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Subject Topic: Hobby nose weight
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Personfrederico
18/9/2013 at 2:18pm
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My nephew has a Hobby, twin axle 1600 unladen weight. His tow car is a Range Rover 3L diesel with towball limit 140kg. When he has one gas bottle in the front locker and nothing extra at the caravan back, the caravan nose weight is only 60 kg? Is that normal for Hobbys? He put another gas bottle, spare wheel, heavy tool bag and large ground sheet in the locker and it is still only 80kg? Should he put more weight in front of the axle? I was thinking 110kg NW would be best?
I have a Lunar Freelander 640 T/A and have very little in my front locker to keep it down to my nose max of 80kg.


PersonDavid Klyne
18/9/2013 at 2:37pm
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I have heard that Hobby's and some other German vans do have light noseweights, something to do with the longer A-Frame? I suspect its going to be trial and error to get the right feel for towing. You might need to check the limit of the A-Frame downweight as with  AlKo its 100kgs but I don't think Hobby use AlKo chassis.

David


PersonGrampian91
18/9/2013 at 2:57pm
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How accurate is the gauge your using?

Adding a gas bottle, Spare wheel and toolbag should have increased it by more than 20kg.

But a twin axle does tend to sit fairly level with less noseweight.


As mentioned above also. The towcar may have a 140kg limit but does the caravans hitch? I know my caravans limit is 100kg.


Personfrederico
18/9/2013 at 3:07pm
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We used good digital bathroom scales with 17'' of wood. With 19'' of wood nose was 5kg heavier. Caravan was level.
Fred.


Personsunshinetours
18/9/2013 at 3:40pm
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As above long A frame vans (usually continental ones like our Adria) due to simple physics, are less directly affected by weight in locker than those where hitch is closer to locker.

This is why they often can have A frame mounted bike racks and such

60kg noseweight on a 1600kg van I believe would not be advisable as only 3.75% and may indeed be under legal minimum (4% ??)

As you say around 110kg would be about 7% so probably area to aim for assuming the chassis/hitch can allow for over 100kg - if not then stick to 100kg max)


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PersonJack+Jon
18/9/2013 at 4:17pm
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80kg will be ok, its twin axle.

Twin axle Hobby though, I'm suprised you haven't picked up on it Grampian, read the op again, you're normally pretty sharp on that sort of stuff.

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Regards, Jack+Jon.


Personfrederico
18/9/2013 at 4:43pm
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My nephew I mentioned above, was towing the Hobby with a Landrover Discovery. He is new to towing caravans. Because the Landrover has a max nose weight of 150kg he did not bother checking it. Thinking it would not be heavier than 150 kg. Did not suspect it to be so light. When we discussed towing stability he said he had a few issues with sway When vehicles pass while I have had no problems at all. That is why I helped him to check to nose weight. I was surprised to find it so light. That is probably been his problem. He has loaded it at 100kg for this weekend and will report back. Hopefully with problems solved. He has the Range Rover now.
Fred.


PersonJack+Jon
18/9/2013 at 5:38pm
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A twin axle carries much less weight on each axle than a heavy but smaller single axle so the 7% of max weight for noseweight is less important. With a twin axle you should aim for a good centre weight spread with a bit of front bias, ie load the caravan evenly as far as is practical. 80-100kg will be ok, he may get a bit of sway, a caravan of that size is not really a tourer & it is probably advisable to mostly drive along with the trucks at 56mph.

I'm assuming the caravan is one of the very few twin axle Hobby models of just under 7mtre body length?

-------------
Regards, Jack+Jon.


Personfrederico
18/9/2013 at 6:15pm
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Yes, about 8 mtrs total. His other problem is he has been driving too slowly about 50 mph on motorways. I just keep up with them as you say 56 mph so they don't overtake me too often. Mine is 7.82m total.
Fred.


PersonJack+Jon
18/9/2013 at 6:44pm
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Yes he is legal provided actual body length is under 7mtres otherwise it needs to be towed by a vehicle of over 3.5t gvw & Rangy is 3.2t, I think & not even double cab pickups are 3.5t gvw either afaik. There have been loads of twin axle Hobby models over the yrs & some are just under but most are just over.

Whether law is enforced I don't know as you see plenty being towed by by 4x4s & Transits of below 3.5t.

-------------
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Personsunshinetours
19/9/2013 at 10:12am
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Quote: Originally posted by Jack+Jon on 18/9/2013
A twin axle carries much less weight on each axle than a heavy but smaller single axle so the 7% of max weight for noseweight is less important. With a twin axle you should aim for a good centre weight spread with a bit of front bias, ie load the caravan evenly as far as is practical. 80-100kg will be ok, he may get a bit of sway, a caravan of that size is not really a tourer & it is probably advisable to mostly drive along with the trucks at 56mph.

I'm assuming the caravan is one of the very few twin axle Hobby models of just under 7mtre body length?


Is a nose weight of under 4% legal on a caravan of any sort?

Many of the new single axle Adria tourers are around 8m total length and are certainly designed for touring.

As you say above loading is still very important but so is noseweight whatever you are towing with


PersonJack+Jon
19/9/2013 at 11:48am
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Noseweight on a twin axle has to be considered differently than a single axle. On a twin you have to consider the requirement for reasonably even weight distribution over both axles. With any caravan the noseweight achieved with sensible loading, ie gas bottles in locker & heavy items evenly distributed centrally within reason is probably around the noseweight the manufacturer intended.

If this exceeds the towbar loading for the tow vehicle then this has to be reduced by adding weight to rear of 'van which is not ideal. However in this case excess noseweight is not a issue so all that is required here is sensible loading of caravan with even distribution of weight on axles.

-------------
Regards, Jack+Jon.


Personfrederico
19/9/2013 at 12:10pm
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Thank you very much for all the replies.
Fred.


Personsunshinetours
19/9/2013 at 12:29pm
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Yes and....


"Is a nose weight of under 4% legal on a caravan of any sort?"


PersonJack+Jon
19/9/2013 at 1:57pm
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Quote: Originally posted by sunshinetours on 19/9/2013
"Is a nose weight of under 4% legal on a caravan of any sort?"

Nothing about it here. I would think its just good advice, the same as the suggestion of 7% of caravan weight for ideal noseweight but plenty of caravans tow ok with less than this. The advice is mainly for single axle caravans as obviously with a twin weight distribution should be reasonably even over both axles.

Enforcement of towing law is difficult in the UK because UK caravans(unlike most other EU countries)are not DVLA registered & do not have their own numberplates so camera enforcement to spot illegally matched outfits &/or incorrectly licenced drivers for example, is not possible.

-------------
Regards, Jack+Jon.


Personsunshinetours
19/9/2013 at 2:41pm
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This this must be what I was thinking of (second para) in that car manufacturers must allow a nose weight of no less than 4% of the cars max tow limit.

My mistake



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