Do you have a local caravan dealer? It's always worth picking their brains, also The Caravan Club & What TowCar.com - All about Towcars and Towing Caravans. The Roomster is a great car & you'll be using it more than the caravan after all.

i spoke to the guy at our local caravan storage place, he used to be an authorised dealer for two or three makes of caravans.

he seems to reckon that so long as you don't go overboard and stick to something fairly small the noseweight doesn't need ot be strictly adhered to. The noseweight stipulated by the car manufacturers is based on teh car being loaded to the max (driver+3/4 passengers, boot full) which won't happen as theres only two of use plus two medium dogs. so we have a bit to play with regarding the noseweight.

he doesn't sell caravans anymore so has no anterior motive to sell us a new, heavy caravan.

The nose weight is determined by the car manufacturer/towbar manufacturer and should not be exceeded unless you want the caravan to overtake you.:thumbdwn:

The Roomster has won it class as a caravan tow car. Don,t know how to post links but easy to google.

The nose weight is governed by the car, The caravan must not exceed 50kg down force onto the tow hitch.

This can be changed on the van by loading different weights for and aft of the axel.

DONT DO IT! the noseweight is a quoted figure form the caravan manufacturer & loading should not be used to change it. if you do you will most likely induce snaking. If you buy through a decent dealer (or at least pretend to!) they will help with choosing a suitable trailer. I tow with a 1.4 Roomy Deisel. we have a trailer tent & it goes really well. The noseweight will be an issue though as the Rommy is low at 50Kg. You will need to shop around for a caravaN that comes anywhere near that. This is why most caravanners use large estates or 4x4s.

The nose weight is governed by the car' date=' The caravan must not exceed 50kg down force onto the tow hitch.

This can be changed on the van by loading different weights for and aft of the axel.

DONT DO IT! the noseweight is a quoted figure form the caravan manufacturer & loading should not be used to change it. [/quote']

Actually, the constraint is the noseweight limit set by the car manufacturer for a tow bar attached to the vehicle. If you took a range of caravans totally empty from one manufacturer, they would have a range of noseweights. SOME WOULD ACTUALLY BE ILLEGALLY LIGHT. My 'naked' caravan has too high a noseweight for the car. As long as you stick to the caravan chassis limits, you should be OK. Loading a caravan inevitably affects the noseweight.

The law is that the noseweight must be at least 4% of the weight of the vehicle. Increasing noseweight reduces the likelihood of snaking, unless taken to extremes.

Stuart

Taken from the Caravan Club.

Outfit matching

Also have a read on here,

Caravan Talk (Powered by Invision Power Board)

There is nothing wrong with loading a caravan to change noseweight.

Taken from the Caravan Club.

Outfit matching

Matching outfits on caravan owners?

Nice!

:eek:

You might also want to include towbar costs in the equation. Nowadays they have to be type aproved and can be expensive.

You might also want to include towbar costs in the equation. Nowadays they have to be type aproved and can be expensive.

Westfalia bar & vehicle-specific 13-way electrics cost around £150 total.

Stuart