We have just upgrade our old 2000 elddis firestorm 520/4 to a 2007 ace award tristar.
The problem we have is that when we connected the car Nissan Xtrail 2003 2.5 SVE petrol manual to the van
she seemed very nose heavy.
We emptied out the front locker of everything including gas bottles put them in car behind seats still front
Heavy...
We didn't empty the water tank but guessing if we do that will make a difference..
We have been caravanners for over 10 years and never come across this with any other van we've had....
The car shocks and springs have been checked and all ok.
Your advice would be grateful....
Definitely do a proper check of the caravan's nose-weight. You can do that easily enough using bathroom scales. I drive a 2008 (T31) X Trail and that has a maximium nose-weight of 100kg, so I doubt yours is much less if not the same. My caravan hardly moves the towbar.
Is that the actual nose weight? If it's 100kg nose weight now I dread to think what is was the gas bottles etc in the front locker. Have you got anything loaded behind the axle?
We thought about putting awnings over the axle but that would be all as we don't carry much stuff. 2 water hogs a wastemaster in bathroom. Microwave in cupboard above cooker clothes will be in car but will empty the water tank as that holds 16litres so guessing that Could hold front down. Anything else you can think of?
Drain the water tank, 16 litres of water weighs 16kg so will make a difference. Measure the actual nose weight so you know exactly what you are dealing with.
You say you don't carry much, do you have any cutlery, crockery, pots and pans, bedding, chairs etc?
We have bedding but put on the bed. Not sure if that's right.... Melamine plates and glasses. No China. 1 frying pan and 2 small saucepans. And a cutlery set. We tend to eat out most of the time. 2 fold up chairs that live each side of bed as haven't thought of where to put them as only had van 10 days.. But seeing as we're doing 3 week tour of South Coast in just over 2 weeks. Hubby want to know we're safe to tow.