Quote:
Originally Posted by Gower50
Thanks Paul, the side friction pads are new and I am about to change the front and rear pads and the hitch has been cleaned.
I have only been towing for about 7 months having had motor homes for the previous 30+ years.
I even took the van to my local approved caravan service centre and got them to check out the hitch, brakes and ATC and everything was OK. The van has also had new tyres as when I bought it the van was four years but the tyres were six and a half years old !
Have tried loading the van with 2x6kg gas bottles in the locker but it takes the nose weight to approx. 95kg. The allowable weight on my car hitch is 90kg. was advised not to try and counteract this by putting a couple of heavy items under the rear bed.
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I would personally try loading to about 110-120 Kg nose weight, initially just to see if that changes anything. The car is capable of way more - the Volvo XC models are rated for 180Kg nose weight when sold in Australia, where it is a legal requirement that a nose weight is a minimum of 7% of the trailer mass. This is when Nivomats come into their own as they just balance the car again. [Note: carefully worded, that's what I would do, I'm not encouraging you to break the law...]
However my feeling is that if its so bad then the odd 20-30 Kg isn't going to make a transformational difference.
As always, any extra load in the caravan should be over the axle or as near to that as possible. The more weight distributed to the front/rear of the van, the greater the dynamic load on the towball and hence pitching of the car caused by the caravan.
It may also be worth checking your shock absorbers?