Message Forums

how level should the van sit.i drive a vectra and  the van is quite nose low. 

is this dangerous?

With the car on level ground and fully loaded but not hitched up to the caravan, the towball height, from the ground to the centre of the ball, should be between 350 and 420mm.  When you hitch up the caravan, you can expect the rear of the car to drop a little due to the noseweight of the caravan hitch.  With a noseweight that does not exceed the maximum noseweight for your Vectra, it shouldn't drop much more than a inch or so, which should leave the van slightly nose down. 

I get the feeling from your post that the caravan is a bit more than *slightly* nose down.  If it is very obviously nose down, then you might want to get the Vectra's suspension checked out and maybe consider getting one of the suspension aids usually sold in caravan accessory shops.

Is it dangerous?  I'm not sure anyone can really answer that.  If the nose down attitude is an indication that the rear suspension on your Vectra is faulty, that would be dangerous.  If you have far too high a noseweight for your towcar, that could be dangerous too.   I used to have a new Peugeot 405 saloon that had pretty weak rear suspension (as standard) and the towball was pretty low too.  From time to time, the hitch would whack speed bumps as I towed the caravan over them.  I could never convince myself that this wasn't dangerous.  If the same happens to you, I'd be very tempted to do something about it.

Cheers
Andrew

Hi

Nose down is better for stability than nose up.

But it should only be slightly nose down.

I agree with Andrew that a suspension aid should be considered.

Tyreman