Member Since: 27 Dec 2009
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 6551
This is my Bailey Senator fully loaded. will be looking at rearranging the loading and maybe putting more stuff in the front locker.
AndyD4 MY15 SE TECH
D3 gone but never forgotten.
15th Jun 2013 3:57 pm
al cope
Member Since: 08 Nov 2005
Location: Oldbury, WM
Posts: 10297
Andy - yours is an older Bailey - its the later Alutec 'vans that seem to be having trouble with noseweights.
This OP has an issue with virtually no noseweight, yet on my Olympus, which is running on the same Alko Chassis, with fixed bed and bathroom (and battery) all at the rear, I had massive noseweight even with NOTHING in the front lockers (no gas bottles/etc). I've had to change to lightweight gas bottles, and load the 'van very carefully to get down to 110kg.
It seems Bailey have got some of their sums on loads a bit askew.
AlVolvo XC90 B5 Plus Dark
Gone - MY18 D5 HSE - Corris on 22's with Black Pack
Now gone - MY16 D4 SE Tech, Loire Blue, Almond Leather, Privacy, plus some other goodies.
Old - MY12 D4 SDV6 XS Auto - Ipanema Sand with Almond Leather - Plus other niceties, and D4.com sticker
Older - D3 TDV6 XS Auto - Lugano Teal with Almond Leather, 20" Stormers, Shiny Tailpipes, DVD/TV - and obligatory D3 sticker
Ancient - D3 TDV6 S - Tonga with Ebony, 20" Stormers, satnav & DVD
I think that Russell may be right with his advice. If I were you I would contact the manufacturer and ask them for the ideal tow bar height for your van. Also ask them about the nose weight.
I would expect that they will be familiar with this type of enquiry.
Good luck
John
No need to call Bailey, it's all in the handbook of the van, towball height to the middle of the ball is recommended to be 415mm +/- 35mm.
Ideal nose weight is to be between 50 to 100kgs which ever you feel is handles better but idealy 7% of the laden van but never more than 100kgs.
15th Jun 2013 4:33 pm
kevi
Member Since: 18 Mar 2006
Location: in the rhondda valleys
Posts: 945
xyplex wrote:
Here is a photo of my caravan while it is hitched and the car is pulling down the caravan hitch in this photo.
My Disco 4 is at normal ride height
Click image to enlarge
Looks about right to me , the disco is not pulling it down , it will find its own ride height as long as the nose weight is not to muchPractice safe eating - always use condiments.
2 Too many seats now
No trouble so far
tow pack, tasmods sills
IT goes without saying that you should never have more children than you have car windows
16th Jun 2013 11:07 am
Andy Foster
Member Since: 27 Dec 2009
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 6551
This may answer some questions. This is my removable tow ball taken a normal ride height.
AndyD4 MY15 SE TECH
D3 gone but never forgotten.
16th Jun 2013 5:27 pm
zebadee
Member Since: 15 Feb 2006
Location: The Magic Roundabout
Posts: 1392
For the sake of comparison, this is where I have my hitch set on the adjustable towbar, to have my twin axle trailer run level.
Anything lower & my trailers run nose down. It was also the same situation on my D3 previously. As I've said up-thread I could never get my trailer to run level with a removable towbar.
16th Jun 2013 7:07 pm
discomarkie
Member Since: 09 Jan 2013
Location: Gloucester
Posts: 136
My tow bar was at 420mm and a removable,
Moved to Witter fixed, kept same height as close as possible, easy fix for bikes plus a bit more of a tighter feeling when towing. We tow twin axle Elddis, nose weight is as close to 100kg as possible, max nose weight for caravan, (stamp on A-frame). Load up front box and awning in front of axles.
Measure nose weight with stick and bathroom scales!!
16th Jun 2013 7:33 pm
zebadee
Member Since: 15 Feb 2006
Location: The Magic Roundabout
Posts: 1392
Just to add a bit more information to this thread, our D2 was in the yard this morning, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to snap a pic of the hitch height on that.
This is the lowest setting for a hitch on the D2 & always has worked out fine for towing our trailers, including my own twin axle. The slight height difference between the D2 & D3/4 never really caused an issue. What I do remember though is that when I first had a D3 with the removable hitch, I found the ball height too low to have my trailer run level, so swapped out for a multi height towbar which solved the problem.
17th Jun 2013 9:58 am
simon645
Member Since: 22 Feb 2012
Location: cumbria
Posts: 141
Best solution, sell the detachable towbar and get a witter fixed one at proper height for caravans. We had this issue with our new 2013 bessacarr cameo 645 caravan, got witter towbar complete with witter bike rack on, now no problems
17th Jun 2013 10:59 am
discomarkie
Member Since: 09 Jan 2013
Location: Gloucester
Posts: 136
Member Since: 08 Nov 2005
Location: Oldbury, WM
Posts: 10297
Here's mine:
Click image to enlarge
perfect height for Bailey Olympus twin axle, using bottom set of holes on fixed towbar (460mm)
And for this who posted above with rusty balls - I think I should now be known as shiny balls
AlVolvo XC90 B5 Plus Dark
Gone - MY18 D5 HSE - Corris on 22's with Black Pack
Now gone - MY16 D4 SE Tech, Loire Blue, Almond Leather, Privacy, plus some other goodies.
Old - MY12 D4 SDV6 XS Auto - Ipanema Sand with Almond Leather - Plus other niceties, and D4.com sticker
Older - D3 TDV6 XS Auto - Lugano Teal with Almond Leather, 20" Stormers, Shiny Tailpipes, DVD/TV - and obligatory D3 sticker
Ancient - D3 TDV6 S - Tonga with Ebony, 20" Stormers, satnav & DVD
17th Jun 2013 2:33 pm
zebadee
Member Since: 15 Feb 2006
Location: The Magic Roundabout
Posts: 1392
460mm, same height as my "rusty ball" on the D2
BTW, that's quite a shine you have on your ball there Al
17th Jun 2013 4:02 pm
xyplex
Member Since: 13 Jan 2013
Location: Bedfordshire
Posts: 235
I have a email from Bailey of Bristol:
Good morning Mr. Mi*****
Thank you for your email below and I apologise for the delayed response.
Whilst it is evident that the distribution of the caravan weight is spread more evenly on a twin axle caravan it is still important to load the caravan accordingly, the modern trend in the reduction of weight on the nose of the caravans to allow for more vehicles to tow them has a compromising effect on the layouts. With more services, appliances and fittings positioned over and towards the rear of the axles it is necessary to ensure, in towing trim, more of the user payload is positioned towards the front of the caravan to ensure that a suitable nose weight of +/- 90kgs is attained. Also the recommended tow ball height of 415mm+/- 35mm is a very important factor.
Regards,
Ian Turner
Retailer Services Engineer
26th Jun 2013 9:08 pm
xyplex
Member Since: 13 Jan 2013
Location: Bedfordshire
Posts: 235
The problem is resolved now and I am very embarrased
The reason why my caravan nose was not coming down is because I use my motor mover to position the caravan over the tow ball and i forget to retract the motor mover before hitching meaning that the caravan will held in level position. So I now after positioning the hitch over the tow ball I retract the motor movers and the nose dips down.
Sorry guys I am so
26th Jun 2013 9:13 pm
Andy Foster
Member Since: 27 Dec 2009
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 6551
Oops. Hope you didn't drive off with the mover still in position.
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