There ' s a good reason why large external storage spaces are positioned forward of the axles.
But how many vans have you seen with two 100-plus litre water tanks forward of the axles, with some tanks positioned quite close to the A-frame? I ' ve seen plenty. The trouble is, by adding 200kg of water forward of the axles, towards the end of the chassis, that weight has an impact on the van’ s ball weight. And so, when you’ re also adding gear to the van, loading the heavy stuff over the axles and then gradually towards the front, you might begin maxing out the tow vehicle’ s towball capacity.
I once conducted a test in which I filled two 100L water tanks that were quite far forward of the axles. The unladen ball weight was 155kg. After adding the water, the ball weight was 233kg – a 78kg increase! Given the van’ s ATM of 3000kg, likely meaning it would be towed by a vehicle with a 300kg maximum towball mass, that left only 67kg to account for luggage, gas in the cylinders, etc.
Was this a flawed caravan design? In my opinion, yes. It left the owner with no choice but to place almost everything above the axle line, where it would have least impact on ball weight. Had the water tanks, however, been placed closer to the axles – remembering our see-saw analogy – the impact on ball weight would have been negligible, providing the owner with more scope to load their van appropriately.
Don ' t forget, the microwave can make a handy storage nook!
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