch and rear, and/or the nose is heavy until I fully load the van! The entrance door is well behind the axle and just ahead of the bathroom, but even when van loaded correctly to get right nose weight, I can still go in the van without it tipping, but I'm mindful NOT to push my luck and go to very rear of bathroom!
The vast difference in 'balance' between vans just serves to make me more aware of the importance of actually measuring the nose weight to ensure it's correct for towing! I've got a well practiced 'standard' loading pattern for my van that gives me the right nose weight, but it took a bit of juggling of loads to get it right when starting out.
Yes Monty, that's what I do. Everything I take has its designated place to maintain correct noseweight. My caravan isn't very big, its body length is only about 14 feet, and the door is quite near the rear. I know from experience that if I step inside without putting at least one rear steady down it will tip even when correctly loaded. Maybe my 95kg bulk has something to do with it.
We finally got around to checking the nose weight on the caravan as we’re going out in a few weeks and it was only showing at 23kg so with the leisure battery and the spare tyre and other bits and pieces at the back of the van no wonder it was tipping.
We have now moved the spare tyre into one of the front boxes along with some tool boxes and it’s now measuring 70kg which is nearly at the max for our car (75kg) so hopefully that should stabilise it! Our mechanic said it was complete idiocy moving the gas bottle locker to the middle of the van and then putting both the spare wheel and the leisure battery in a locker at the back - whatever were Bailey thinking about!!!
Manufacturers do seem to put a huge onus on owners (with little emphasis how much this is required!) to adjust the balance with their own luggage, these are not subtle nuances to obtain best towing characteristics or minor tweaks to match towbar limit variations, these are massive inconsistences, which probably means most vans picked up from a dealer or previous owner and without usual owners carefully balanced load luggage, renders them downright dangerous, and probably strictly speaking illegal to tow!!!!
In the MIRO condition I picked up my van from the dealer, turned out it was illegal on two counts, the nose weight exceeded even the caravan chassis weight limit and the nose weight was far in excess of my towball limit! A responsible dealer would check this was in order before sending you off, and at least advise. How is a new owner without hands on and own checks supposed to know what the weight distribution is, it's not a published figure! I've little doubt that in law, its the towing drivers responsibility, but we are it seems set up to fail by manufacturers and dealers when first acquiring a van! Considering my dealer couldn't ever be bothered to inflate the tyres correctly (which made the drive home horribly wobbly! - thank goodness for ATC!), I guess all else is a pipe dream!
I can't believe you didn't notice all sorts of strange horrible towing characteristics with only 23Kg on the nose, the wind resistance on the van in motion would have reduced nose weight to virtually nothing, it was set up to rock back and forth on the axle like a see-saw, and a snake was just waiting to happen! Scares me thinking about it!
My current van is my first caravan (far from my first towing experience though) and I've learnt so much in the 7 years I've had it, mostly don't trust anyone in the industry, check EVERYTHING for yourself and take nothing for granted!
Glad you've sorted your tipping problem, happy holidays.
Quote: Originally posted by Monty15 on 28/6/2025
Manufacturers do seem to put a huge onus on owners (with little emphasis how much this is required!) to adjust the balance with their own luggage, these are not subtle nuances to obtain best towing characteristics or minor tweaks to match towbar limit variations, these are massive inconsistences, which probably means most vans picked up from a dealer or previous owner and without usual owners carefully balanced load luggage, renders them downright dangerous, and probably strictly speaking illegal to tow!!!!
In the MIRO condition I picked up my van from the dealer, turned out it was illegal on two counts, the nose weight exceeded even the caravan chassis weight limit and the nose weight was far in excess of my towball limit! A responsible dealer would check this was in order before sending you off, and at least advise. How is a new owner without hands on and own checks supposed to know what the weight distribution is, it's not a published figure! I've little doubt that in law, its the towing drivers responsibility, but we are it seems set up to fail by manufacturers and dealers when first acquiring a van! Considering my dealer couldn't ever be bothered to inflate the tyres correctly (which made the drive home horribly wobbly! - thank goodness for ATC!), I guess all else is a pipe dream!
I can't believe you didn't notice all sorts of strange horrible towing characteristics with only 23Kg on the nose, the wind resistance on the van in motion would have reduced nose weight to virtually nothing, it was set up to rock back and forth on the axle like a see-saw, and a snake was just waiting to happen! Scares me thinking about it!
My current van is my first caravan (far from my first towing experience though) and I've learnt so much in the 7 years I've had it, mostly don't trust anyone in the industry, check EVERYTHING for yourself and take nothing for granted!
Glad you've sorted your tipping problem, happy holidays.
Thanks for your reply we only towed it a very short distance initially less than a mile to a campsite to try it out for a couple of nights so didn’t really notice anything then. Towing it home however was a different matter and my Hubbie said it was very scary (it doesn’t have ATC either) so we took it very easy and managed to get it back in one piece. This is our 3rd caravan the first ‘new’ one we’ve had so we just loaded it in a similar fashion to how we had always done the other two. But because Bailey in their infinite wisdom had moved things around it needs a very different approach. Hopefully when we take it out again in a few weeks it won’t be such a scary journey.
My car-caravan combination looks pretty horrible on statistics, all legal, but nearing limits when it comes to car vs caravan weights, but now I've perfected the loading of the van, it's brilliant, tows like a dream. Even accidentally crept up over 70mph a few times and not a hint of protest from the van. The only time the ATC has kicked in is when you get sunken sections of road or sudden changes in camber and it's false triggered by the side sway of the van.
Loading of a van is trial and error to some extent, beyond weighing nose which is a given, but get it right and the results are worth the effort with trouble free towing.
By the sounds of it, it can only get better for you! Good luck.
I think the trouble is the manufacturers fix the axle position early on in the design. Then each year they make changes as to where thy put things like spare wheel etc. I don't think they ever revisit the axle position as it's baked in at design stage.
My Pursuit was similar in that the spare wheel and table and battery were all at the front. Being 2 berth only the washroom was at the back which is very light. Nose weight was excessive and was difficult to control by loading.
We have a GT 75 640, just coming up to it's first service.
Our battery is just inside the door so forward of the axle.
I would have thought it would be in the same place on all. Obviously not.
Ours tows very well and doesn't tip up,when being motored.
I don't go in if the steadies are not down , unless attached to the tug.
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We have a GT 75 640, just coming up to it's first service.
Our battery is just inside the door so forward of the axle.
I would have thought it would be in the same place on all. Obviously not.
Ours tows very well and doesn't tip up,when being motored.
I don't go in if the steadies are not down , unless attached to the tug.We would have preferred the 642, as we had a 7 year old Unicorn Cadiz which has the same layout.
The dealer had sold,the 642 but we got a good deal on the 640. Its a fair bit lighter than the Cadiz and a bit narrower. The price of another Cadiz was a lot higher too. We wanted a lighter van.
The GT 75 are nice vans, we are happy with ours.
Deale4 fitted a mover plus external gas and electric outlets. We bought and fitted the worktop extension flap and the Al Ko jack brackets plus jack.
Oo0s thought I was editing so sorry for repeat,
Post last edited on 30/06/2025 22:01:31
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Quote: Originally posted by navver on 29/6/2025
I think the trouble is the manufacturers fix the axle position early on in the design. Then each year they make changes as to where thy put things like spare wheel etc. I don't think they ever revisit the axle position as it's baked in at design stage.
My Pursuit was similar in that the spare wheel and table and battery were all at the front. Being 2 berth only the washroom was at the back which is very light. Nose weight was excessive and was difficult to control by loading.
Unbelievably, there is a spare wheel well in the large front gas locker of my van which is diabolically nose heavy and even illegal without the wheel! Clearly the manufacturer did not engage much brain on that one!
When I was looking to buy my van I asked the dealer where the standard equipment spare wheel was as there was no sign of it, they assured me it would be included if I purchased. Turns out, dealer couldn't get the spare wheel into the gas locker 'because it didn't fit', and had fitted the Alko under chassis carrier to hold it.
Little did I realise at the time what a Godsend that was! Had they loaded another 18kg by way of the wheel into the front, I'd have needed to 'lose' around a ridiculous 70Kg from nose to get to my towbar max weight! I don't think I would EVER had got the nose weight down to permissible levels, it's a struggle as is, as it turned out, the aft of axle wheel carrier also counterbalances some of the already excessive nose weight, so a huge favour!
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Topic: Caravan Tipping & Tight 13 Pin Connector
via mobile 26/12/2024 at 2:10am
so with the leisure battery and the spare tyre and other bits and pieces at the back of the van no wonder it was tipping. 
