Towball weight - Help

Adventurebound. The recomended ball weight is a guide only and should be in the range of 10-15% of your loaded van/trailer weight. So with loaded van of 2230 you can have a ball wt. Of 223 to 335.

The is no fixed figure or formula that I am aware of to say what it should be. Just rule of thumb from a lot of people's experience.

I would say you were good without taking out the stuff you have. How does it tow? That is what is important.

Dont know what your GVM/GCM is for the Triton but don't forget to add the ball wt to the GVM and van Wt. to arrive at your GCM. A lot of folk forget the ball wt.

I assume your using a wt. distribution system.

In summary IMHO I would say you were good in the first instance.

You could also add that pipe of poles to the rear of the van, that would help balance out the van.
Not being able to see rear of your van, if it has a rear bar and spare(s) mounted there.
Or you could stow your poles and rods tube in the rear of the van when traveling.
How are you intending to protect the front of the van, and rear of the tow vehicle, now the stone guard is gone?

Quote ".The compliance plates states empty ball is 142Kg, so thats not rocket science..."

The ball weight on the compliance plate is the ball weight when the van is empty. It does not reflect the loaded condition. Nearly all vans load with an increased ball weight. Don't worry about it.

Put all your gear back on your van. You will still be 40 kg within your allowable limit.

To be honest you are fine the way it was. Load it all back up and away you go.
Whatever you do DONT add weight to the rear to lighten the front.Is a recipe for disaster

Absolutely ideal ballweight for what you have.

The weight the manufacturer puts on the plate is advisory only. Nothing to do with insurance and they would only be interested if the whole van was over weight and that contributed to the accident.

You are worrying about nothing

Adventurebound,

What counts is the actual ballweight applied to the vehicle must be, in your case, 300kg or under.

As others have said, the ballweight provided by Jayco is the unladen ballweight. Load your jayco as you wish but try to keep heavy stuff toward the middle as much as possible, and if that is not possible, more toward the front than the back but don't exceed 300kg ballweight. Your original loading seems ok.

Reducing the ballweight by biasing weight to the rear by unloading the front (as you have done) MAY increase instability. It also may not - depends on design of the Discovery and how Jayco have distributed fixed weight.

Also, that ballweight, whatever it is, must be added to the loaded weight of the vehicle and the sum of those must be less than the vehicle's GVM. And the sum of the vehicle's loaded weight plus the ballweight (whether or not that total is less than GVM) plus the weight of the loaded Jayco must not exceed the vehicle's GCM.

Your Triton will take 300kg on the tow ball but not in all conditions. Even 190 kg could be too much on some road surfaces if it is combined with a fair amount of weight in the rear of the car.

Two things concern me in a case like this. One is an email I received from Mitsubishi in about 2010. It said the advertised maximum towing capacity for a Triton is the maximum possible in good highway conditions and they don't recommend towing that much in off road conditions. They did not give any figures or explain what "off road" was.

The other is this magazine storyhttp://www.4x4australia.com.au/drive/1504/bent-utes/. Unfortunately Tritons seem to have more than their share of problems in this area.

Your van is an off road model and even some mild unsealed surfaces can bounce the back of the car up and down a fair bit.

I would be contacting Mitsubishi Australia (not a dealer) and discussing it with them. Ask them about ball weights in different conditions; do they or don't they recommend the use of a weight distributing hitch; how much weight can be added to the back of the car with your ball weight; how much weight should be in the seats. You can't have a little up front and heaps out the back.

It is vital you get this right and they should be the best people to help you sort it out.

This is also well worth reading.http://caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/caravan-and-tow-vehicle-dynamics/ Click on "The Author" at the top of the page to see who wrote it.

Thanks to those who have replied to my thread....it now gives me a better understanding..

Regards
Steve

Hi, it sounds like you may be taking a bit of a guess at the tow ball weight. I think the best way is to just weigh it. Try and borrow some proper scales or use some bathroom scales. There is a method to be able to use bathroom scales, just google it.
So, load up the van the way you want to, weigh it at the towball for piece of mind. You may be pleasantly suprised.
Wizzer