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Topic: Tow weight etc

allysson

13/9/2013 at 2:06pm
Location: Derbyshire
Outfit: Ace Award Daystar 2002

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Hi

I am totally confused about kerb weight, tow weight, laden weight, unladen weight, tow bar weight to name but a few. There are so many things I cant get my head around. Wish we had just kept the tent. All I know is that our car is ok to pull our caravan, I double checked with the caravan club.

Our car has:

Kerb Weight 1387kg

Towing Limit 1200kg

Gross vehicle weight 1880kg

Gross train weight 3080kg

Nose weight 75kg

BHP 90

Max torque 215

RPM for max torque 1750

Caravan: Ace Award Daystar 2002, 2 berth

MTPLM 1190kg

MIRO 980kg

User payload 210kg

When the car was paired with the caravan the results were:

Kerb weight radio 86%

Towing limit ratio 99%

Gross Train weight 100%

Nose weight radio 111%

We do have a thingy for weighing the nose weight

PLEASE HELP

Al+Mel

13/9/2013 at 2:31pm
Location: Hants
Outfit: Fleetwood Heritage 640 EB & ML270

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All looks fine. Only confusing thing is your "Nose weight radio"

75kg noseweight will be fine.

janus

13/9/2013 at 2:33pm
Location: Rochdale
Outfit: Hymer Nova 470 Mondeo titanium 140tdc

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It will be fine, it meets all of the criteria for being a stable unit. The power is a little light for the job so you may need the stirring stick a bit more often, but it as plenty of torque. The noseweight is a movable feast, load the van as you would like it to be and then check the noseweight ( a piece of wood the same height as the towball and our athroom scales will do the job nicely ). If it is too high you need to move some things from in front of the axle to a point just behind the axle on the floor, doing this you should be able to achieve this.

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Bill

For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013

Mondeo Titanium 140 tdci

Grampian91

13/9/2013 at 2:40pm
Location: Midlands
Outfit: Mondeo Avondale Gram

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Noseweight ratio would be at the recommended 7% figure thats why its 111%.

Mines 102% because my limit is also 75kg.

for a 1200kg caravan your looking at 84kg for the noseweight for the 7%.

Just load as close to 75kg as you can without going over.

Try and load lightly your close to the limits. So it will be easy to exceed them.
Get the caravan and car weighed so you know the true figure.

Dont rely on the caravans unladen weight plate. It maybe off by a fair few kg.

A letter in one mag had someone complaining because his van was so heavy unladen instead of having 220+kg loading margin he actually had less than 60kg.

Had to get it replated. Which is not always an option if the weight is on the limit like yours.

90bhp isnt a lot for that weight.

josey60

15/9/2013 at 1:15pm
Location: Blackpool Lancashire
Outfit: Conway countryman.

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we are thinking of upgrading to a caravan, Our car is a Citroen Xsara Picasso 2005 2.0 HDI which has a towing capacity of 1300kg,but we have been told by a local caravan dealer not to go upto this but to stick to around 1100kg,can anyone recommend any vans that will be suitable please,we have set a budget of around £6000,and vans of around year 2000 to 2006,and 4 berth.

Many thanks in advance....

Post last edited on 15/09/2013 13:23:55

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Exercise every day and Die Healthy....

JOSEY60

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