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Topic: Bad outfits

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Baileyjake

10/4/2015 at 10:18am
Location: West Midlands
Outfit: Coachman Amara 570 6 + Shogun SG4

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You can buy a nose weight gauge for less than £10 at tow sure.
It's just a telescopic tube with a spring in it. Where the 2 tubes overlap is the scale.

A great deal of accuracy is not necessary. You just need to be sure you are not exceeding the maximum your car and hitch can take.

My caravan is a single axle. Just moving the gas cylinder from front to back can change the nose weight by 15kg. Because it's like a see saw. What you take from the front then subtracts when you place it at the rear. Without moving the gas bottles to the back of my van it's over the weight my car and towbar can take.

iank01

10/4/2015 at 1:14pm
Location: Worcestershire
Outfit: Buccaneer Cruiser

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Quote: Originally posted by Baileyjake on 10/4/2015
You can buy a nose weight gauge for less than £10 at tow sure.

Those are not even worth £10 as they are very inaccurate. If your vehicle's tow bar has a maximum load of i.e. 85kg and you are exceeding that, then you can be prosecuted for having a dangerous outfit. Better to spend the addiotnal £20 and have one that is fairly accurate like the Milenco gauge which is to British standards and calibrated.

billy

10/4/2015 at 2:24pm
Location: North Essex
Outfit: Caravelair Alba 400

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You can't be procecuted for having excess noseweight unless it so over that your axle weight is exceeded. If you do get weighed they will weigh the whole outfit on axle weighbridge & you will get nicked if any axles are overweight.

They will not unhitch caravan & check noseweight. It would be pointless anyway, noseweight will vary if you weigh same van on different surfaces, uneven ground etc. Its not an exact science, it just needs to be more or less correct. Cheap weight guages or bathroom scales are good enough for that.

Theres no need to check noseweight every trip, as long as caravan is loaded much the same it will be close enough.

neil and lena

10/4/2015 at 4:56pm
Location: Dumfries
Outfit: 2022Coachman565+VIP

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milenco nose weight gauge are guaranteed accuracy to within 1% , expensive yes at £35 but good

iank01

10/4/2015 at 5:17pm
Location: Worcestershire
Outfit: Buccaneer Cruiser

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Quote: Originally posted by Billy x on 10/4/2015
You can't be procecuted for having excess noseweight unless it so over that your axle weight is exceeded. If you do get weighed they will weigh the whole outfit on axle weighbridge & you will get nicked if any axles are overweight.

Correct but as I stated you could be prosecuted for having a dangerous outfit.

I800 dave

12/4/2015 at 11:32pm
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Suprised more haven't been spotted over the holiday fortnight

andy4x4

12/4/2015 at 11:34pm
Location: Scottish Borders
Outfit: Sterling Eccles 636 Ssanyong Korando

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I check nose weight each trip out bound but never on return as previous posts I put everything back where it was,

On my last trip out this week I checked the weight and it was sitting at 80kg on the tow ball max is 84kg this being a bit close I took out one of the gas cylinders out my unit is an abbey Spectrum 419 twin axle and holds two cylinders and the spare wheel in the front locker. Taking out one cylinder of 6kg lowered the nose weigh by 14kg at the two ball. so it is very surprising how a little shuffling can make a huge difference.

Funny or not so funny I have a built in water tank slung under the floor to the front of the first axle this holds 80lt of water about 80kg I soon know if I have forgotten to drain this on the way home

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