Towball weight limits

Trisail · Feb 14, 2015

Guru advice please.
I have a 2011 4xmotion with the genuine VW endorsed towbar setup limited to a ball weight of 280kg.
Is it possible to legally change or adapt this setup to the previous limit of 350kg?
I have changed the weight distribution on my caravan but am still unable to get down to the 280 kg when travel loaded which means I either have to unload the van or the Treg and do not want to go there as both units individually are brilliant and exactly fit our touring requirements.
Would really appreciate any assistance here.
Cheers,
Mac

tgh05 · Feb 14, 2015

I suggest that the towbar limit is predicated on max vehicle load + the towbar load.
Three Sumo's in the back seat, max load in the luggage area and the 280kg may have some relevance.. otherwise…..

logger · Feb 14, 2015

Change on toto to one these Hayman Reese 350KG jobs! Expensive to do though.

Trisail · Feb 14, 2015

Thanks for the replies....I am prepared to go the HR route or any horizontal drawbar option but the vehicle specs are 280 kgs so changing the tow bar to 350 would still give any Insurance bod an out if ever I had cause to claim.

Steve_L · Feb 14, 2015

maybe get the rating re-calculated by an Engineer (suitable endorsed/qualified to do so), present the paperwork to a local motor registration office, take the required steps to have a new compliance plate re-issued. Have plate attached to your vehicle and off you go.

However.....much more detailed, time consuming and frustrating than all that appears.

Colin G · Feb 15, 2015

Steve is correct you can go to an engineer and have capacity changed I had the older horizontal bar fitted to mine with 350 Kg ball load although as you say it may be the car ball load that has changed it may be worth while finding out why ball load has been altered it maybe the vertical hitch that changed the ball load. Unloading the touareg wont change what weight you can put on the towbar you may need to rearrange the load in your caravan I have a 22 Ft caravan at 3Tonne it has a ball load of 190 Kg im thinking you are carrying a lot of weight up front
Colin

TimWhit · Feb 15, 2015

My van had a tow weight of 240kg. which I thought was a bit close to the limit for my liking. I hung the full size spare I bought on the rear of the van alongside the van spare and it reduced the weight to 190 kg. I'm not a fan of hanging weight on the back for obvious reasons, but the compliance plate tells me it should be 140kg. We haven't put a lot of heavy stuff in either. Filled water and gas, a small Weber, a couple of chairs and the usual leads, hoses etc. I'm still working on it.

Steve_L · Feb 15, 2015

Tip.

Unless you are going to be free-camping, what is the point of filling the water tanks, when weight is a considerable factor? Just have enough water to satisfy your travel needs, and if you're booked into a caravan park, use the water from their resource, or fill the tanks at that time.

We never travel with full water tanks, unless we have planned free camping o'night stays for the foreseeable future.

hedditch · Feb 15, 2015

Steve x2, I have a 21ft Dual Axle Compass Caravan which has both water tanks mounted ahead of the front axle, I normally have the front tank (of the two) locked out unless I an going bush. And usually only load the rear tank to 1/2 full. Both tanks is 140 litres of water or 140 kg (300 lbs).

Stuart..

TimWhit · Feb 16, 2015

Well, free camping is what we do. We came to here from bushwalking, 4WD trips into remote areas for the better part of our lives, eventually moving on to a Avan off road camper when they first came out and now the full luxury bit with hot showers and on board dunny. The longing for solitude continues and we still wander down disused wheel tracks for a couple of miles seeking good camp sites. On the odd trip where we know we are going to a park, or call in for shopping and washing, we never fill the tanks.

Trisail · Feb 16, 2015

Ditto on the empty tanks when going to a van park but free camping is our thing. I have done the weight to the back as far as practical so my only option (if staying with the current combo) is to re-rate the tow hitch. I will try the VW Aus. technical to clear up if the 280kg rating is based on the vertical tow hitch or the structural confirmation of the car. Thanks again for all the input....this is a great forum.
Mac

pjod · Feb 16, 2015

Hi Tim
Am just a bit confused by your figures
You said

My van had a tow weight of 240kg. which I thought was a bit close to the limit for my liking. I hung the full size spare I bought on the rear of the van alongside the van spare and it reduced the weight to 190 kg. I'm not a fan of hanging weight on the back for obvious reasons, but the compliance plate tells me it should be 140kg.

I am just trying to reconcile these figures
Does the 240kg tow weight refer to towball or tongue downforce (weight) in the van?
Does the compliance plate refer to the van or the Touareg or something else? Again I am presuming this is for towball limit.

With a 2013 I am presuming you have a vertical towball mount with the 280kg limit on the towball. Am I correct in this assumption.

On earlier models (7L) with the horizontal hitch the limit was 350kg. I was under the impression that there was a horizontal hitch made available from VW with the 350 kg limit for the 7P. I understood that this was not available initially but came in some time later. I may well be wrong on this so correct me if I am wrong.

For the OP, if available then replacing the vertical with the horizontal VW hitch (provided it does indeed have a 350 kg rating) may be easier than getting an engineer involved. However I think the revised towball weight limit came about with the change from 7L to 7P so may be more to do with the structural integrity and load stresses allowable on the newer chassis.

TimWhit · Feb 16, 2015

The 140kg. tow ball weight is what the van manufacturers (New Age) have stated for this van. The first time it was used I ran it over a weighbridge. They weighed the van plus car, then van only and produced both a gross weight for the van and interpolated a tow ball weight of 240 kg. (The 1800kg. van had grown to 2300kg.) I still have the certificate somewhere in the car.
This Xmas I received a tow ball weight scale which showed they had it pretty right. That was the scale I used to measure the revised weight with the spare mounted on the rear bumper of the van.
I was under the impression my tow hitch had a max ball weight of 250kg, but will check it after reading the other posts.

TimWhit · Feb 16, 2015

I just had a quick look at my manual which states on page 175 that the max tow ball weight is 140 kg. the next paragraph applies only to cars registered in Aus which states that the max tow ball weight is 280kg. Further on it states that these may be altered in the cars registration details and that these apply. Even further on it says that VW recommend that the max tow ball weight should always be used. I'm not confused in the least, I think.

StevieC · Feb 16, 2015

It's 280kgs on the 7P in Aus. Just because an after market bar quotes higher figure doesn't make it legal. The dealer/ VW would not honour the warranty if an issue is related to overloading ball weight. There is a variety of engineering factors that determine max tow ball weight. 7L is different vehicle.

Packhorse · Feb 16, 2015

From what I have worked out the new Touareg 2011 onwards has clear advise NOT to use weight distribution devise.

I believe the reduction to 280 KG from previous 350 has nothing to do with style of hitch (Vertical or Horizontal).

New Treg is lighter to start with and once you get beyond 280Kgs down weight can start to feel light on the front wheels particularly in the wet.

I believe it can easily handle in power and structurally but the lightness in front wheels in wet is a concern.

PS: NEVER believe what a caravan manufacturer places on their compliance. These are done on a base van so if you order van with any changes I doubt they reweight each van. Weight bridge is the go as there are some very cheap and inaccurate ball weight devices for sale

lefty_2015 · Feb 16, 2015

I don't understand the raisin why I can't use a distribution bar! I will certainly ask my dealer for it! I always use them on previous VUS and it was also recommended to distribute the weight and also have the front equal to the rear!

Also the weight on the tow bar is normally removing a zero or number of the capacity tow of the vehicle ex: 7600lbs = 760lbs on the tow bar! Do I have the wrong information or volks is not like all others?

GazzaK · Feb 16, 2015

TimWhit said:
I'm not a fan of hanging weight on the back for obvious reasons, but the compliance plate tells me it should be 140kg. We haven't put a lot of heavy stuff in either. Filled water and gas, a small Weber, a couple of chairs and the usual leads, hoses etc. I'm still working on it.

Tim, the 140 Kg referred to on the Van's compliance plate is the actual tow ball weight with the Van empty, including no water and no gas in the gas bottles. It is NOT a maximum weight. One solution may be to move your water tanks. Where are your tanks now in relation to the Van's axle/s?

GazzaK · Feb 16, 2015

Trisail said:
Guru advice please. I have a 2011 4xmotion with the genuine VW endorsed towbar setup limited to a ball weight of 280kg. Is it possible to legally change or adapt this setup to the previous limit of 350kg? I have changed the weight distribution on my caravan but am still unable to get down to the 280 kg when travel loaded which means I either have to unload the van or the Treg and do not want to go there as both units individually are brilliant and exactly fit our touring requirements. Would really appreciate any assistance here. Cheers, Mac

Giday,
Like I suggested in the previous post, have you considered moving the Van's water tanks?
This is a solution used pretty commonly for this issue. Plenty of good gen on http://caravanersforum.com

pjod · Feb 17, 2015

GazzaK said:
Tim, the 140 Kg referred to on the Van's compliance plate is the actual tow ball weight with the Van empty, including no water and no gas in the gas bottles. It is NOT a maximum weight. One solution may be to move your water tanks. Where are your tanks now in relation to the Van's axle/s?

Tim
check the van compliance plate as some (not many I grant, but some) have a maximum ball weight as well as the empty weight as Gazza has pointed out.

Gazza,
have seen on a few vans, mostly European but not all, a range of ball weight stamped on the compliance plate for the towball, with the empty weight as well as a maximum that is not to be exceeded. Unusual I know but might pay to check in case something unfortunate happens

Re water tanks
Gazza is on the money there. Mostly tanks are fitted wherever they will fit, rather than being designed into the best position. Ideally it would be good to have them around the axle line so that empty or full they would not affect the ball weight, viz each side of the axle line. Unfortunately this is rarely the case and some moving around may solve your issue. Be careful though not to upset the balance too much and have too much water sloshing around behind the axle, Don't want the tail wagging the dog

Towball weight limits

Trisail

tgh05

logger

Trisail

Steve_L

Colin G

TimWhit

Steve_L

hedditch

TimWhit

Trisail

pjod

TimWhit

TimWhit

StevieC

Packhorse

lefty_2015

GazzaK

GazzaK

pjod

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