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Hi all - I am a newbie to caravaning and going on my first outing next Saturday. I have done a lot of research around noseweights. I have a Bailey Ranger 500/5 and when I have used the noseweight gauge it seems heavy at the front even with only a 4.5kg gas bottle and the spare wheel in the front locker it is around 120kg and I am trying to get it down to 80kg which is the recomended Ball weight for my Ford Galaxy.

As I only use the van for weekends I don't have a lot of things to put in the van (no awning etc) which may effect the weight on the nose.

My questions are

1.Would it help if I removed the front draw unit to get noeweight down

2. If so how easy is it to remove and replace the draw unit as I would only want to relocate it whilst towing? 

Any help greatfully recieved.

Hi all - I am a newbie to caravaning and going on my first outing next Saturday. I have done a lot of research around noseweights. I have a Bailey Ranger 500/5 and when I have used the noseweight gauge it seems heavy at the front even with only a 4.5kg gas bottle and the spare wheel in the front locker it is around 120kg and I am trying to get it down to 80kg which is the recomended Ball weight for my Ford Galaxy.

we have the 500/5 ranger,with a few bits and one bottle,plus spare tyre it works out at 92 kgswhich is what i can use on our towball.the spare weighs in at 19 kgs.you could put it in the boot of the car.

On some vans the front cabinet just lifts out, to make the bed a better shape. If it doesn't then it's probably well screwed in like LDKO's.

Try moving the spare from the front locker to over the axle. You can get adjustable bars from dealers which are used between the units to stop stuff moving forwards and backwards whilst in transit.

The front chest of drawers in our Emerald also just lifted off quite easily as Caz said.

Michael........you have a Ranger, you must know if the chest is easily removed.

Fozzer........suggest you get an Alko underslung carrier for your spare, that will sort your noseweight problem.  We did that with our Emerald.

Our Ranger 550-6 front drawer unit was screwed down to the base unit by only 2 screws - 1 each side at bedbox level.
     Once removed though - there's a big hole left in the baseboard (to keep noseweight down....?) so a piece of board will be needed to cover it.

We suffered heavy noseweight too - moving the spare to inside the van while towing improved things, but buying a spare wheel carrier and slinging it under the van was the best move.   Also, all the luggage / awning / stuff was carried over and behind the axle.  Still couldn't get the noseweight below 75kg though.

Hi have you tried putting some of weight at the back of the van e.g water carriers gas bottles awning waste carriers that should take some weight off the front (only a suggestion)

Quote: Originally posted by guzgog on 15/2/2008

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Hi have you tried putting some of weight at the back of the van e.g water carriers gas bottles awning waste carriers that should take some weight off the front (only a suggestion)

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would it help if the spare went in a wheel carrier under the caravan behind the axle?

also bailey ranger 550/6 owner and was suprised at how heavy I was at the front so have removed spare wheel, and carry this in the van, carry gas in the car - front locker is virtually empty. thinking of making the front drawers easily detachable, to make the bed larger at night so would be grateful if anybody has modified theirs to make it easy fit

thanks