Nose weight issues/concerns

Hi. I have a Swift Challenger Sport 564 and I tow with a Serento 2.5D XT. The max permitted weight on the tow bar is 120kg and the recommended (manufactures) nose weight of the caravan is 90kg.

I tow with a nose weight of 90kg and it tows comfortably with no problems but to achieve this nose weight I have put as little as possible in the front locker, ie only one cylinder and just bits and pieces, hoses, toilet fluid etc. If I take a spare cylinder I take it in the car as well as the awning, in order to keep the nose weight down.

This set up changes depending on the tow car, but I advise to keep the nose weight down to the recommended weight and to check the max weight permitted for your car/tow bar. I personally do not put any weight behind the axle to counter the nose weight as this can cause problems ie unsteadiness. 

Putting weight over the axle should not cause any problem, such as spare wheel, awning. You should be able to check the manufactures  max permitted nose weight on line.  Hope this helps

Fine, but make sure you check the manufacturers recommendations for the nose weight and tow bar/car weight. Its sometimes a matter of trial and error.   Good luck and happy caravanning 

We had a Bailey Valencia S1 and struggled to get the nose weight down to 100kg. The ex-factory nose weight was 86kg so you can see the problem. In later models they moved the gas bottles to the centre of the van which probably helps.

The only way we could get the weight down was to shift some heavy items to the back of the van. This is not ideal from a stability point of view but in our case it appeared to make little difference to towing stability.

I agree with EasyT. So long as you don't overdo things and load something like 100kg or more right at the back of the caravan the outfit should remain perfectly stable.

How much gas you need to carry depends largely on whether you will be using electric hook up all the time and how long you are away for. 

I am always on EHU and so use very little gas. A 3.9kg bottle would last me 80 nights. When I was only going away for 10 weeks I only carried the one bottle and would replace every Christmas. At £16 a refill I was not concerned if there was a couple of quids worth of gas left in the bottle at exchange. As I actually need the noseweight on present caravan and we are away 120 nights I carry two 3.9kg bottles. They are not a great deal different in weight to Calor lite when full. Calor Lite does seem to be more difficult to obtain refills for on a like for like basis. 

Is there no space to store anything in transit between the axle and the rear washroom?

Remove the wheel from the front locker and put it behind the axle, if your layout has a fixed bed then place it as far to the rear as possible.

Also the mains lead can easily be placed behind the axle, trust me the caravan will not be unstable, the reason your caravan is so nose heavy is partly due to the lack of fitments behind the axle, simply designed with too much weight up front.

I have practically everything behind the axle with my U1, just make sure you have the recommended 5 to 7% nose weight.

My present caravan a swift has the opposite problem due to the 40kg I carry with the bike rack, so my front locker is full with heavy gear, not much under the fixed bed, just to get up to 85kg NW.

Brilliant advice Broadside. The Club does not actually recommend putting a gas cylinder in the car due to health & safety.

If your water heater/boiler is under front seats be sure to drain it that will help nose weight 

Putting things into perspective, I find it a bit strange that some people religiously refuse to put anything behind the axle, but are perfectly happy with having the underslung spare wheel carrier there and a rear washroom which, with all its fittings, probably weighs more than most payload that one is likely to place inside the caravan.

Having read the previous comments on this thread in which members talk about where in the caravan they put their awning, etc, I wonder whether there is a general appreciation of how little one can carry in a modern caravan.  We have been caravanning for 37 years, beginning with a 1974 Sprite Musketeer and never used to worry about overall weght so long as the noseweight was within proper limits.  Last year, after 6 week trips on the continent, some friends and ourselves both experienced broken axles on our identical Bailey Unicorn Vigo series 3 caravans.  They were repaired free of charge by Bailey but we were both told that we had overloaded them.  This led me to look much more deeply into the matter of weight.  Most caravans are advertised as having a payload of between 150-160 kg.  If you fit a leisure battery and motor-mover, this comes down to around 95kg which is pathetically inadequate.  I have changed our caravan for a Coachman VIP which I have had replated to 1700kg which gives a payload after battery/motor-mover of approximately 180kg (note: series 3 Baileys cannot be replated to a higher payload).  I have taken the Coachman to a weighbridge and even with the replated payload, I have to put the awning, waste container, water container and television in the car.  I have also had to tell my wife to stop our previous practice of stocking the caravan with food and to just take essentials.  I suspect that we have all been led astray by the volume of storage provided in our caravans, including large fridges, and that many caravanners are, as I was, seriously overloading their caravans.

There is nothing wrong with heavy items behind the axle/s, as long as they are low down and the nose weight is at the correct weight, then it will still be stable. Two heavy gas bottles in the front locker is too much in my experience. Unless you don't use EHU then just one 6kg bottle is ample, don't forget that most sites stock gas if you do run out. Maybe try to get a gas lite bottle if you can find one.

One thing I am happy about is people that are actually concerned about nose weight, many don't even know what it is let alone check it.

Just one thing, my Volvo V70 had a maximum nose weight of 90kg, but it was a 2015 model.

Oh yes. We are amazed at how much stuff some people carry in their caravans and cars with total disregard for weight limits, in fact I was told I was an idiot for suggesting such things and that a car and caravan are not trucks so why should they worry about weight limits, just chuck everything in there. I left the group, I do not want to be associated with morons like that.

We put ours on a weigh bridge with just the battery, motormover and a gas bottle in there, then weighed everything we put in it. We dress for a week, clothes can be washed and take the bear minimum because we have the awning over the axles.

We have a limit of 155kg, the awning is 35kg including poles so not much left for everything else.