boat trailer nose weight issue

[Malcolm MacAdam]

I have a 2000kg boat on a 550 kg trailer. I have just bought a new trailer and I have way too much nose weight at 250 kg. This needs sorting now!!!!! Searching the net I see that there are a couple of schools of thought from min 50kg nose weight to 7% of trailer plus load weight which, in my case, works out at about 180kg. This latter figure still seems high to me though.

I intend to cure this by moving the axles forward. But can anyone give me their opinion of what the nose weight should be?

Thanks in advance.

[GreenV8S]

That is going to be a heck of a heavy load and I guess you have something correspondingly big to tow it with. I would have thought that the nose weight needs to suit the tow vehicle and rules of thumb that work for ordinary small trailers and caravans might not extend to that sort of size. For one thing, I guess the center of gravity is going to be very high so the nose weight will vary a lot as you accelerate and brake. I know somebody who used to tow a boat that was so tall and heavy, the front wheels of the tow car came off the ground if he braked hard. Hardly road worthy or safe, but he seemed happy with it like that. So getting the static nose weight right by 50 Kgs or so is probably not high on the list of problems you're facing.

Edited by GreenV8S on Saturday 18th April 16:19

[Malcolm MacAdam]

Tow vehicle = Nissan Pathfinder, excellent tow vehicle and highly recommended.

I have reduced it to 120 kgs since first posting by moving the trailer axles forward about 12 inches. That now accords with the maximum in the Nissan handbook. But that is my limit for that method due to roller positions etc so the next reduction will have to come by moving the boat back on the trailer bby 6 inches by shifting the winch post backwards. Hopefully that will sort it.

Talking of dodgy towing, last night in the dark and pouring rain I nearly ran into the back of a car on the motorway, or I should say a gaggle of 3 cars. One towing, the one in the middle with no power or brakes and the one at the rear braking! All using very short tow lines and cruising at 45mph. Higly illegal I suspect!

[Muppet32]

Malcolm MacAdam said:

Tow vehicle = Nissan Pathfinder, excellent tow vehicle and highly recommended.

I have reduced it to 120 kgs since first posting by moving the trailer axles forward about 12 inches. That now accords with the maximum in the Nissan handbook. But that is my limit for that method due to roller positions etc so the next reduction will have to come by moving the boat back on the trailer bby 6 inches by shifting the winch post backwards. Hopefully that will sort it.

If the maximum for the tow vehicle is 120kg, I wouldn't reduce it any further than this. A good healthy noseweight will make for a far more stable trailer, especially at speed.

You'd find if you moved the boat too far back so you hardly had any noseweight, that the trailer would have a tendency to snake at speed

[1]

120kg still sounds very high. You should aim for 80 - 100 kgs, which is more than enough to help avoid snaking. You are lucky that the Nissan has a high maximum but the max is exactly that, not a target weight!

Edited by 1 on Monday 20th April 02:08