Nose weights, kerb weights, towing weights
I have read with interest some of the discussions on the subject of weights etc. I was in the market for another tow car after having owned my very reliable 2005 Nissan Xtrail for eight years. Alas, I went in to my local caravan spares shop and ended up
buying another caravan, as you do, and found that my old xtrail was just a little bit too light to tow the new caravan safely so the search was on. After travelling around different dealers I was to become aware that some of their information was dangerously
incorrect i.e, the maximum towing weight of a towing vehicle does not mean that you should tow a caravan 85% of that weight. You should only tow with 85% of the kerbside weight. A lot of reviews I have read on our own CT would seem to use the maximum towing
weight as their guide. What is the kerbside weight? Some say it is the weight of the vehicle with no one in it and some say it is the weight including the driver. Who is right. I would suggest that it should include the weight of the driver, after all ,the
caravan won't tow itself. Anyway after much thought and test driving, I have bought another xtrail 2010 model which is heavier than the mark 1. No one could tell me the kerbside weight, not even the Nissan dealer. Off I went to the public weighbridge and weighed
the car without anyone in it but with half a tank of fuel. It came out at 1760kgs so with me in it it was 1847kgs (yes I know I'm overwieght) which is the weight I will use when buying another caraven. P.S. the manufactureres maximum towing weight is shown
as 2200kgs but this is far in excess of what I will or should be towing. Does anyone else know the kerbside weight of their towing vehicle, maybe we could start a database on the CT.