Kerbweight

This discussion once again highlights the dangers of treating the Club’s weight ratio guidelines as either ‘law’ or some sort of magical safety net without equal emphasis on and due regard to all the other factors which contribute to safe (or dangerous) towing. To assume that 85% is magically safe and 86% is suddenly dangerous is naive. Too little emphasis is placed on nose weight, weight distribution and balance, tyre pressures to name just a few. There is no point in towing at 85% if all the other factors are ignored. Who is taking risks, the person towing a well balanced and legal outfit at 100% or the person towing an outfit at 85% but with total ignorance of nose weight, balance, car tyre pressures etc? Personally i think the Club are negligent in not emphasising ALL the factors involved and hiding behind 35 year old data. 

There is nothing wrong with using kerbweight as a basis for calculating the weight ratio, but kerbweight is not documented anywhere so if there is a need or a desire to have a really accurate figure the only way is to establish the kerbweight by putting the vehicle on a weighbridge.

On the other hand, definitions of terms such as kerbweight, mass in service or mass in running order don't differ that much that using one or the other instead would result in a significantly different figure. Whether the calculated weight ratio comes out as 82%, 85% or 88% is not going to make any noticeable difference to the stability of an outfit. I would challenge anybody to be able to tell the difference. It's not all black and white, there is a big grey area in between.