Wits End

[c_lee]

In regard to various weights when towing, I suggest you look into the incremental penalties for towing overweight.

Up to 5%, 5 - 10%, 10 - 20%, over 20%, all different penalties - and, IIRC, you really don't want to be over 20%.

I looked into it a couple of years ago and was quite shocked.
Some of the penalties can be quite severe IIRC.

So I bought a CWC to measure my weights and that shocked me even more.
So much so that I went to a weighbridge with the caravan immediately afterwards thinking the CWC was inaccurate, but it wasn't that inaccurate.
This was 2 weeks before a 1,000+ mile 4 week tour.

If overweight on ANY of the weights, I suggest action be taken to resolve it.

Whether any overweight be the caravan, individual car axle weights ( don't forget those ), total train weight or nose-weight - each need to be within their limits or you risk having to discard excess weight ( only up to 5% ) by the roadside if pulled by the authorities and redistribution of weight can not resolve the specific overweight.

I think many of us, at times - me too then, become a bit complacent about what we carry and my wife said at the time ' don't worry, who is going to check '.
My reply to that was ' would you be happy to have no awning while we are away for the 4 weeks because, at the very least, we would need to leave it at the weight check station in their skip '.

We would have been about 200 kg ( approaching 20% ) overweight on the caravan - we would have had to leave more than just the awning in their skip.

It was a real pain to sort out before the trip - the CWC helped enormously.
I went through the car and caravan with a fine tooth comb redistributing weight, discarding some items and moving some to the car.
Weighing almost each time.

It took me about a week to do - juggling the weights.

At times I thought it impossible and began to look where the weight check stations on our route were likely to be and planned to avoid those parts of the route.
Change of traveling time also considered, they are present more at weekends.
( Look at the the penalties - then you'll understand why ).

In the end I did get all weights within tolerance before our trip and boy, did the car tow better and with more economy.

And, we didn't miss any of the items we had left at home.

After doing the exercise I now know the best weight distribution for my outfit and remember best placements for the items we carry - and I didn't get a ban for being overweight, so the £130 for the CWC was well worth it.

Now, I don't let complacency lull me into a false sense of security anymore.
I don't check all weights each trip, ( mainly nose weight now knowing best distribution ) that would be a pain, but I do check all occasionally.

Colin

[outnumbered]

Originally Posted by volvorocks

Suppose people just guess. I used to.

Forget towing for the minute, I mean how does one know for example if their car is carrying under the recommended maximum weight allowed - People don't weigh each passenger as they get in....

Regards

i think there is a differrence between a human getting in the car and a small tow ball holding 1700kg are there any humans at that weight .
i think not

[DC850]

Originally Posted by outnumbered

i think there is a differrence between a human getting in the car and a small tow ball holding 1700kg are there any humans at that weight .
i think not

Average Human = 80Kg x 5 = 400Kg which is part of the train Weight

[lexel]

I'm still waiting for the rolling road at the Volvo dealership to become available, rather oddly I'm told its blocked by a vehicle they are awaiting parts for at the moment. Frustrating.

[lexel]

Its been a frustrating few weeks, quite literally waiting for the floor paint to dry in the new workshop at my Volvo dealer where their Rolling Road is located.

Finally this afternoon we got the XC70 onto the machine that can measure damping performance. The front and rear suspension was measured seperately. The front suspension is functioning correctly, however, the rear suspension is operating with a 26% deficiency

Armed with that info I'm going to have the rear shocks and springs replaced, (about £400 for standard replacements) and fingers crossed, that will be enough to correct the current undesireable behaviour of the outfit when towing.

An option to upgrade to Self levelling shocks was offered, but the cost makes it prohibitive; especially when there is no guarantee that changing the rear suspension is definately going to cure the problem.

Thanks for your interest.

[lexel]

Finally, got the car into the dealership and the damping effect / suspension has been tested electronically on their new kit. Results shown on two screens as a graph, similar to a cardiograph readout.

Front no probs.
Rear 26% below optimum efficiency (No visible evidence)

The car is booked in to have new rear shocks and springs fitted. Hopefully this will have a positive outcome.