On our Discovery the hand book gives the maximum recommended nose weight for towing as 75kg. According to the caravan magazine later Discovery's have a maximum recommended nose weight of 150kg. Does anyone know why there is such a big difference and how they calculate this figure?
On or around Wed, 12 May 2004 02:21:28 +0100, Nikki Cluley enlightened us thusly:
75 Kg is more than enough. My rule-of thumb for this is that if I can't lift the hitch to the height it's towing at (on the level) it's got too much noseweight. Note that I can lift at least 50Kg. With a ball hitch, you obviously have to lift it higher to get it hooked on, and with a 2- or even 3-axle trailer, that extra bit of lift can take a lot of doing. It's the weight at the level it's hitched on at which is relevant, of course. You could, if you were bothered, set up an old bathroom scales and a bit of wood or something to measure it.experience with my big trailer is that too much noseweight leads to it snaking like a bastard at speed. loading it differently, so it only had about 50Kg or so, made it better and ideally it wants to be somewhere near neutral, i.e. zero. however, that's not good with a ball hitch. Usual recommendation is that you want at least 25Kg on the hitch. I'd aim at
50Kg, meself, not much more. and remember to add that weight to any guesstimate you use for rear tyre pressures - 50Kg on the hitch is about equal to 100Kg in the boot.On or around Wed, 12 May 2004 02:21:28 +0100, Nikki Cluley enlightened us thusly:
oh, and BTW, I'd go with the manufacturer's figure, not the caravan mag's, if you have it.
I'd have to disagree a bit there. I've always found that the more nose weight the better for stability. Obviously too much will underweight the front end, and affect the handling, but with a well loaded vehicle, I've found lots of nose weight to be far more stable than a little. I often tow a double axle on the SIII, without a dropper plate. When the trailer's unloaded, the front axle is hardly touching the ground, with a load on, the rear suspension sits down a couple of inches, and tows dead straight. I've never had probelems, even with crap trailers when loaded this way. Get the nose weight light, and all kinds of snaking problems.
Andy
On or around Wed, 12 May 2004 13:17:52 +0100, Andy Warner enlightened us thusly:
well, all trailers and all towing vehicles are different. My big trailer is
18' long or thereabouts, tandem axle, and the towing vehicle is a 110. The worst snaking happened with high noseweight and normal rear tyre pressures, increasing the tyre pressures improved it a bit and getting the noseweight down (though it was still probably at least 60Kg) made it better still.I've also towed it behind the disco with the 110 on the trailer, total trailer weight about 3.2T, and since with a vehicle on the trailer, you can have any noseweight you want within reason, set it up to be about 25Kg, and that towed as stable as you like.
In message , Nikki Cluley writes
75kg sounds a bit light for a Disco, but if that what the handbook says then best stick with it - if you get stopped for a spot check that's what the police will go by. My 1998 defender is 150kg
ISTR that the noseweight limit for the RRC was 250Kg. and the Disco isn't that much different. I have to agree with Andy - noseweight around 100Kg or a bit more seems to tow very stable. True (for me, anyway) with RRC, Disco II and P38.
Remember you're talking about a MAX nose weight, you can have less. Whatever is stable with your combination is the optimum nose weight.
Peter
in article 40a3d828$1 snipped-for-privacy@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com, Peter Seddon at snipped-for-privacy@tiscali.co.uk wrote on 13/5/04 9:19 pm:
I realise that. Bruce has always been really carefull about loading and we've never really had much of a problem with snaking. One of the reasons that we've only ever had a twin axle caravan is that they are more stable whilst towing and I've seen the mess it can make of a car and occupants when a single axled caravan looses a wheel.
100kg is the max noseweight given for our new caravan. Its just that there is such a big difference in the max noseweight recommended for our 1990 Discovery and the newer ones, and wondered what factors involved contributed to the figure. Is it because the shocks and springs fitted to later vehicles are all round more capeable than those fitted to earlier vehicles? Is the towbar of stronger construction on a later Disco, compared to ours?now this is something i know about, cos i know sod all about anything else at last i can advise someone
7% of the unladen weight of the caravan is what youre after, you have to have it nose heavy, mine is in the range of 50 to 75KGs but i aim to get 60.i tow a 21 foot caravan with a series swb series landy and boy does it keep me on my toes,
andy
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in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Andy at snipped-for-privacy@yourhouse.com wrote on 14/5/04 7:20 pm:
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About the same length as ours then. We've had a Swift Challeneger twin axle for the past 8 years and recently bought a Bailey Senator twin axle.
I just wanted to know if anyone knew why the maximum noseweight for a 1990 Discovery is 75kg and the newer ones have a much higher maximum noseweight.
Is it the towbar that is better? Are the springs and shocks fitted better or is it a combination of things that gives them the figures?
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