Noseweight advice

where does all this lost matter from radio active decay actually go? and what does it do when its gets there?

Why ask me .... I'm an engineer! I presume given a chance it will go hither and thither and of itself might further decay or form an inert substance or gas.

I haven't followed this thread since about page 4 and now its got 10 more pages. Seldom have I read so much fuss & bother on a subject of caravanning before. I have caravanned since 1977, so about 40 years!  I have always ensured that my car to caravan weight ratio was well within recommended limits, and that my car was well maintained and well powerful enough to tow my van with consumate ease.

I have always preferred big and powerful cars with minimal rear overhang and as a result not really worried too much about nose weight, apart from always following the well documented advice on proper load distribution in the caravan itself.

I suppose that at each van change I have checked the nose weight the first time of hitching the new van up, but hardly ever after that.  What I have done, was always to take a few steps back to ensure that the rig itself was riding level.  In a previous occupation, I dealt with many accidents caused by instability - almost certainly caused by bad loading, causing a nose high attitude. Why do so many caravaners not realise that a nose high attitude encourages too much air flow underneath the van and then instability?

I agree with JVB66 in theory, that your insurers might have some indigestion resulting out of paying a claim for an accident thought to be caused by a nose weight issue. But in practice the devastation caused to almost all the vans that I swept of the road after an accident, I would challenge any one to prove what the nose weight had been!!

Seriously there has been an awful lot of Technical advice levelled over these pages, but you really don't need a slide rule on this just common sense. (1) Is your car/van ratio within guidelines (2) are they both properly maintained, engine wise and suspension wise.  (3) Is the car and clutch strong enough to do the job? and finally and most importantly  (4) Load your caravan sensibly, having regard for all the advise available, & is it hitching up level?   All OK?  Then you'll have a good holiday!

TF

That a nose up attitude is inherently responsible for an unstable outfit is a myth. At the sort of speeds that caravans are towed, the differences in aerodynamic flow between nose up or nose down are negligible. Caravans are too big and boxy to have anything like aerofoil properties.

A nose up attitude simply only 'looks wrong' and reduces ground clearance at the back of the caravan, but it is otherwise of no functional consequence.

A nose up attitude simply only 'looks wrong' and reduces ground clearance at the back of the caravan, but it is otherwise of no functional consequence. 

However given the normal range of towbar heights and hitch heights a caravan that looks markedly up at the front could well be badly loaded perhaps. I say this because it is not something that I have often observed. 

More often likely to see one very low down at the front with car rear sagging badly

I hope the baby hasn't been left on the see saw 

but it's given off as energy isn't it? 

Anyway, back on topic, like TF I have only checked nose weigth with a new van, empty at first, then half full then fully loaded for long stay. I'm also a creature of habit and will pack the van the same way each time with those blue IKEA bags that when full weight about 6Kg (anyway done centre out) so if it was OK for the three trails it should be ok ever since.  

well no I'm with TF on this one. Under braking a nose up attitude could cause instability problems. I know you won't believe me but:

If the caravan is “nose high” this can have an effect under braking and reduce the stability of the towing vehicle and caravan. The normal cause of this is the hitch height on the towing vehicle being too high, even with the  correct nose weight, this could cause instability problems. As can be seen (right) we have a similar situation to braking with the caravan not being aligned with the towing vehicle. In this case, the forces acting as the caravan “pushes” into the rear of the braking vehicle are not in line and have the slight effect of trying to “lift” the vehicle’s rear end. This is also compounded by the fact that under braking, the vehicles centre of gravity moves forward, transferring weight to the front wheels and off the rear wheels so the rear of the vehicle

taken from here, so a nose down attitude would mean, under braking, that the van pushes downwards.

As I said!  Ensure that the rig is even. Neither nose up Or nose down!

40 years of many thousands of miles, with no incidents, let alone accidents, must tell you something!  Get the loading right!  Do not get in a lather about an exact nose weight!

TF

Nose weight as important as it is re stability is far from the only weight [well mass really] aspect of loading that needs to be right. The distribution of those collections of masses, so the moment of inertia is very important too.

IMO a factor, so often forgotten or not understood, often in the drive to the correct nose weight.

Just to help perpetuate this long-running thread on simple issue... Under heavy breaking, the nose of a car will dip thus raising the hitch. Even a level caravan could thus end up in a nose up attitude.