Hi, we are thinking of upgrading to a larger/heavier caravan. If I upgraded to a caravan around 1500kg fully laden would it be a problem to achieve a noseweight of around 75kg.
If obviously depends upon the caravan. I used to have great difficulty getting mine down to 75Kg, expecially as I tried to load most of the heavy items in the car (the car was really a little light for the job). I'm sure it'd have been a lot easier if I was putting more into the caravan.
When the lease ran out I changed to one with a 130Kg limit, and now find my 1500Kg caravan tows best at 90-100Kg noseweight.
at 7% of 1500 kgs i think you will struggle to find a nose weight of 75 kgs.could be wrong but i work it out to 105 kgs. whatever your towbar weight is.you can not go over this weight.
Michael is right of course, the recommended ratio of about 7% van weight does equate to 105kgs noseweight.
This is the recommended aim point though; you're legal obligation is to achieve 4%, which will be 60kgs minimum. With consideration to loading etc., I'd have though it possible to obtain 75kgs, which I assume is your towbars noseweight limit.
Quote: Originally posted by Nataim on 16/7/2010
Hi, we are thinking of upgrading to a larger/heavier caravan. If I upgraded to a caravan around 1500kg fully laden would it be a problem to achieve a noseweight of around 75kg.
No problems, we have a Bailey Pegasus which is just under 1500kg and if we load it correctly its easy to achieve the correct noseweight.
------------- Bikes on roof and low car park barriers - not a good idea!
Can't see the point of loading stuff in the car if the noseweight is too heavy. The whole idea of reducing the nose weight is to keep the weight off the cars suspension. Don't take so much with you. After years of caravanning we still take too much. Went to France last month for 3 weeks and reduced what we took and never missed any of the stuff we left behind.
You would be surprised how much clothes weigh!
Quote: Originally posted by Nataim on 16/7/2010Hi, we are thinking of upgrading to a larger/heavier caravan. If I upgraded to a caravan around 1500kg fully laden would it be a problem to achieve a noseweight of around 75kg.
As others have pointed out, it depends on the caravan.
I have a Burstner S500TS. With two gas bottles, the spare wheel, sat dish, bits of piping & hose and toilet fluid in the front gas locker - and with stuff like folding chairs, EHU cables, a sat dish tripod and the aquaroll & wastemaster in the locker under the fixed bed (which is, of course, pretty well to the rear of the wheels) the Burstner's noseweight is just under 100kg.
I did once try out a 13kg propane cylinder in the front locker - but soon gave up that idea, as the noseweight was around 125kg!! It wouldn't have bothered the Patrol - but the limit on the Alko hitch is 100kg.
Before the Burstner, I had a Lunar Saturn and the ex-works noseweight was about 80kg. When I first bought the Saturn (new in 1992), I had a Peugeot 405 saloon and always struggled to keep the noseweight down to a sensible limit.
I don't know what towcar you use, but I really don't think you should deliberately plan to tow at a noseweight that is substantially below the target 7% recommended by the caravan clubs. Are there many towcars that have a kerbweight of 1800kg plus (i.e. to achieve a towing ratio of 85%) that have a noseweight limit as low as 75kg?
Quote: This is the recommended aim point though; you're legal obligation is to achieve 4%
I didn't know that there was a legal minimum noseweight - but that isn't the point, is it? The caravan club's recomendation is for safety not legal reasons.
Quote: Originally posted by johnks on 17/7/2010
Can't see the point of loading stuff in the car if the noseweight is too heavy. The whole idea of reducing the nose weight is to keep the weight off the cars suspension.
I'm not absolutely sure about this johnks, so in most cases you may well be right. There will certainly be someone who knows more about this than I.
The way I see it is that the towball fitted to each car has a maximum noseweight the towball can take, and the towbar has yet another weight spec., and the car iself has abnother weight spec. I thought that towbars were made for individual vehicles (or groups of vehicles) and their weight spec. is based on the weight spec. of the car. It follows that if the noseweight of your loaded van is higher than the noseweight spec for the towball and towbar, it may be necessary to carry items in the vehicle if it makes the outfit legal, although it may put more weight on the suspension. In theory you should also check the Maximum Gross Weight of the Vehicle to make sure you are not carrying more weight in the vehicle that it is designed for.
I don't know if I have made my self very clear here, or even if the weights specified for towballs and towbars are considerably different to the noseweight specified for the vehicle.
As I understand it, the maximum noseweight is that specified by the tow car manufacturer. I was looking at an older Honda CRV auto but the max noseweight was only 48kg. My curent car is 60kg. It's all to do with the design stresses etc. No point buying a van that your car cannot cope with.
Load distribution Proper load distribution, in general, must be ensured too, with all heavy items in the caravan low down and directly over the axle wherever possible. Correct tyre pressures for car and caravan are absolutely vital.
Noseweight It is a legal requirement that the noseweight should be 4% of the weight of the trailer or at least 25kg, whichever is the higher.. For safety you should aim for, but not exceed, the lower of the 2 figures specified for caravan and car respectively.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Many thanks everyone for the information and advice, the van that we have seen is a Sprite Major 6 so it is good that there is unlikely to be a problem achieveing the required 75kg noseweight.
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Topic: 1500kg Caravan Noseweight
