Losing Noseweight!
I decided to dig out my noseweight guage and test my Bailey Olympus as loaded for the first time. The gauge sank well past the 100kg mark which was the highest mark. I removed the awning, griddle, annex, and my inflatable furniture and put these over the axle. tested again, still over, removed towels etc and still the gauge was just over the 100kg limit for the Alko hitch. My car is a Skoda Yeti 4x4 with a nose weight of 85kg. I think the only way I can get to this limit is to remove the gas bottles! Not a great idea when I am planning for a 2.5 week trip to france.
Car is a Skoda Yeti 4x4 150 outdoor 2015, Caravan is a Bailey Olympus 530/4 2012.
What am I missing here?
Comments
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Is the vehicle sitting level or on an incline. Are you sitting on grass and have the nose weight acting directly onto soft earth on does it sit on a board or hard surface. These will all effect the reading.
Colin
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I would verify the operation of your gauge. Weigh a different caravan or try yours on the bathroom scales.
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There's no safer place to keep the gas bottles than in their dedicated locker, so leave them there. If all else fails you have no option but to move payload to the rear. A lot has been exaggerated regarding the drawback of doing so. You really have to put a lot of load right at the back, and I mean about 50 kg, to have any noticeable effect.0
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If you moved 50kg from the front of the van, 2m in front of the axle, to the back, 2m behind the axle, you are looking at reducing the nose weight by 200kg. You need to look at the maths, it's all about levers or moments of force. You do not need to move much to have a noticeable effect.
Colin
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Thanks for the comments and thoughts, I have 2 trips coming up, a trip to blackpool this weekend for 5 days where i am travelling "light" (no awning or awning furniture), but then I am going to France for 2.5 weeks and I'm going fully loaded with everything. I suspect the nose gauge, I took a calor bottle out of the gas locker and it made no difference so I am going to try the bathroom scales lol!
To answer the questions about where I am weighing it, Its on my rear drive which is concrete hardstanding and flat until just before the hitch where the drive slopes to the road. the nose has to drop anyway to fit the gauge so I don't think thats helping.
I haven't been getting updates about your posts so thats why theres been a delay.
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The distance has a significant effect. I have an Alko Premium Jockey Wheel with built in gauge. At present this reads 75/80kg. When I multiply it by the distance to the axle and then divide this by the distance from axle to centre of hitch I get 66kg. I have verified the calculation with bathroom scales and a block at the hitch.
We all do things differently and I'm a bit OCD, so I carry the three attached sheets, as well as a tyre pressures page.
Colin
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Mine is in the front gas locker.
Colin
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Our caravan has it's spare wheel about a meter to the rear of the axle, and it took me ages to realise why I had to load the nose end of the caravan so much. I do didn't even know it had a spare wheel when we bought it.
Perhaps Stephen's van has a spot for a spare wheel in a similar place?
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I am away in the van at the moment. I did move some items from the front lockers to under the bed just behind the axle which I would never do before. I tested the noseweight with my bathroom scales gave me even worse results that the nose gauge but it towed ok. I realise now why when I picked the caravan up and it was empty other than 1 gas bottle in the locker from the dealers and it towed poorly - very bouncy but its a long van on a single axle so I think its just going to be how it is. Thanks everyone for the comments and some great detail.
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