Noseweight Mystery

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?

Never used Calor Lite and the EHU cable has always travelled in the rear washroom. There is nothing extra in the front locker and nothing removed from the back half of the caravan.

I would just point out that the tare weight of calor cylinders does vary.Some empty bottles are heavier than others.

Not an answer ..... but I wouldn't worry about just 4kg

I would not worry about 4kg as mentioned it could be the diference with calor cylinders,and on undulating and uneven roads the nose weight will alter when trvelling

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

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..

John. I was begining to think that it was your bathroom scales that were overreading - mine always do

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!