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Morning all,

We recently aquired a 20Year old Alpine sprite and took it away last weekend for the first time ever and it was great

However, it does sit very slightly nose-up on the back of the car, The car is a Toyota hilux surf 4X4 with lifted, stiffened suspension and so has a high tow ball.

I was going to get a drop plate for it but do I really need one?

The outfit was completely stable even in the strong cross-winds we hit but am I just being complacent or do I not need to worry with a 750Kg caravan and 2.2 tonne tow car ?

Cheers

Chris :)

morning chris

would advise a drop plate if towing nose up!!

should really be level or slightly nose down,have you checked your nose weights,car and van both.

max nose weight for vehicle should be in your manual.

towing weights are ok,if 750kgs is max gross of van,if unsure,check on cc club site for advisory weights.

hope this helps

Certainly does, thank you

The car is an import so there is no manual available but I'm a member of a forum dedicated to these cars so I've asked the guru's on there for guidance on the nose weight.

The caravan weight of 750kg is what the last owner advised me as an emtpty van weight, does that sound about right or could that be a maximum gross weight do you think?

I can't seem to find the advisory weights on the CC website or on google for such an old van but I'm probably just missing it

Edit: Found it !! http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/Documents/Matching%20Car%20and%20Caravan.pdf

Thanks for the help,

Cheers

Chris :)

you're welcome chris

750 sounds like unladen weight of van,yes.

work out from ccc site about total weight of additions and you won't go far wrong.

remember about your nose weight and load accordingly,worth investing in a nose weight gauge also.

any other problems get on here and ask away,"the font of all knowledge" is on this site

everyone is only too pleased to help with various points.

happy caravanning.

Thanks for that :)

I'm going to get a drop plate and a nose weight gauge.

I was going to use the bathroom scales but to be honest after checking the price of the gauges  I'll just get one of those and leave it in the van.

No-one seems to know the nose weight for my car but lots of people are towing very heavy loads with nose weights in excess of 100Kg's with no problems although from what I've read there could be a danger of damaging the van chassis if its too high so I'll keep it at the 7% of the van weight figure which would be no more than 75-100Kg's.

There's more to this caravaning lark than meets the eye

Cheers

Chris :)

Picked this up off the CC web site:

In theory, all towbars should set the ball at the correct height. Both the British Standard BS AU 113c and the EC Directive 94/20/EC, requires the centre of the towball, when the towing vehicle is fully laden to its gross vehicle weight (but without the caravan attached) to be between 350 and 420mm from the ground.

Paul + Pam

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

Its not a type approved towbar so I can fit a drop to it. It makes sense to follow those guidelines between 350 and 420mm from the ground.

My cars been liftd by about 4" so a 4" drop plate would put it in the middle of that range I would think. I'll check it later and get the dro ppalte at the weekend (I can't measure it now as the cars parked at a funny angle on uneven ground.)

"I've never used a noseweight gauge. I always get it so I can lift the tow hitch, but only just."

I must admit thats kind of my feeling, but as I'm so new at this I just want to make sure I'm in the right sort of ballpark untill I gain more experience of how the correct noseweight should feel.

Sorry about the changing text sizes BTW, I can't seem to find the font size option!

Thanks again for all the help,

Cheers

Chris :)