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Just a thought to pass on !

At my last service I was told that my nose weight was too high so I had a look at the equipment I was carrying in the front locker - 2 gas bottles, bottle jack, chemical toilet liquid X 2 plus various blocks of wood. I decided to put the jack, and bottles of chemical liquid and the wood in a lidded plastic box which I carry inside the caravan and place under the van when on site - but I got a surprise with its weight!.

The caravan now tows easier and the jockey wheel no longer digs into the ground when using the mover !

So what is your noseweight now? You have checked it? How often do you check it? (every time I hitch up it is checked). Most caravan chassis have a 100kg hitch limit, check your caravan handbook; what is your car noseweight limit? Recommended noseweight needs to be between 5%-7% of the caravan MTPLM.

Naw - never checked. Always drive rear wheel cars and helps traction to have a decent noseweight - different for front wheel cars !. Never had a problem and I have towed all over !. Always owned heavy cars.

This is the first time it has been brought to my attention !

Although I've seen awnings getting put into front lockers and being pulled by front wheel cars !

I agree with the tyre pressure on the car as well as the van, they can make a hell of a difference to stability.

Going back to the nose weight it was never spoken about when I first started caravanning and since then I have never heard, read or seen anything that would make it an obvious contender for road accidents involving caravans - badly loaded vans yes !

Caravan should be slightly nose down - puts more control onto the car. By its nature this causes the front of the car to rise and the wheels will lose a fraction of their traction, which is not normally a problem. However too much nose weight will cause problems as can be seen in hill starts or more frequently trying to tow off soft ground where the rear wheels have sunk in !

Quote: Originally posted by Octavia4x4 on 16/7/2014

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<font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">So what is your noseweight now? You have checked it? Howoften do you check it? (every time I hitch up it is checked). Most caravanchassis have a 100kg hitch limit, check your caravan handbook; what is your carnoseweight limit? Recommended noseweight needs to be between 5%-7% of the caravanMTPLM.

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