We currently have a 2016 Bailey Modena with a French bed in the middle of the caravan, although we store quite a bit of stuff under it whilst travelling, we place heavier stuff (hook up cables etc) near the front which is over the axle, we also travel with chairs etc at the front of the caravan between the benches to achieve our nose weight of around 80kg.
We are however looking to buy a Swift Challenger 560 which has an end bedroom and the tempting under bed storage, what sort of equipment would or do any of you store under there whilst travelling? Obviously the swift has a front locker (unlike the Bailey) so the hook up cables etc will go in there, chairs and bamboo table will also go over the axle, so just wanted a bit of a pointer as to what sort of weight is ok under the bed, obviously I’m aware of the pendulum effect when having weight at the back of the van.
Thankfully you seem to be one of those with a good grasp of loading and weight distribution!
Probably a suck it and see situation to some extent. You obviously appreciate that the nose weight is a static see-saw balancing act, and that weight in the rear has a dynamic pendulum effect, so you are unlikely to be silly with piling everything in simply because there is space!
On one of my trips, I had a lot more gear than usual, so I did put some not too heavy stuff in the rear bathroom wardrobes (normally all but empty), but that was enough to upset my normally rock steady towing set up, I stopped on route and relocated things to get a better tow, it's amazing how only a few extra Kilos stashed at the far back of the van can upset a normally incredibly stable unit.
I can only suggest you start with the lightest possible stuff under the bed, and increase the weight until you notice it upsetting handling, then revert back to the previous 'safe' loading. I weigh just about everything that goes in my van, so have quite a good idea of how much load I'm putting where.
only things we have in our current caravan (elddis crusader super scorroco) so end bathroom and fixed bed behind the axles, is the water and ate in the bathroom, and then table and chairs under the bed. awning over the axles, and anything else goes towards the front end, then in the front locker is all the normal stuff such as gas bottles, pegs, levelling blocks, anything else you might need on arrival.
we have had the same loading pattern in all our caravans tho even though they where different layouts, never had a problem with nose weight.
We had a single axle with end bed and it could be hairy when towing if we had anything under the bed. Same applied to our twin axle with island bed at rear. Now we have transverse island bed just behind axle and a comfortable tow. We would not have another rear bed again even though we do not store much under the bed.
We have an end island bed. To be honest I’ve never had a problem loading it we stuff under the bed.
The spare wheel is under there, the Cadac and a windbreak also a small hoover. It is a single axle with mid bathroom it’s the second one we’ve had both towed fine.
I see a lot more caravans being towed with the nose on the floor with the back of the car loaded to the hilt.
We have a Challenger 560 and really struggle with nose weight. Our car has a nose weight of 100kg and we can just about manage to keep it under that, usually around 95kg. We don’t have much in the front locker, just one calor lite bottle, the hookup cable, some hoses for water connection and very lightweight waste pipes plus the toilet fluid and a few other small bits and pieces like a car wash mitt etc which don’t weigh much, but the noseweight is really high. We are nervous about putting stuff under the rear bed as we know that weight at the back is not good so we only have a big beach umbrella and an aluminium roll up table under there. Our previous caravan was a Bailey and the gas bottle was in a side locker over the axle and we had the opposite problem with it where we couldn’t get the noseweight heavy enough! In the Bailey we used to put chairs and the aquaroll and waste master between the front seats to increase the noseweight but there is no way we can do that with the Challenger as it would put the noseweight way over.
The under bed space in the Challenger is cavernous but we hardly use it as it is so far back and we end up putting stuff like chairs and the awning in the car boot. We put the aquaroll and waste master in the central washroom as it is directly over the axle.
You’re quite right, with the Bailey, the MIRO is around 1130kg and the nose weight sits about 55-60kg unladen, so we have to put three chairs and a table between the front benches, all the security locks etc in the under seat front storage and the awning is slightly forward of the axle, the recommended nose weight is 75kg but we find it tows better at around 85kg (6.5%), in our new van (we have now paid for it and pick it up in early June) 6.2% nose weight is around 99kg (car and caravan are ok for 100kg) so is going to be interesting to see how we work out weight distribution - although I’m looking forward to having a front locker as opposed to the mid caravan gas locker on the Bailey
Also, I know some people may be interested, it’s a 2018 Swift Celeste 560, with motor mover, solar panel, heavy duty corner steadies and Alde central heating, just really wanted a change in layout to a mid washroom and end bedroom, MTPLM is 1600kg and our BMW X3 kerb weight is 1895kg, so that gives us just under an 85% match (85% is 1610kg)
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Topic: Caravan Payload - End Bedroom
via mobile 12/5/2022 at 1:48pm
