Thread: Towing a van

It will be based on the manufacturers calculations. You’ll need to check it yourself once loaded.

It does change.

Don’t exceed rating of the towing vehicle...

And check ALL weights upon collection.
If you changed anything during the build even an appliance brand the weights they quoted will be wrong..

When the van is built, it seems to be presumed that the manufacturer will put "your" van over the weighbridge. However, I doubt this is the case for most builders. At some point they will have taken one of they're vans to be weighed, and then just work everything out from that. And as Mike say's, even changing the brand of an appliance can change the weight of the van,, ie; Fridge.

So when you pick it up, before you add "anything" to it,, and make sure its empty of all water as best you can (from tanks and toilet) do yourself a favor and go and weigh it yourself.

Sounds like a good idea to do that, but how do I work out what ball weight I should use?

ATM - total weight of van including Tare and payload, I think this is when connect to the tug

Tare - is the weight of the van empty

Based on your figures you have 300kg of payload, water, gas, bedding, cloths, food, tools, hoses, leveling ramps etc etc. pretty easy to consume 300kg

Towball weight - you can buy tow ball scales from super cheap for under $100....I believe they are pretty accurate.

I believe weight given by manufacturers to be a bit rubbery, I’d ask them to produce weight bridge tickets for your van. Although that might get them offside from the start.

Best way is to find a quite weigh bridge where you disconnect the tug to get real figures.

Originally Posted by jx2mad

Sounds like a good idea to do that, but how do I work out what ball weight I should use?

Plenty will quote 10% rule for tow ball weigh (this is not legislation or law) 10% of your ATM.....not a bad starting point

Find out the max tow-ball weight for your tug and aim to be under that. Can sometime be found on the tow bar which could be either higher or lower than what the car manufacturer stated in the handbook. .

Sometime you can move stuff around in the van to adjust tow ball weight but it generally only has a minor effect.

All else fails, load the van up, hook it up and head of.

Tow ball weight is wholly governed by the the vehicle manufacturers limit. In your case, if it's the Dmax, I think it is set at 300kg but don't quote me. Refer to vehicle specs in your manual. If your tow bar has a rating of, say 350 kg, you are still limited to 300 kg per vehicle specs however, if your tow bar is rated under the 300 kg mark then you are governed by the lower tow bar rating. Just be careful with your loading as, with most twin cab tillies, it's very easy to exceed their load limits.