New to all this - nose weight

Where do you pack all your clothes, bedding, food etc?

Hi KjellNN, thanks for your reply.

Have to say we started off with some of the bedding under the seats in the front, but that was the first thing to go in an attempt to get the weight down. We've only been away for one night in the van so far, so we had small overnight bags which stayed in the car whilst travelling. Again food-wise, we just had enough for a night/morning in the car.

I've read that we need to keep as much of the weight as possible directly over the axle, but is it normal to travel with the spare wheel etc not stowed in it's intended place? There's even space for 2 gas bottles, though only one is fitted currently (6kg calor lite bottle).

I'm reluctant to put stuff in the back to counter-balance the nose as I worried this could make the outfit unstable.

I'm sure I must just be doing something daft - my van has a MTPLM of 1300kg, so using the 5-7% guidelines I should be aiming to get the nose weight to around 80kg, so far I can't get anywhere near this.....

If you had put your clothes in the wardrobe or lockers intended for them, and food in the fridge and kitchen cupboards, would this have added weight to the rear of the axle?

The 5-7% rule is not often used these days, what you should aim for is your car's towball limit, or the AlKo hitch limit, whichever is the smaller.

In your case they both appear to be 100kg, so you should aim for something close to that.

Moving the spare wheel would be my priority if I needed to reduce the noseweight, Get or make a cover for it so it can travel inside the van, or in the car, without soiling the flooring.

Unless you have payload to spare, put the awning in the car.

Heavy things like wheel clamps I would also carry in the car.

We have the spare wheel in the ubiquitous AlKo underslung carrier, fixed to the rear of the wheels, keeps the spare out of the way, and despite the AlKo carrier getting a lot of bad press, the one time we have ever needed the spare, it operated as it should have.

In the front locker I have 2 x 6kg gas bottles, the Wastemaster, waste pipe, water hose and mains connection, and little else.  I also have a side locker at the front which holds odds and ends and spares, and we have a fixed rear bed which has a lot of storage space below, we use it for bulky lightweight things.

Otherwise we have other bulky lightweight things under the front seats,  The fridge and cooker etc are over the axle, as are the cupboards for food and dishes.

Wardrobe and clothes storage is  behind the axle, and right at the back there is the bathroom with storage for all the usual stuff, generally well filled up!

We aim to pack the van as we use it, with everything travelling in its correct place, we keep the floor clear and carry the awning, Aquaroll and outside furniture in the car, along with any heavy tools, wheelclamp etc.

I would try packing the van in "using mode" and move the spare to try to achieve the correct noseweight.

When we go away on a long trip, we are well loaded in both van and car, this trip we are off on tomorrow is only 4 weeks, the van and car both seem rather "empty", and our noseweight is on the low side IMO.

The above post is a very good one and realising what You have done to reduce Your nose weight, all You can do is counteract by balancing .

Paul

Thanks for the valuable advice Pauljw and KjellNN, it's much appreciated!

I'll put aside an afternoon, gather together the equivalent of a full load see if I can get the nose weight to a reasonable figure through trial and error. Hopefully once I've cracked it it should be easier the next time, but it's reassuring to know that moving things like spare wheels around is not unusual. 

Thanks again!

I think that advice to avoid loading behind the axle stems from a past era when vans weighed much less, so loading towards the rear increased the % rear extra far more than it does with today's heavier vans. Ancient beliefs can exist well beyond their "things are different now" date. A sensible approach to loading, which generally takes into account touring with clothes in the wardrobe, a fridge containing food etc is likely to bring your nose weight down to a sensible level. Recent posts discuss Swift's provision of rear cycle mounting brackets, many continental vans have longer A frames so that bicycles can be carried in front. I really don't believe that their manufacturers are ignorant of weight and balance dynamics. So I'd just be sensible but practical when loading anywhere in the van.

We are very new to Caravaning, so to date we have been very careful with how we load the caravan to maximise safety, For us 3 factors:

1 - We have weighted literally everthying that we added to the caravan to ensure we stay close to the towed weight being not too much more than 85% of the tow-cars weight.  To achieve this we transport various heavy items in the car rather than the caravan including the awning, crate of food, fire-extinguisher, wheel-lock, BBQ

2. Then regarding the stuf that does stay in the caravan, then all heavier items that usually live in the higher cupboards (pots and pans; couple of bottles of wine etc) are moved to under the bed or sofa (i.e. floor level)

3 - We bought some ultra cheap digital bathroom scales and use some scraps of wood and drain pipe to always measure the nose weight before departing - and we try within reason to do this measurement on pretty level ground. As per a previous poster advised we aim for the lower of the cars max hitch weight, the tow hitches max and the caravans maximum - for us 100kg. In order to achieve our target of between 90 to 100kg we simply shift a crate or 2 from under the bed at the back to under the sofa at the front or vice versa. Works for us (and is very quick when you get in to a routine)

You have to be careful when moving things to the back as too much weight can cause a pendulum effect. The other thing to watch when loading heavy items in the car is the maximum axle weight which should not be exceeded. If loading in the car you need these things as far forward as possible.

Nothing heavy should ever be placed in a higher up locker, even when not on the road.  Apart from anything else, it could fall out and do (VERY expensive) damage to the worktop. sink or cooker top.

Our pots travel in the cupboaed below the oven, the wine, other drinks, emergency tins all travel in the car, though we do sometimes have a bottle chilling in the fridge.

I wrote a lengthy article on towing weights for a motor racing web site that I maintain. It was for towing a trailer containing a race car, but I expect the principles are the same as for caravans. Am I allowed to put a link to it here (I could not see that I shouldn't in the Terms and Conditions, but I may have missed it)?