Caravan loading and nose weight

PhilHo

Administrator
Staff member
This month we have a Milenco nose weight gauge for our prize draw. This device is accurate to British Standard BS 7691 and is good for over 1000 uses at this accuracy. It is a really good piece of kit and normally retails around £30. The following explains why using one of these things is worthwhile.

Experienced caravanners know to load their caravan so that the weight is kept low and mainly over the axle. This can be a bit inconvenient because all of those high level cupboards are very tempting and you want to be able to set up quickly when you get to the site. Nevertheless you need to do everything you can to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible and make sure that heavier items in particular can't move about. It is also really important to get the fore and aft balance right to avoid pitching and snaking. The way to ensure that you have got this right is to check the nose weight of your caravan once you have it ready to go and loaded how you want it.

nose6-big.jpg


Nose weight is important for two reasons.
1. Your car and tow bar will have a maximum load and this should be printed somewhere on it. Either stamped on it or on a plate. Often this is 75 or 100 Kg but you need to check your own. Also your car has its own maximum and this may be different. For example you could have a tow bar good for 100Kg on a car with a maximum of 75Kg. Check in your owners manual. If they are different ou have to use the lower figure.

2. Your caravan will have a recommended nose weight that the manufacturer has established through testing. This is usually in the owners manual. If you don't have an owners manual an often recommended rule of thumb is 7% of the actual loaded weight of your caravan. In order to use this method you will need to estimate the loaded weight of the caravan which isn't easy so best get hold of the correct figure from your manual.

Nose weight
The traditional home spun method of checking the nose weight is a set of bathroom scales and a piece of broom handle which when you put it between the scales and the tow hitch has this at the normal towing height. Clearly you need to have your caravan on a level area. You put one end of the piece of broom handle into the tow hitch and the other end on the scales and wind up the jockey wheel until the full weight is taken by the scales. Obviously you need to make sure that the caravan can't move by leaving the brake on and/or chocking the wheels.

Whilst this might be OK at home it is much more convenient to have a purpose designed nose weight gauge that you can take with you so that you can check again before you set off home. This is where the Milenco nose weigh gauge comes in.

Discussion
It would be really good if experienced members could tell us how they deal with this issue. What strategies do you use to get the balance right. For example are there certain heavy things you always move to over the axles to travel. How do you secure these to make sure they don't move when you are travelling?

Less experienced caravanners can ask questions on loading and nose weights here.

The closing date for entries to the prize draw is midnight on 21st June 2013, no cash alternative will be given, the prize winner will be drawn randomly from members who have entered the draw by email. You must be a member of Caravan Savers Club to enter. The club is free to join and the draw is free to enter. Details of how to enter will be sent separately to members by email.
 

Michael Burt

New Member

Regarding Nose Weight I have always used bathroom scales and a piece of wood when I am home but this is not really convenient when away, you are left guessing if you have packed near enough the same as when you left home. My Lunar Lexon EB towed extremely well and was not so critical on nose weight. I now have a Swift challenger 560 this is much less tolerant and I have purchased the nose weight that you are offering in the prize draw accurate nose weight makes it much more tow able
My Daughter also has a caravan and before she went on holiday recently I suggested we check the nose before she left, It was way out, rear end heavy. we moved her security devices,which she had placed on the floor over the axle because they were heavy, into the front locker this brought the nose to 60 Kilos well within the range of the caravan and towing vehicle. (much better for the inside of the van as well).
when she returned she said how much better it had towed than the last time she took it out.
If I were to win the prize I would present it to her, if she has not bought one in the meantime.
.
 

ChrisRogers

New Member
Always check mine, every time I hitch up, 75kg. Highly recommend the Milenco gauge.
PhilHo if I may, the recommended noseweight should be 5% to 7% of the actual loaded weight of the caravan (MTPLM) with a legal minimum of 4%.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zy48ttzqabrzqz/noseweights 2013.pdf

Also remember the caravan hitch may have a load limit of 100kg, so a large 4x4 with a noseweight of 120kg has to go by the lower figure of 100kg.
 

ChrisRogers

New Member
Another important thing to remember once hitched up, the caravan noseweight on the towball becomes part of the cars payload, something to consider so you do not overload the car.
 

PhilHo

Administrator
Staff member
Hi Chris,

Very happy to be corrected. I can't remember where I picked up 7% as the rule of thumb. It may have been in a Caravan Club fact sheet. Can you say where your 5% to 7% came from as I guess that since folks here don't know us from Adam it is probably best that we quote an authoritative source for this kind of info.

Many thanks

Phil
 

ChrisRogers

New Member
The information is in the Caravan Club handbook, also see my link above, Caravan Club info sheet which is dated Feb 2013. Seems that caravan noseweights are getting heavy, so 5-7% gives a good chance of getting the weight within the cars limit. With my noseweight, I am just over 6%, at 7% my noseweight would be 86kg, too heavy for the cars 75kg.
It all gets very complicated!
 
C

Colin Exley

Guest
First Post Hear, I am 77 years so looks like I am a oldy on the site. Just bought a Hymer 530 DB about 6 weeks ago
a bit different to tow than my old Compass Omega 4 berth. as to
nose weight

I have never bothered much about it as I know that if it as too much on the hitch
the car pitches, if its too much on the back of the van it tries to snake, so these
are corrected very early in the journey been towing for very many years and never had a problem
until coming back from Wales with the Hymer, Son-in-Law was driving back with the outfit
and he was very tensed up Volvo 940 tow car trying to correct all the time which was making it try to snake
I finally got him to relax things then improved but did adjust the load on the services on the M56
the worst problem is that the van as a King Size bed at the front this leaving a big locker under it.
And we all know what happens to that, main problem with the Van was it takes two 13Kg gas bottles
in the front locker plus spare wheel and wast tank. I only put one bottle in
but that was first problem I found about the balance of the Van, so I removed it and put it over
the axle and wedged it with other items so it could not move. Otherwise had a good holiday for first time
with this outfit. I also have two vintage Caravans that I am going to Break up a Linton Simitar 7 berth
and a Sprite Major
 

ChrisRogers

New Member
Apart from a caravan stability point of view, noseweight is set by the car manufacturer and takes into account the car body structure, suspension and towbar fixing points. If those are overloaded think what may happen to the suspension and worst still the actual mounting points, also the cars rear end will drop affecting front wheel traction and steering. As stated the noseweight becomes part of the cars payload, overload the cars gross vehicle weight which is plated, is illegal.
Every time I hitch up, my noseweight is checked for 75kg, only takes a few minutes.

Another good read:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/459cfvd80r6266j/Beginners-Guide-To-Towing-Dynamics.pdf
 

Graham McDowell

New Member
Don't go to low on the nose weight because of the dynamic effects of wind resistance and lift. Basically if you start with say a static nose weight of 80 kg then at the legal towing limit this can reduce to almost zero.
 
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