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Subject Topic: Might buy a caravan….help
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Personexessexmum
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 10:09am
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To add, we're going to go to White Arches to see their Archway special edition ones too.

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Amanda


PersonMrs. Bonce
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Did you go to Finedon? We like the look of end bedroom vans, but have heard that they make the van too end heavy.


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Personexessexmum
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 10:12am
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Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 15/4/2024
Did you go to Finedon?

No, not yet. We were up in Sheffield so went to a sprite dealer there.


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Amanda


Personexessexmum
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 10:47am
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Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 15/4/2024
We like the look of end bedroom vans, but have heard that they make the van too end heavy.

The van itself is only 1500kg so we're hoping it'll be fine....we'll have to be careful about how we load it I guess?
Have done a brief search and tbh as we tend to carry a lot of heavy stuff (awning etc) in the car anyway, so we'll just ensure we don't cram everything in under the bed.

Further edit, have now read up about noseweight and how to make sure the van is loaded correctly. Will buy a noseweight gauge.



Post last edited on 15/04/2024 11:05:48

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Amanda


Personblueexpo97
15/4/2024 at 10:50am
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Quote: Originally posted by exessexmum on 15/4/2024

Interestingly one of the dealers put our car and a very heavy twin axle van into their calculator and despite it being 95% of kerbweight it came up as "green" and fine for an experienced tower 😳. After your advice we took that with a very big pinch of salt and are sticking to the 1520kg limit which is the 85%. Interesting that salespeople are pushing much heavier vans on people though.



That's why they're sales people.

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XVI yes?

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Personexessexmum
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 11:03am
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Quote: Originally posted by blueexpo97 on 15/4/2024


That's why they're sales people.


Oh, absolutely. But it's a shame that they push incredibly heavy vans onto people with lighter vehicles without any sort of warning.



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Amanda


PersonPaul and Nikki
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 4:35pm
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A 1500kg caravan with a Freelander 2 will be absolutely fine, just remember that the end bed storage is pretty much useless whilst driving, even something like the Cadac under our bed makes towing really uncomfortable


PersonMonty15
15/4/2024 at 5:00pm
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Quote: Originally posted by Paul and Nikki on 15/4/2024
A 1500kg caravan with a Freelander 2 will be absolutely fine, just remember that the end bed storage is pretty much useless whilst driving, even something like the Cadac under our bed makes towing really uncomfortable


I can vouch for how sensitive the stability can be when loading the rear of van, my van is normally rock solidly stable under all circumstances, but on one occasion I moved a 6kg TV from under front bench in to rear wardrobe (trying to get nose weight down!) and it really was noticeably more unstable to tow! Stopped after only a few miles to shift TV forwards, and reliable stability returned!

Plenty of reports that under rear bed storage is unusable when towing because of the poor handling any load causes!


Personexessexmum
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 5:03pm
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Quote: Originally posted by Monty15 on 15/4/2024
Quote: Originally posted by Paul and Nikki on 15/4/2024
A 1500kg caravan with a Freelander 2 will be absolutely fine, just remember that the end bed storage is pretty much useless whilst driving, even something like the Cadac under our bed makes towing really uncomfortable


I can vouch for how sensitive the stability can be when loading the rear of van, my van is normally rock solidly stable under all circumstances, but on one occasion I moved a 6kg TV from under front bench in to rear wardrobe (trying to get nose weight down!) and it really was noticeably more unstable to tow! Stopped after only a few miles to shift TV forwards, and reliable stability returned!

Plenty of reports that under rear bed storage is unusable when towing because of the poor handling any load causes!


Hmm. So how do people manage? That end bed is the only one that's long enough (in a fixed bed) without going over the 1500kg 😕 Any other bed type is just impossible to get to and from the loo (when one of you is by the wall, or if it's a transverse island bed with end washroom. I'm not a big woman but honestly I'd be kicking him every time I went to the loo as could barely squeeze through the gap.


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Amanda


PersonMonty15
15/4/2024 at 6:13pm
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Loading a caravan to obtain correct nose weight and towing stability is somewhere between trial and error and a black art!

Plenty of vans with rear beds, likely you just have to view the tempting vast amount of storage space under the bed as 'out of bounds' when towing, at least for anything vaguely heavy OR a significant accumulation of lots of lighter stuff (it all adds up!)! Likewise, you may find the stowage space under front bench seats equally compromised, as too much load there can make your nose weight too heavy!

I, and I'm sure others do to, have to transport stuff more amidships (near or over the axle), then move it into more convenient storage places when on site, and do the reverse when leaving a site.

A LOT of us weigh just about everything that goes into the van, and calculate where the accumulated weight can go so as to not compromise stability and/or nose weight - as I said, black art etc.!

I try and keep the caravan as light as I can, and load the car, that helps with towing stability. I'm pushing boundaries with my outfit, easy to go over the van MTPLM as not a lot of payload capacity anyway, van MTPLM is also near towing capacity of my car, my nose weight limit is relatively light so a challenge to achieve, but despite this appearing to be less than optimum collection of figures, through careful loading and an awareness of what weights and where they go, I have an incredibly stable outfit that (TV incident aside! ) has proven itself for over six years and many, many thousands of miles. You can do it.


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Personexessexmum
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 7:03pm
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Thanks, that's really helpful. New van will hopefully have ATC which will also help with anxiety about wobbliness! Will practice packing and checking weights though :-)

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Amanda


PersonMonty15
15/4/2024 at 8:40pm
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ATC is great, I've got it on my van, and it IS a great reassurance, BUT it should be treated in the same light as an emergency parachute and failure of your main 'chute! You really don't want to be dependant upon it to counter avoidable situations, it's there for when EVERYTHING else has failed and as your last resort! .... if it also fails!!!!!!!

Mine has kicked in a few times, firstly when I picked up caravan from the dealer after purchase, and the tyres were HORRIBLY underinflated (yes, they were a rubbish dealer!) and it wasn't very stable on wobbly soft tyres! Other occasions have been exceptional road conditions where camber alternates violently from one side to other and 'tricks' the system, one was a level crossing that was diagonal to the road. It's never kicked in during 'normal' towing, nor should it.


Personexessexmum
via mobile 15/4/2024 at 8:42pm
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Thanks Monty :-)

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Amanda


Personclbewi
16/4/2024 at 7:02am
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Both of our previous Swift vans with end bed had the spare fixed under there. Never had any problems.

As far as nose weight gauges go there probably about as accurate as the weather forecast.

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Claire and Colin


Personblueexpo97
16/4/2024 at 8:15am
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Mine is very accurate as I have it checked at my work.

they're

-------------
XVI yes?

As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.


PersonPixie_Hez
16/4/2024 at 9:04am
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Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 15/4/2024
We like the look of end bedroom vans, but have heard that they make the van too end heavy.


We have an end bedroom and love the layout but you do have to be careful about what you store under the bed. In our previous caravan with a mid island bed we used to keep tables and chairs and all sorts of stuff under the bed, it was jam packed. We can’t do that with the rear bed as it would make the caravan too heavy at the rear, leading to instability, but to be honest, when we actually looked at what we used to keep under the bed, we realised we didn’t need or use half of it, we were just taking it for the sake of taking it. We had a really good clear out when we got our current caravan and if we hadn’t used something for a year, it got taken out. Now we carry our awning and heavy table and chairs in the boot of the car and only have a few lightweight bits and pieces under the bed like an aluminium roll up table, spare packs of toilet roll and kitchen roll and the whirligig washing line. We find we don’t miss any of the junk we used to haul about with us and rarely use!

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Pixie



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