Packing & loading your caravan
Packing and loading your caravan
The best way to load a caravan has been (and still is!) a very contentious issue. There are so many conflicting stories, made worse by a lack of regulation or rules to abide by and contrasting opinions. As you can see, there are many issues that come into play!
Here at Sportscruiser Caravans we would like to set the story straight and give you the best rule of thumb in finding the safest weight balance in caravan design – manufacture and how to pack.
Getting the right weight balance in a caravan really comes back to knowledge & experience. Here at Sportscruiser caravans, we are a family owned and operated business that manufacturers niche and very bespoke Caravans. But most importantly, we are avid caravan users ourselves & this shows in the researched, innovative, tested and ultra safe design.
Axle Positioning:
The best place to position an axle is based on the 30/70 rule. This means that based on the total length of your caravan (ie: from the tow hitch at the front and all the way right to the back of your caravan) – your axle should be located approximately 30% from the back of the caravan and therefore approximately 70% from the front tow hitch point. An added advantage of the 30/70 rule is that the caravan is easier to reverse.
Location of heavy fixtures, fittings, and equipment. When manufacturing a caravan – as much of the heavy items built into the caravan should ber as close as possible to the axle. In Sportscruiser Caravans, heavy items like refrigerators, hot water systems, batteries /electronic power systems, and water tanks, are located on as low as possible and around the axle position of the caravan.
Pack centrally (around the axle) and load down low:
Keeping your heavy items down low in the caravan as well as forward of and as close to the axle as possible is important!. Keeping a low centre of gravity and securing the items so they do not move while travelling is MOST important.
The perfect balancing act:
An all too common error in loading your van is -…. “If you have too much weight at the front of your caravan, you should balance this by adding weight to the back of your caravan. This could not be further from the truth and can be very unsafe.
As noted earlier, locate your heavy items on or around your axle and all of your items should get lighter in weight as they are stacked or stored the further away from the axle or the higher they are. Do not put heavy items on the back of your caravan or stored up high in cupboards!
Tow Ball weight:
In essence, the tow ball weight (ie: the down weight on the car hitch and can be measured with a set of scales was positioned under the tow hitch) – should be no more than 10% of the over all loaded caravan weight. Here at Sportscruiser Caravans, we believe it should be between 7% to 10%.
Most caravans have a storage trunk on the front drawbar. A common error is to load this storage up with heavy items This is where common sense comes in to play.
