Caravan noseweight calculator
Enter your caravan's weight as loaded for the trip, the car's noseweight limit and the caravan's own. This page works out 5% and 7% of the loaded weight, the range the Caravan and Motorhome Club recommends, and sets it against the lower of the two limits. If you have measured the noseweight, enter that too. The sums run in your browser: nothing you type is sent or kept.
Calculator
From a weighbridge, or the MTPLM from the weight plate if you load to the limit.
In the car's handbook.
In the caravan's handbook or on the hitch.
Leave it empty to see the range and the limit alone.
Enter the loaded weight and both noseweight limits to see the result. Nothing is worked out from a figure you have not entered.
What the result is measured against
- Noseweight. The Caravan and Motorhome Club describes it as the downward force of the caravan's coupling head on the car's towball. The Camping and Caravanning Club says it varies depending on how you load the caravan.
- 5 to 7%. The Caravan and Motorhome Club's general recommendation for towing stability is a noseweight of 5 to 7% of the caravan's actual laden weight.
- The two limits. The Camping and Caravanning Club says the noseweight should be as heavy as possible, but should not exceed the car's towball limit or the caravan's own noseweight limit. It says both are normally between 50kg and 100kg. The Caravan and Motorhome Club says the car's figure is in the car manufacturer's owner's handbook.
Measuring the noseweight and changing it
Both clubs say you can measure it with a noseweight gauge, or with bathroom scales and a piece of wood. The Caravan and Motorhome Club's way with scales is to lower the front steadies half way and put the scales under the coupling head with a suitable piece of wood in between.
The same club says a caravan that tilts forwards has too much noseweight: move heavier items to just behind the axle, or take payload out of the front of the caravan. One that tilts backwards has too little: move heavier items towards the front.
What this calculator cannot tell you
- What anything weighs. The page weighs nothing. The loaded weight and the measured noseweight are the figures you type, and it cannot check them.
- The noseweight after you reload. The Camping and Caravanning Club says noseweight varies with how you load the caravan, so measure it again when the load changes.
- Whether the car can tow the caravan at all. That is a different sum, on the caravan towing calculator.
- The other limits on the car's plate. A noseweight inside both limits here leaves every other limit on the car's plate still to be met.