Nose Weight Shock

[hdj42]

Good evening

New to Caravan, well, apart from a couple of years in late 90's where I was given a old Sprite Major and used it for a couple of Years

Anyway, we have been after a Fleetwood for a little while within our limited budget and bought one last week, a Fleetwood Vanlander 640es

Prior to purchase I checked with the Caravan Club technical people on my Car and Caravan match, 2009 Kia Sedona 2.9 CDI and as far as kerb weight and all that it was a good match and also reading reviews on the Kia Sedona sounds like a good caravan puller

Anyway, went to fetch the van last week, taking with me a cheap nose weight measuring pole thing, van was empty apart from blowing awning and full winter cover which were placed back from the last axle

Front locker, contained one gas bottle, spare wheel and some bits and bobs

Car and van were on a Flat gravel surface so the chap got me a 6in thick piece of wood to place the weight gauge.

We lowered the hitch down onto the gauge and it passed the 85kg limit for my car, then the max on the gauge of 110kg and didnt stop until the whole gauge was level with the outer tube of the measuring device.

The seller, who had never used a nose weight gauge looked confused, he had been using a Discovery to Tow and before the Disco some car and he said he never had a problem

Anyway, I decided, thinking there might be a problem with the gauge, proceeded to mount the hitch onto the car tow ball, expect the worse. As the full weight of the van was on the hitch the rear of the car dropped about 1cm or less than 1/2in from its non hitched position.

I stood back to look at the line of the car and van to each other, having seen many outfits over the years either with the caravan nose down or nose up with the towing car in same position.

But the van and car looked perfect, I drove it down the road and back again, giving the car suspension time to find its level, but again, the overall line of van and car were excellent.

I decided to take the risk, making sure I stopped every 30 miles in my 168 mile Journey.

The Sedona was brilliant, to be honest she felt much better with the caravan on than she does solo, its like the engine and automatic gear box we built for such a combination.
I stopped several times and measured the distance between wheel arch and tyre and tow hitch to ground but nothing, still the same.

I have not had chance to use a gauge and move what limited amount of stuff there is to try and get a true reading as I have had to park the van on a steep slope while the clearance of a flat area is finished off

I would be interested to know what other Fleetwood owners are using to tow and what nose weights they have been achieving

Just a small point here, I am really surprised that although Laden and kerb weights are always quoted, the nose weights are very rarely advertised and this is so wrong, it is as critical as all the other weights

many thanks
Hugh

[JimandWendy]

Glad you managed to get the van home without any issues.
I've not had one but I believe twin axles are notorious for being difficult to measure nose weight. If you lift the nose up even a couple of inches the noseweight will increase significantly. It's best to measure it with the nose at the exact same height as when hitched up to the car, with the car suspension slightly compressed.
Also, the noseweight gauge needs to be of decent quality - I use a Milenco after I found my previous cheap version had a very tired spring and was over recording the weight.
Having said that, the recommended range for noseweight is 5% to 7% of the caravan's weight. So in your case with probably an MTPLM of 1600kg+ this means a nose weight of at least 80kg, upto 112Kg. Even using a Discovery with a noseweight limit of 150kg, the AL-KO hitch head limit of 100kg would come into play.