Towing Safety Guide
Every towing season, someone's outfit starts to weave on a long descent and the stabiliser gets the blame. In our experience it's almost never the stabiliser's fault. Snaking begins with how the caravan is loaded and how much weight is pressing down on the towball — and a stabiliser can only damp a problem that's already there. It cannot cancel one out.
Get the noseweight and the loading right and towing becomes reassuringly dull, which is exactly what you want. Here's how we'd set an outfit up properly, in the order that matters.
1 Noseweight
The one number every tow car owner should know
Noseweight is simply the downward force your loaded caravan applies to the towball. It is not a fixed property of the caravan — it changes every time you pack, and it is the single biggest influence on how stable your outfit feels at 55mph.
The industry rule of thumb is 5–7% of the caravan's actual laden weight, and you should not exceed 7%. On a van loaded to 1,400kg, that's roughly 70kg at the lower end and 98kg at the upper. But a percentage is only your target — your real limit is the lowest of three separate figures: the caravan chassis manufacturer's maximum, the figure in your tow car's handbook, and the figure stamped on your towbar. Whichever is smallest is the one you must not exceed.
Too little noseweight and the front of the van goes light, which is how snaking gets started. Too much and the back of the car squats, the front tyres unload, and the steering goes vague just when you need it most. There's a comfortable middle, and a gauge is how you find it.
Liberty Nose Weight Gauge (LL0129)
A simple, well-made gauge that reads up to 100kg — 42cm tall with a plastic foot, so it sits under the coupling at close to normal hitch height. It's the cheapest piece of towing safety equipment you'll ever buy, and the most useful.
£12.99
View gaugeHow to measure it properly
Measure on level ground, with the caravan loaded exactly as you intend to travel — not empty, and not before you've thrown the awning in. Wind the jockey wheel up so the full weight of the front of the van transfers onto the gauge under the coupling, and take the reading with the van sitting level fore and aft. A van nose-down or nose-up will give you a false figure.
If you don't have a gauge to hand, bathroom scales and a stout offcut of timber under the coupling will get you close, though a purpose-made gauge is easier and more repeatable.
Do it after packing, not before. Every trip is loaded differently. Two crates of food in the front locker instead of over the axle can move your noseweight by 15kg without you noticing.
2 Loading
Where you put the weight matters more than the total
The physics here are worth understanding, because they explain everything else. Your caravan pivots around its axle. Anything heavy placed a long way from that axle — a full aquaroll in the front locker, a generator in the rear locker — acts as a lever and gives the van far more energy to swing with once it starts moving. The same items sat low, directly over the axle, barely contribute at all.
So: heavy things low and central, light and bulky things at the ends. Keep the front locker for gas and hoses rather than tools. Travel with your water containers empty. Awnings are deceptively heavy, so store them over the axle rather than in the back. And whatever you carry, make sure it can't move — a heavy item sliding forward mid-corner is the worst kind of surprise.
Tyres are the other half of this. A caravan tyre is carrying close to its rated load most of the time, and underinflation is what turns a hot motorway run into a blowout. Check pressures cold, before you set off, against the figure on the caravan's weight plate rather than the number moulded into the tyre.
AL-KO Jockey Wheel Compact (1222433)
Supports the nose weight when uncoupled and lets you wind the front of the van up onto a gauge cleanly. A tired, wobbly jockey wheel makes measuring — and hitching — harder than it needs to be.
TyrePilot Tyre Pressure Monitoring Kit (STP116-2)
Live pressure and temperature readings from the caravan's tyres while you drive — the earliest possible warning of a slow puncture on a wheel you can't see.
3 Stabilisers
What a stabiliser actually does — and what it can't
A friction stabiliser coupling like the AL-KO AKS 3004 clamps friction pads onto the towball from four sides. That friction resists both yaw (snaking) and pitch (the nose-up, nose-down bobbing you get over undulating roads), damping small movements before they build into something you have to react to. What it doesn't do is compensate for a badly loaded van or a noseweight that's out of range. Think of it as insurance on a well-set-up outfit, not a fix for a poor one.
AL-KO AKS 3004 Stabiliser
The current AKS design, with improved ergonomics and four friction pads that noticeably suppress snaking and pitching. Fits 50mm towballs and is the standard fit on a great many UK touring caravans.
£489.99
View stabiliserLiving with an AL-KO AKS 3004
The towball must be clean, dry and completely free of grease. This is the point owners most often get wrong. AL-KO is explicit: clean the ball regularly with thinners, white spirit or brake cleaner, otherwise the stabilising effect is severely reduced. If your towball is painted or coated, that finish must be removed entirely with 100 or 120 grit emery paper before an AKS is used on it.
Use the wear indicator. Couple the AKS 3004 to the towball but don't operate the stabiliser handle. If green is showing, the ball and pads are within permissible limits. If only red is showing, something has reached its limit — the towball has worn down to the 49.61mm minimum, or the friction pads are worn.
The pads are not adjustable. They're a wear part, and when they're done they're replaced, not tightened. If they've merely gone shiny and glazed, rub them back with fine emery until the glaze has gone, then finish with brake cleaner. If they've been contaminated with grease, don't try to clean them — replace them, because cleaning won't restore the friction.
AL-KO Winterhoff Friction Pad Set (1860601)
Genuine replacement friction pads — the wear component that grips the towball. New pads simply clip into the head of the stabiliser, so it's a job you can do on the driveway.
AL-KO Extended Neck Towball (1385401)
A bolt-on 50mm flange towball with an extended neck, supplied with fittings and suitable for use with AL-KO AKS stabilisers — the extra clearance the AKS head needs to swing freely.
Servicing an older AKS head? The AL-KO 2004/3004 Stabiliser Shim Kit (£11.99) is the genuine small-parts kit for AKS 2004 and 3004 refurbishment, and a Soft Dock MSP (£32.99) makes hitching a WS3000 far less of a wrestling match.
4 Hitching up
The five-minute routine that catches problems early
A consistent hitch-up routine is worth more than any single accessory, because it catches the things that creep up on you between trips.
Towball height. With the tow car fully laden, the centre of the towball should sit between 350mm and 420mm above the ground — the requirement set out in UNECE Regulation 55. If your outfit is visibly nose-down or nose-up when coupled, that's worth investigating; on a flange towbar a drop plate is the usual fix.
Breakaway cable. UK law requires a correctly fitted breakaway cable on a braked caravan, and it must go to a dedicated attachment point on the towbar rather than being casually looped over the ball. Check it every trip: they fray, they corrode, and they cost almost nothing to replace. If yours is more than a season or two old, just fit a new one.
And the rest. Corner steadies fully up, jockey wheel raised and clamped, handbrake off, road lights and indicators checked with someone watching, extension mirrors fitted so you have a proper view down both sides of the van, and nothing loose left on the worktop inside.
AL-KO Breakaway Cable with Carabiner Clip (1220984)
Genuine AL-KO breakaway cable with a carabiner clip for quick, secure attachment. At under a tenner there is no good reason to run a frayed one.
Maypole 2" (52mm) 4-Hole Drop Plate (MP230)
Zinc-plated heavy-duty drop plate for flange towbars, used to bring a too-high towball back down into the legal 350–420mm window.
Awkward towbar geometry? The AL-KO ZAF 1 Safety Cable (£28.99) has a right-angled connector, which routes far more neatly where a straight cable would foul the bumper or A-frame.
A word on outfit matching
If you're changing car or van, the 85% guideline is worth knowing. It isn't law — it's industry guidance from the National Caravan Council and most manufacturers — but it's sound: aim for the caravan's MTPLM to be no more than 85% of the tow car's kerbweight. Between 85% and 100% is territory for experienced towers only, and a caravan heavier than the car should not be towed at all. Separately, check your licence: if you passed your test on or after 1 January 1997, you can now tow up to 3,500kg MAM without a separate towing test.
Before every trip
- Caravan loaded as you'll travel, then noseweight measured with a gauge
- Noseweight within 5–7% and under the lowest of the three stated limits
- Heavy items low and over the axle; nothing loose that can shift
- Tyre pressures checked cold against the caravan's weight plate
- Towball clean, dry and grease-free; AKS wear indicator showing green
- Friction pads not glazed, greasy or worn through
- Towball centre 350–420mm above ground with the car laden
- Breakaway cable sound and clipped to a proper attachment point
- Steadies up, jockey wheel clamped, lights and mirrors checked
Set up once, tow with confidence
Gauges, stabilisers, friction pads, breakaway cables and towballs — all in our Chassis, Towing & Levelling range, dispatched from the UK with tracked delivery. Not sure which part fits your chassis? Send us a photo and we'll check before you order.
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