This month we have a Milenco nose weight gauge for our prize draw. This device is accurate to British Standard BS 7691 and is good for over 1000 uses at this accuracy. It is a really good piece of kit and normally retails around £30. The following explains why using one of these things is worthwhile.
Experienced caravanners know to load their caravan so that the weight is kept low and mainly over the axle. This can be a bit inconvenient because all of those high level cupboards are very tempting and you want to be able to set up quickly when you get to the site. Nevertheless you need to do everything you can to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible and make sure that heavier items in particular can't move about. It is also really important to get the fore and aft balance right to avoid pitching and snaking. The way to ensure that you have got this right is to check the nose weight of your caravan once you have it ready to go and loaded how you want it.
Nose weight is important for two reasons.
1. Your car and tow bar will have a maximum load and this should be printed somewhere on it. Either stamped on it or on a plate. Often this is 75 or 100 Kg but you need to check your own. Also your car has its own maximum and this may be different. For example you could have a tow bar good for 100Kg on a car with a maximum of 75Kg. Check in your owners manual. If they are different ou have to use the lower figure.
2. Your caravan will have a recommended nose weight that the manufacturer has established through testing. This is usually in the owners manual. If you don't have an owners manual an often recommended rule of thumb is 7% of the actual loaded weight of your caravan. In order to use this method you will need to estimate the loaded weight of the caravan which isn't easy so best get hold of the correct figure from your manual.
Nose weight
The traditional home spun method of checking the nose weight is a set of bathroom scales and a piece of broom handle which when you put it between the scales and the tow hitch has this at the normal towing height. Clearly you need to have your caravan on a level area. You put one end of the piece of broom handle into the tow hitch and the other end on the scales and wind up the jockey wheel until the full weight is taken by the scales. Obviously you need to make sure that the caravan can't move by leaving the brake on and/or chocking the wheels.
Whilst this might be OK at home it is much more convenient to have a purpose designed nose weight gauge that you can take with you so that you can check again before you set off home. This is where the Milenco nose weigh gauge comes in.
Discussion
It would be really good if experienced members could tell us how they deal with this issue. What strategies do you use to get the balance right. For example are there certain heavy things you always move to over the axles to travel. How do you secure these to make sure they don't move when you are travelling?
Less experienced caravanners can ask questions on loading and nose weights here.
The closing date for entries to the prize draw is midnight on 21st June 2013, no cash alternative will be given, the prize winner will be drawn randomly from members who have entered the draw by email. You must be a member of Caravan Savers Club to enter. The club is free to join and the draw is free to enter. Details of how to enter will be sent separately to members by email.
Experienced caravanners know to load their caravan so that the weight is kept low and mainly over the axle. This can be a bit inconvenient because all of those high level cupboards are very tempting and you want to be able to set up quickly when you get to the site. Nevertheless you need to do everything you can to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible and make sure that heavier items in particular can't move about. It is also really important to get the fore and aft balance right to avoid pitching and snaking. The way to ensure that you have got this right is to check the nose weight of your caravan once you have it ready to go and loaded how you want it.
Nose weight is important for two reasons.
1. Your car and tow bar will have a maximum load and this should be printed somewhere on it. Either stamped on it or on a plate. Often this is 75 or 100 Kg but you need to check your own. Also your car has its own maximum and this may be different. For example you could have a tow bar good for 100Kg on a car with a maximum of 75Kg. Check in your owners manual. If they are different ou have to use the lower figure.
2. Your caravan will have a recommended nose weight that the manufacturer has established through testing. This is usually in the owners manual. If you don't have an owners manual an often recommended rule of thumb is 7% of the actual loaded weight of your caravan. In order to use this method you will need to estimate the loaded weight of the caravan which isn't easy so best get hold of the correct figure from your manual.
Nose weight
The traditional home spun method of checking the nose weight is a set of bathroom scales and a piece of broom handle which when you put it between the scales and the tow hitch has this at the normal towing height. Clearly you need to have your caravan on a level area. You put one end of the piece of broom handle into the tow hitch and the other end on the scales and wind up the jockey wheel until the full weight is taken by the scales. Obviously you need to make sure that the caravan can't move by leaving the brake on and/or chocking the wheels.
Whilst this might be OK at home it is much more convenient to have a purpose designed nose weight gauge that you can take with you so that you can check again before you set off home. This is where the Milenco nose weigh gauge comes in.
Discussion
It would be really good if experienced members could tell us how they deal with this issue. What strategies do you use to get the balance right. For example are there certain heavy things you always move to over the axles to travel. How do you secure these to make sure they don't move when you are travelling?
Less experienced caravanners can ask questions on loading and nose weights here.
The closing date for entries to the prize draw is midnight on 21st June 2013, no cash alternative will be given, the prize winner will be drawn randomly from members who have entered the draw by email. You must be a member of Caravan Savers Club to enter. The club is free to join and the draw is free to enter. Details of how to enter will be sent separately to members by email.
