Hi all i am new to caravaning. i am going to check my nose weight with the bath room scales how long to i need to make my piece of wood as any one got any ideas.i have a piece about 15 inches long will this be to short. do i have to take the height of the scales and the the wood on top of the scales to spread the load in to account
The wood needs to be long enough so the 'van is approx level when you weigh it. The scales need a hard flat base as well. Use a couple of bits of 4x2. One bit across the scales & the other bit vertical under the hitch.
£25 ish will get you a BS calibrated noseweight guage. In tems of potential risk if the noseweight is incorrect that's some £25ish well spent. Try the Milenco one.
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
Tentz, when you think about it, bathroom scales are MORE likely to be accurate. If you stand on your bathroom scales and weigh a stone more than you did last week, you'll know they're faulty (or you've been eating a lot of pies lately).
If your noseweight gauge reads more than you expected, you'll think you've loaded the van up wrongly and start shifting things about.
Measure the height from the ground to the top of your towball when your car is loaded as it would be if going away. measure the height of the scales + the wood used to spread the weight.then cut a length of broomstick so that the total combined height is equal to the height of the towball.Place the length of broom stick on the scales with the top IN the hitch then raise the jockey wheel
I nailed a square of ply to the bottom of the broomstick to spread the weight .Make sure the caravan is on level ground when taking the noseweight.
Quote: Originally posted by cwdc56768 on 21/10/2010
£25 ish will get you a BS calibrated noseweight guage. In tems of potential risk if the noseweight is incorrect that's some £25ish well spent. Try the Milenco one.
Phil
What is the BS to which these scales are calibrated - I've searched and can't find them
------------- Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby
once bought one of those "Nose Guage" gadgits totally inaccurate even with the gas locker empty weighed 90 kgs. was lent an identical one by a warden on a caravan club site his was showing 25 kg less than mine. now have gone back to using a bathroom scales and length of wood .
bought the milenco one,£15 does it weigh correct?? think so initially but after compression you can make it read whatever you want by pulling and pushing to as much as 15 kgs.do not think any are fully reliable.
Post last edited on 21/10/2010 22:34:25
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
BS 7691. Now you can either go along with the concept of a British Standard or consider that such standards are irrelevant. Should the boys in blue stop and check your van they will use whatever technical standards are available to them to check your weights. Should they consider that you contravene some law or other they will, in any prosecution, use a relevant technical standard to endeavour to prove the illegal act. That is the way the law works.
Its a free choice. Bathroom scales do the job so pack them with your gear to check your noseweight when you come home. Don't believe that it will always be the same as when you set off from home. It just isn't, so you need to check. You can either believe in using the right tool for the job or otherwise. Anyway, its only £25ish.
I tend to use the bathroom scales for levelling the van as that is the right tool for the job. Sometimes I use them as chocks as that saves me buying chocks. If the site is level and I don't need to level the van I use the scales to hammer the rock pegs into the ground when setting up the awning. Why use a hammer just because someone says its the right tool? Taking the whatsit now......I know...but what is this problem with using a nose weight guage? It comes up as an opposition issue everythime it is suggested. Baffled.....Tired now
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
I like others have found noseweight gauges to be inaccurate, hence the opposition to them.
If you do get stopped by the cops they will weigh back axle of car. They won't detach caravan & check noseweight. Provided noseweight is more or less what it should be & you don't have anything too heavy in your boot you will be well within limits.
We use the Milenco BS gauge - I agree that the bathroom scales will work but as we check our noseweight before we set off from home & site then I know which one takes up less room in the locker.
I have yet to see anyone check their nose weight before leaving a caravan site so its good to see the OP wanting to do the job right. See very few check their lights as well before they set off.
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
Quote: Originally posted by cwdc56768 on 21/10/2010
BS 7691. Now you can either go along with the concept of a British Standard or consider that such standards are irrelevant. Should the boys in blue stop and check your van they will use whatever technical standards are available to them to check your weights. Should they consider that you contravene some law or other they will, in any prosecution, use a relevant technical standard to endeavour to prove the illegal act. That is the way the law works.
Its a free choice. Bathroom scales do the job so pack them with your gear to check your noseweight when you come home. Don't believe that it will always be the same as when you set off from home. It just isn't, so you need to check. You can either believe in using the right tool for the job or otherwise. Anyway, its only £25ish.
I tend to use the bathroom scales for levelling the van as that is the right tool for the job. Sometimes I use them as chocks as that saves me buying chocks. If the site is level and I don't need to level the van I use the scales to hammer the rock pegs into the ground when setting up the awning. Why use a hammer just because someone says its the right tool? Taking the whatsit now......I know...but what is this problem with using a nose weight guage? It comes up as an opposition issue everythime it is suggested. Baffled.....Tired now
Phil
Phil - don't be flippant I asked a question you have given me part of the answer - BS7691.
Now can you tell us what is in BS7691 because I can't find out...
In case you do not know, and being a lawyer I thought you would have, a British standard is a standard, written very often by the manufacturer, that the manufacturer will adhere to in the production of an article, it is not necessarily a safety standard or a standard that means that a product is any better that any other product.
In other words the only way of knowing if a product is better is by reading the BS it adheres to
The last thing I would want Phil is for you to be pulled and to rely on a BS not knowing what it was...
------------- Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby
This standard was recommended to the BSA by the UK National Measurement Institute (not the guage manufacturer) following a recommendation from the Measurement and Control Weighing and Force Measurement Panel for weighing instruments.This Panel was established in1990 with aremit to consider and promote standards, codes of practices, and general understanding in all areas of industrial process weighing. The National Measurement Institute is (apparently regarded as) a world-leading centre of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate measurement standards. So it may be said that BS 7961 has some pedigree behind it.
Hope this assists and thanks for your concern about me being pulled up. Suspect that I may just tell Mr Plod more rivetting stuff about weighing machines than he reckoned he would get. Can you be arrested for being boring?
Now bathroom scales (acceptable as I have said for checking noseweight) will be designed to a BS but not one that is specifically for "measuring the static vertical mass (noseweight) at the coupling point of a towed vehicle in order to determine its compatibility to the towing vehicle."
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
Quote: Originally posted by cwdc56768 on 22/10/2010
<SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><P style="MARGIN: auto 0cm 8.35pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=normalweb1><A name=3365700><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>Sorry Mr RC but my fingers must have been working out of sync. The number should read </SPAN></A><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><A id=link_1287742709710_0 href="http://www.npl.co.uk/content-categories/collaboration/instmc-weighing-and-force-measurement-panel-documents-and-standards-weighing-instruments#BS7961#BS7961"><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">BS 7961. This is listed as the British Standards Authority (BSA) "approved specification and technical criteria for a device for measuring the static vertical mass (noseweight) at the coupling point of a towed vehicle</SPAN></A> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>in order to determine its compatibility to the towing vehicle." <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN><P style="MARGIN: auto 0cm 8.35pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=normalweb1><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>This standard was recommended to the BSA by the UK National Measurement Institute (not the guage manufacturer) following a recommendation from the Measurement and Control Weighing and Force Measurement Panel for weighing instruments.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This Panel was established in1990 with a<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>remit to consider and promote standards, codes of practices, and general understanding in all areas of industrial process weighing. The National Measurement Institute is (apparently regarded as) a world-leading centre of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate measurement standards. So it may be said that BS 7961 has some pedigree behind it.</SPAN><o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: auto 0cm 8.35pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=normalweb1><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>Hope this assists and thanks for your concern about me being pulled up. Suspect that I may just tell Mr Plod more rivetting stuff about weighing machines than he reckoned he would get. Can you be arrested for being boring? <?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" /><v:shapetype id=_x0000_t75 stroked="f" filled="f" path="m at 4 at 5l at 4 at 11 at 9 at 11 at 9 at 5xe" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" coordsize="21600,21600"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum at 0 1 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 at 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod at 2 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod at 3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod at 3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum at 0 0 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod at 6 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod at 7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum at 8 21600 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod at 7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum at 10 21600 0"></v:f></v:formulas><v:path o:connecttype="rect" gradientshapeok="t" o:extrusionok="f"></v:path><o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></o:lock></v:shapetype><v:shape style="WIDTH: 12.75pt; HEIGHT: 12.75pt" id=_x0000_i1025 alt="" type="#_x0000_t75"><v:imagedata o:href="http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/forum_images/smiley4.gif" src="file:///C:\Users\Phil\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif"></v:imagedata></v:shape></SPAN><o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: auto 0cm 8.35pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=normalweb1><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>Now bathroom scales (acceptable as I have said for checking noseweight) will be designed to a BS but not one that is specifically for "measuring the static vertical mass (noseweight) at the coupling point of a towed vehicle in order to determine its compatibility to the towing vehicle." <o:p></o:p></SPAN><P style="MARGIN: auto 0cm 8.35pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=normalweb1><SPAN style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>Phil<o:p></o:p></SPAN><P style="MARGIN: auto 0cm 8.35pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=NormalWeb1><!-- Signature --></SPAN>
I suggest you get a copy and study - might open your eyes a bit
------------- Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby
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Topic: nose weight gauge
