Noseweight (again)

It surprises me that your outfit seems to be so sensitive to noseweight changes. I tow an 1800kg single axle at about 90% weight ratio and, under normal conditions, I have found little difference in the way mine handles whether the noseweight is 50kg or 80kg. Only on downhill stretches do I notice a certain degree of nervousness if the noseweight is at the lower value, but even that isn't disconcerting..

Mine certainly feels twitchy when unladen with 63kg on the nose. 1500kg MPTLM and when unladen with battery, mover a gas bottle probably 1350 (ish). Not frightening just twitchy. No idea what caravan you have would it be a continental with longer A frame? 

On a journey recently our van was not a steady as usual  (it was breezy )so put it down to that ,its only when unhitching on site i noted that i had been travelling without engaging the the alko hitch stabilizer 

My towing days are over now, but I always towed with the maximum allowable noseweight, usually 75 or 80kg. And always kept my speed down to 60mph especially on dowhill sections of motorway.And never ever put heavy items behind the caravans axle/ axles.

Saw plenty of overtaking units snaking, but thankfully none come a cropper, and never had a snake on my outfits in over 30+ years.

Twitching when being overtaken by trucks, I always steered slightly away from them when possible. To dissapate the Bow wave, Mainly used a Westphalia stabiliser(thats going back) which i moved from unit to unit.

Some of it luck, but a safe experience. Dont try to keep to tight timetables...drive safely.

 

Don't forget you must also keep the load in the caravan within the max weight. Most modern caravan's have a small payload. My awning has to travel in the car as it would overload the caravan. I suggest you try to find a weighbridge when the caravan is loaded. You may be surprised how easy it is to be overloaded. I too have a Kuga. A great towcar.

HI , Nose weight is usually only concerned with the towing vehicle . The max nose weights of couplings range between 75  Kgs   and  350 kgs for the AKS 3504 . max towing weight 3500 Kgs ..The towing hitches seem to range  around 150kgs  for nose weight .  The nose weight quoted is the Static nose weight  as you drive the vehicle the nose weight varies . I have never been able to find figures  for dynamic nose weights  from hard breaking to hared acceleration. I never load my caravan to max nose weight  always keep it at about 60 / 70 %  .I did tow with a Ford S max  max towing of 1800 kgs  ,my caravan is 1700 kgs  so some times on very hard breaking i seems to have a light steering wheel.Changed  my car  now .

you don't want to be breaking your tow car by braking .....  🙄

99.9% of caravan hitches are 100kg max nose weight so 150 is way over. 100kg is max for hitch but if vehicle manufacturer states say 85kg nose weight then that is the max that should be kept to not the 100kg of the hitch.

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Agree , towed for 40 years ,also with artics , ( wish i could say 20 !! ) driving fast causes most of them . Seen loads over the years newbies .showing off ,signal slow down , get 2 fingers , down the road ,where are they ,jacked knifed