Noseweight Mystery
Can anyone offer any suggestions please? Whenever I load the caravan I always put specific items in specific places knowing that when I check the noseweight it will be about 87kg. (the towball maximum loading for the car is 90kg). I've been doing this with this particular caravan for the last seven years with no problem. However, This time the noseweight is showing 94kg on both my noseweight measurer and bathroom scales. The only thing that is different is that I have a full 7kg butane cylinder in the front locker this time, (15kg gross weight). This, of course, isn't the first time I've had a full cylinder in the front. To try to compensate for this I've moved whatever I can from the front of the 'van towards the centre / back and even put my awning frame in the caravan behind the axle, something that I have never done before. I've also added a couple of kg of water in a container in the shower. These measures have made a bit of difference but I still can't get it below 90kg. It's a very frustrating mystery, the day before we set off on holiday. I am still below the maximum payload limit but don't really want to add even more weight from car to caravan. Any ideas anyone?
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A mystery indeed! I know this is a daft question but you haven't used a Calor lite cylinder in the past and now can't get one like us so have to use the heavier ones?
Again another daft question but have you taken anything out anywhere or added anything else to the front locker? Where do you store your EHU cable?
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I would just point out that the tare weight of calor cylinders does vary.Some empty bottles are heavier than others.
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Have you a internal front water tank that is full ? Full hot water heater ?
Both tend to be located forward of the axle.
Caught me out a couple of times and that was on a tandem axle caravan, where nose weight is a problem depending on relative levels of the axles to each other
Rgds
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Just back from two lovely weeks on the Isle of Wight and think I might have sussed out the problem. When I came to fill the water heater I immediately got water running from the tap rather than having to wait for two or three spluttering minutes whilst the heater filled up. My conclusion was that although the drain valve had been in the open position until I arrived on site it hadn't actual opened and so water from the last heater fill, (when I sterilised the system) was still there, and yes, before anyone suggests this, I do always open both the kitchen tap and the washroom tap to allow air in to allow draining-down. A full water heater is about 9kg which was about how much 'overweight' the nose was.
When preparing to return home I checked under the caravan and the water was, in fact, draining out OK when I opened the valve. Checking the nose weight it was pretty well exactly as I would have expected it to be with everything loaded inside it there 'normal' positions. It looks like a new valve may be needed. More astronomical expense I suspect.
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You seemed to have solved your problem, which is great.
However, I just thought that I would add a point from my own experience. You did not state if your caravan is a single axle or twin axle model. The nose weight on twin axle caravans are much more difficult to adjust than those with one axle. The latter act like a simple "see-saw" and so moving loads around is usually sufficient. Of course, moving the water in your undrained water system is not possible. Draining is the only option.
As with a single axle, increasing the nose weight tends to lower the hitch and vice versa. However, physically raising the tow hitch on a twin axle "unloads" the front suspension and increases the load on the rear suspension. Lowering the tow hitch has the opposite effect. The "see-saw" effect is "dampened" by the way loads transfer between the axles. Moving the payload around has the general effect as expected (forwards, increases the nose weight, backwards, reducing it), but to nothing like extent one expects!
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