Tow Ball Weight of Viscount Ambassador 1980 15ft?

[alesha]

Hi 
Hoping someone might know the rough tow ball weight of a 1980 Viscount Ambassador 15ft. Trying to establish if the heavy duty towbar I can get for my Tarago with a max of 160 kilo tow ball weight, could safely and legally tow this.

[bobt]

Hi Alesha

Its a bit like asking how long is bit of string. If you can establish what it weighs rule of thumb, 10% of that is the towball weight. Some others might come along and give you an idea. How you use it and load it in the future will impact the towball weight. My guess is it could weigh around the 1000ks to 1200ks if that is close your towball weight could be 100 - 120kg. But that is a guess.

Good luck

bobt

[pisces51]

G'day Alesha, and welcome to the forum!

A 15ft van has an approximate tare weight of 800kgs. The registration process will typically give a loading allowance of 300kgs for a van of this size, which gives an "Aggregate Trailer Mass" of 800 + 300 = 1100kgs.

An aim ballweight for these classic caravans is 15% of the ATM, so 1100kgs x 15% = 165kgs.

Even though that figure "just" exceeds the spec of the towbar, it would be madness to tow any van where the actual ballweight is close to the max spec for a towbar.

For a towbar rated at 160kgs ballweight allowance, I wouldn't be exceeding 120kgs (ie. 75% of the max allowance).

cheers,

Al.

[twocutekelpies]

Mar 12, 2019 17:59:46 GMT 10 alesha said:

Hi 
Hoping someone might know the rough tow ball weight of a 1980 Viscount Ambassador 15ft. 

Hi Alesha, is there a chassis number on the drawbar please? I'm thinking this Ambassador is older than 1980, probably more 1975, they stopped making them early 1976. The chassis number should give you year, eg if it starts with A5 = 1975, A6 = 1976 (this only works for Viscounts between 1973-78)  
Cheers
Shelley

[Mustang]

I'm at 180 kg for 17'6" single axle Viscount, so I expect the folks reckoning above for a 15' is spot on!
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