Tentz No need to apologise as all info is gratefully recieved.
It'a a 1700kg Hymer towed by a Jeep Grand Cherokee of a kerbweight of, from memory, 2360kg. Plenty of power.
We don't load the van up too much but with a front bed with lots of storage (awning, tools, leveling blocks, etc)plus 2x 6kg gas and spare wheel at the front it's worth checking the noseweight. I might be in for a rude shock!
Hi climo,After reading a similar post on here some time back, that you are unable to test nose weight on a slopping drive, Curiosity got the better of me and I put that theory to the test. I have a slopping driveway, and I have tested the nose weight by raising the van up by the jockey wheel until van sitting level, used long length of wood from the centre of van wheel to the van hitch, put spirit level on top of wood,( and used the under side of the wood as new artificial ground level), I used packing to build up the height to the artificial ground level, raised van slightly to take gauge, placed the gauge under the hitch, lowered van back to level, checked gauge no load, then lowered van and raised jockey wheel, took nose weight reading, the next time I was out with van I took a nose weight reading on level ground, the difference in the two readings was under a kilo. (Incidentally the hitch height from ground level was almost exactly the height of tow ball on car at start of test).
PS: if you try this let us know your findings.
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Staggered by what I have read here, On a single axle van where the wheel is the pivot point I am amazed that there is a difference in nose weight between flat ground and a sloping driveway. I would have thought the nose weight would have been the same for both. The problem with a slope is with the twin axles I should think? Not that I have this problem.
Quote: Originally posted by Two Tense on 15/5/2012
Staggered by what I have read here, On a single axle van where the wheel is the pivot point I am amazed that there is a difference in nose weight between flat ground and a sloping driveway. I would have thought the nose weight would have been the same for both.
Yes I don't quite understand the physics either but more experienced people say there is. I'll try it when I get time.
Even if you understand the physics it is easy to see that the load on the hitch will vary by very little and in most cases the device being used to measure is not calibrated to that level of accuracy. If it did make a difference the hight at which measurements would need to be taken would be at the hight the hitch was as when connected to the vehicle and so far I have seen people measuring at the hight the hitch would be before the load was transferred to the tow ball. On a TA it would make a bit more difference but not a great amount as the caravan is designed to be nose heavy and the slope it is parked on is generally not steep. If anyone can demonstrate the actual physics and give an example of their calculations I would be interested.
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We are unfortunate in having not only a sloping drive but a sloping road outside our house. I have used my Milenco noseweight guage (the one is said to be the most accurate) on our drive and on a flat pitch to check the noseweight. I found a LARGE difference of more than 20Kg more on slope, nose down, compared with measuring on the flat.
Max I have found is 5kg and some of that can probably be accounted for by not having the correct hight at the hitch when measuring on the slope. My thoughts are that the leverage effect of the change in hitch hight is going to be greater than the angle of slope, unless you have a very steep incline in which case the movement of the centre of gravity could become a larger influence. If anyone has any info about the centre of gravity for caravans based on Alko or BPW chassis I would be interested and could probably then do the calculations. At a guess I would say that it is probably less than a metre above the axle and about the same or less forward of the axle.
------------- 'A sure cure for sea-sickness is to sit under a tree'
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Topic: Measuring noseweight on a slope
