Noseweight advice

Sadly there are some caravans that, in my view, are too heavy on the nose when empty and difficult to balance. Never had that problem myself and present caravan is very light noseweight when empty at around 63kg and makes a tad skittish towing empty at around 1350kg. Not a problem however as I leave gas bottles (and of course battery) on board when towing to service and keep speed down to 50mph.

The ratio of noseweight to laden caravan for your set up is similar to that when my caravan is unladen (about 0.49% of caravan weight) and so I am not greatly surprised that you are finding the outfit skittish with an 80kg noseweight if that is what you achieve. I personally would prefer that with a caravan of that weight the noseweight was over 90kg and preferably 95kg. I see your problem with that but cannot offer any suggestions. 

I am sure there is lots of information out there re how to balance your caravan etc, and some old timers will chip in with lots of this information, but as an experienced ex professional driver, if you have all that going on in "the absence of strong winds" with all the stability aids you have available I would seriously not tow at 90 pct, this IMO could have serious consequencies. Coachman are famous for having heavy vans, I have a 2008 Amara 550/5 MTPLM 1575 but tow with a Kia Sorento auto, not dissimilar to the SF. Have to say I dont have such  problems with the nose weight due to the extra weight in the rear to provide bunk beds, and i always put the heavy stuff we carry over the axle or in the rear. Good luck with that one, there is a thread on here somewhere re how the tow car of the rear is decided is not really representative of how is works in the real world. Sorry I could not be more helpful  

You seem to have grasped that you need to balance the load front to rear to reduce the noseweight.

All you need to remember is to secure the load wherever you find the optimum position. Use ratchet load bars for this.

Personally, I would want a heavier tow car and one with a greater nose weight allowance in order to tow a van of that weight. I realise it's not what you want to hear, DA, but it doesn't sound a good or safe match to me. Sorry.

I would not be too concerned about the 90% match but the low noseweight I would not be happy with. When I bought our X-Trail in 2005 I did consider other cars but some had a towball loading of only 75kg and were discounted straight away. Unless anticipating sticking to MPTLM 'vans of under 1350kg I would not contemplate a car with an 80kg hitch limit.

Our tow car has an 80kg load on the hook and we have not had a problem keeping to it and that is with a 1300kg c/van,mind the c/van is well balanced ex works as it does not have the "problem" of a front "junk"and gas locker

Unfortunately you have fallen foul of the clubs obsession with VAG group vehicles. I would be looking at around 100kg nose weight for your van ideally.

My last car had a max hitch load of 'just' 75kg, I never considered it a problem & never had a problem, though the car did have self levelling rear suspension. My current car's max nose weight isn't much more at 85kg despite its size & being on the same platform as a ML that has a max nose weight of 150kg. Certainly wouldn't discount a tow car for not having a 150kg nose weight

What MPTLM caravan MM? 

Original 'van was Lunar & only 1350ish behind a 1750ish car later replaced by my R Class. The Lunar was then replaced with a 1850ish Coachman