Nose weight

[Brummie]

Can some body tell me the recomended towing nose weight or point me to where I can find out. I'm useless at finding threads I definitely come under when it comes to computor skills.

Thanks, Brummie

[Ava_Banana]

I seem to remember going for around 75kg....

....this is a recommendation from a "volvo forum".

The nose weight referred to in the vehicle handbook should be followed, but as a general guideline the recommended nose weight is around 7% of the laden weight of the trailer. Too light or too heavy a nose weight will result in poor towing stability and, in the case of a heavy nose weight, may mean that headlights project a potentially dangerous, high beam of light, dazzling other drivers. Checking tyre pressures on a regular basis is very important. Underinflated tyres are unstable at the best of times, but can cause untold problems when towing.

[wetdog]

try here mate, ahttp://www.towsure.com/ good site with lots of info, look down the right hand side to outfit matcher.

mick.

[da SLUG man]

it'll be on the plate of the towbar

[Maverick]

I don't know the recommened nose weight.

My pennine has a recomemnednose weight of 80kg, and she tows sweetly. I have had it up to around 100kg without any problem.

[GRASSMAN]

I don't know the recommened nose weight.

My pennine has a recomemnednose weight of 80kg, and she tows sweetly. I have had it up to around 100kg without any problem.

Hi fellow towers,

The only way you will have prob's is, if the nose weight is
light, it will swing all over the place, the more weight the less
swing you will have. As long as the tow car and trailer are
nearly level, you should'nt have any prob's. I find this works
every time.
Hope this helps.

Gman.

[Predictable Bob]

I seem to remember going for around 75kg....

....this is a recommendation from a "volvo forum".

The nose weight referred to in the vehicle handbook should be followed, but as a general guideline the recommended nose weight is around 7% of the laden weight of the trailer. Too light or too heavy a nose weight will result in poor towing stability and, in the case of a heavy nose weight, may mean that headlights project a potentially dangerous, high beam of light, dazzling other drivers. Checking tyre pressures on a regular basis is very important. Underinflated tyres are unstable at the best of times, but can cause untold problems when towing.

The 7% figure is an old recommendation for BRITISH single axle caravans and tends to be ignored by the modern caravannner (European vans are generally more stable) .....

BUT when I started caravanning my Volvo Estate was unstable towing at the Volvo's max noseweight (75kg). Over a few trips I gradually increased the noseweight until I achieved reasonable stability at 90kg - strangely enough my caravan weighed 1300kg and guess what 7% of 1300 is ????

A few points:

Legally you cannot exceed any of the maximum noseweights for your outfit:

Car maximum noseweight
Towbar maximum noseweight
Caravan chassis maximum noseweight (Current Alko max is 100kg)

So if your vehicle has a max of 75kg and you've got a heavy van you're screwed (unless you ignore the law !)

[Tallyman]

Since most Surf's are pre 97 you're unlikely to find a recommended noseweight figure on older style towbars. As a guide, look at what you can use on a similar year Land Cruiser or Prado. There isn't one in the Surf handbook or in the Haynes manual.

The recommended noseweight for my Pageant is 97Kg. I usually run it at around 80-85kgs and it tows safely enough at that weight, although I do use a Straightliner blade stabiliser on it.

As it's a hefty towbar I would think you can probably go to about 110kgs without to many problems, depending on your caravan or trailer limits.

[Brummie]

My problem is that I can't find any reference to nose weight in the "hand book" that came with the Surf and there isn't anything that I can find on the towbar I would have liked a figure to use as a rough guide
but I will just have to "suck it and see"



You can tell how bad my typing is I'd started this before Tallyman's thread was posted. God I'm sloooooooow

[Predictable Bob]

As it's a hefty towbar I would think you can probably go to about 110kgs without to many problems, depending on your caravan or trailer limits.

I know I'm a pedant but I don't know of any caravan chassis with a noseweight limit in excess of 100kg .....

Notwithstanding that I seem to recall that the towbar on my 3rd gen is rated at 130kg (I'll check when I next see the car in daylight)

[Hawaii]

afternoon all

just thought i'd chip in with my 2penneth. Noseweight should be about 7% of the total weight of the laden caravan but it's no good if the car or it's towbar isn't up to the job.
You wouldn't want to tow a big twin axle behind a vauxhall corsa for instance. Guidelines are also that the total weight of the caravan should never exceed the weight of the laden car but the caravan club still recomends that the caravan be a max of 85% of the weight of the car towing it.
When I bought my surf the dealer offered 2 towbars for it (I tow a large single axle caravan). One of the towbars was rated at 85kg noseweight and the other "heavy duty" one rated at 130kg. Now a caravan should never have 130kg of noseweight but it's nice to know the bar can cope.

sure this is as clear as mud

hawaii

[Brummie]

sure this is as clear as mud

hawaii

love it!!