Thread: Jayflight - Heavy Ball Weight

Wow! Thats damn heavy for such a light camper!

Your wife wasn't in the front bed by any chance?
Regards Philip A

Hey Garry,

might be an idea to take it down to the local weigh station and weigh it both with water and without and then you will know for sure what the actual ball weight is rather then guessing. Knowing what it is with the water tank full is more useful then when empty.

Personally I'd be checking with someone who knows their stuff whether or not adding so much weight to the rear is a good thing, even on such a lite camper.

cheer,
Terry

No one has ever had any stability problems, but they have all had to upgrade their tow vehicle

That is quite a bit of ball weight, three times as much as expected before you put some water in the tank. I'd be placing few heavy things behind the axle.

Originally Posted by slug_burner

That is quite a bit of ball weight, three times as much as expected before you put some water in the tank. I'd be placing few heavy things behind the axle.

Exactly what I was thinking - moving the water tank to behind the axle should help. Other than than that and maybe the battery, there is not much else to move - the annex poles etc are stored on the draw bar - maybe they also could go to the rear.

Garry

The ball weight could have something to do with how far the axle is from the actual ball, unfortunately that's what makes it easy to tow, puting the water tank behind the axle won't do much for the ball weight empty, it will be alot heavier when full, so it is a good idea to move it.

To make it easy for moving it around, I'd suggest one of those ratchet jockey wheels, from all accounts they work really well.

Baz.

Originally Posted by Redback

To make it easy for moving it around, I'd suggest one of those ratchet jockey wheels, from all accounts they work really well.

Baz.

Thanks Baz - I got one of them but went cheap and you get what you pay for. Mine is rated to 350kg but my camper bent it on its first move. Also the one I have has a ratchet (rat****) like a hi lift jack and the pins do not go into the holes - basically a heap of crap - will add some bracing and modify the rat**** and see how it goes - also the pump up tyre is not up to the weight and developed some cracks - so with these things it pays to look before you buy and not off ebay.

I think I will just put a bigger tank in the back and do away with the one in the front - there are no issues towing - just worried when offroad and have to man handle the van in tight situations - am going to carry a boat winch to help with that.

Cheers

Garry

As with other comments I am very surprised at the towball weight for an approx 700 kg camper.

From very rough estimate from the photo, the distance from the axle to the hitch is approx x5 the distance from the axle to the rear. So a full 90L tank of water (+10kg for weight of tank for example) at the very back of the van will lighten the ball weight by 20Kg.

Similarly, 2x 100AH batteries weigh about 55kg total stowed in rear... may add about 10-11kg of "lift" at the front. 170 kg is still a lot of 'downforce' on a towball for that size van. AFAIK the towball weight should be ablout 10-15% of the GVM of the camper... 100 kg there abouts.... what's stashed inside the front of the van?

EDIT: Hmm on a "re-measure" the ratio might be about 3.5:1 instead of 5:1 in which case, on the above figures you might lighten it by 55kg...which leaves 145kg on the towball and is getting nearer the mark...