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Nick.....if you leave the jockey wheel touching the ground it will be supporting some of the weight of the nose of the van, so no way are your scales going to give you the correct reading.

If you are using bathroom scales and a length of wood then the thickness of the scales plus the length of the piece of wood should be such as to support the hitch at the same height as when it is attached to your towball.  Ideally the van should sit level when being towed. 

If you have a proper nose weight gauge then procedure described by John (putting the gauge on a trolley jack and jacking it up until the hitch is at the correct height) sounds good, and slightly easier than putting pieces of wood under the gauge.

With both of these methods you must have the jockey wheel wound up, and it forms part of the noseweight too.

An easy way to measure, although not 100% accurate, is to place your scales on smooth level ground under the jockey wheel and wind up or down until the van sits level.  This will give a slightly high reading.

Have you also checked the accuracy of your scales with a known weight?

And ideally the brake on the van should be off, but the difference this makes is not that significant.

Quote: Originally posted by jennifernn on 15/10/2007

Nick.....if you leave the jockey wheel  touching the ground it will be supporting some of the weight of the nose of the van, so no way are your scales going to give you the correct reading.

If you are using bathroom scales and a length of wood then the thickness of the scales plus the length of the piece of wood should be such as to support the hitch at the same height as when it is attached to your towball.  Ideally the van should sit level when being towed. 

If you have a proper nose weight gauge then procedure described by John (putting the gauge on a trolley jack and jacking it up until the hitch is at the correct height) sounds good, and slightly easier than putting pieces of wood under the gauge.

With both of these methods you must have the jockey wheel wound up, and it forms part of the noseweight too.

An easy way to measure, although not 100% accurate, is to place your scales on smooth level ground under the jockey wheel and wind up or down until the van sits level.  This will give a slightly high reading.

Have you also checked the accuracy of your scales with a known weight?

And ideally the brake on the van should be off, but the difference this makes is not that significant.

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Quote: Originally posted by jennifernn on 15/10/2007

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Hiccups jennifer ..take a glass of water..nose weight measurement with bathroom scales and length of wood is done this way by myself .. if you can get the hitch up without a strain by lifting it off the floor without much of a grunt to start with you know it aint heavy ....jockey it level using a level on the door opening floor and check by eye that its level (look along side lines) then wind down to assume a  slight nose down attitude... measure from the tow hitch inside to the scales and cut wood to length .. lift up and insert wood wind up jockey so wheel off floor ..read scales .. drop jockey and wind up to remove scales/wood   remember where everything went when loaded to your correct noseweight..works for me ..

Agree that a slight nose down attitude is the one to go for but so many caravans seen on UK motorways have that dip in the middle with the car down at the rear and the van very down at the front

The problem is in these days of type approval and drop plates being illegal on type approved towbars how is the level to be altered?

I have fitted MAD springs on my XT but its not a cheap option