XC70 noseweight
I have a 2016 XC70 D5 AWD and tow a smallish caravan with a MGW of 1400 KG
Whilst the caravan is always stable behind the car, and there is much more power than is needed, I find that there is a lot of uncomfortable pitching on anything other than very smooth roads. I am an experienced caravanner, the caravan is correctly loaded and I try and get the noseweight to about 90kg. Never tried towing with a much lower noseweight, has anyone experience of smooth towing with these cars? what noseweight do you use ? |
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Having experimented with load placements there is minimal kit at the rear. I also equal out the axle loading on the van. I use portable digital scales from Reich. My towing experience is a reasonable one. Smoothest towing is when I'm away on short break and lightly loaded and leave car tyres set at 38psi. Ride harsher when car tyres set to 41psi for when we're fully loaded for a long trip. When I bought the car it had Conti tyres. I personally have never had a good experience when towing with that brand so changed them straight away. For note the Conti's where load rated 101v....the Pirelli's that replaced them are 97v rated so slightly less stiff side wall. The feeling of pitching is a very subjective personal experience. I put my Volvo at the top of my list with regards tow car ratings. I've towed with full blown 4x4's, saloon tourers, sports saloons. All were a harsher towing experience than the Volvo. HTH. Cheers Dave |
My hand book says noseweight limit 75kgs on my MY10 xc70 2wd.
I tow a 1650kg coachman single axil and it's load areas make it difficult to hit 75kgs noseweight since I baught the awning but have it at 65 with most of the weight as near central as I can manage. Just returned home from a trip to Scotland, 450 miles of motorway, A and B roads and very stable with no noticable pitching little bit of sway on some of the motorway tramlines more noticable coming south, but nothing to worry about.. Think the only volvo with a 90 kg noseweight limit is the xc90 but stand to be corrected by those that know better. Paul. |
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The cars handbook says max noseweight is 90Kg but will try 75Kg, What Tow Car recommends 75kg
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Back to original OP Frank B....hope my post made sense. I still reckon tyre wall stiffness plays a huge part in this.
If I leave the tyres at the mid range of 38 psi it is a smooth as you like. If you add in a stiff sidewall such as 101v rated and then tyres fully inflated to 41 psi for fully laden weight suddenly there is no compliance and ALL the weight is borne by the car suspension, hence the pitching sensation. What psi do you run your tyres at and what is your tyre sidewall rating? |
the tyres are Pirelli Scorpion Verde 91V.
I've tried various pressures, not made a lot of difference. I'm off to Spain with the caravan tomorrow so will have plenty of miles to experiment with noseweight Thanks for all replies so far |
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Paul. |
Back from Spain now, did 2300 miles.
Ran with various noseweights between 75 and 90kg, caravan was stable at any speed up to 70mph, mostly 56mph to keep pace with the trucks but overtaking sometimes it was far to easy to go too fast. Had to do one emergency stop with no drama or instability. Computer showed 25.1 mpg, not brilliant but not too bad. Some pitching on rough roads but roads mostly very smooth, even over the minor route over the Pyrenees to Sort, so pitching not really a problem. In future I will try to run at 75kg noseweight |
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