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MG MGB Technical - MGBGT Towball Weight?

Folks, I want to tow the BGT on a special small-car trailer called a "Tilta Trailer" - it's a 300kg single-axle trailer with a 1500kg towing capacity.
The BGT should weigh less than 1200kgs (to be confirmed).
Can anyone tell me from experience what the Towball Weight of the BGT is likely to be? I hope to put the B on the trailer in the next week, but any guide beforehand would be much appreciated.
Yours,
John.
J P Hall

Interesting.

WSM gives the maximum weight of a CB GT as 1088kg, RB as 1110kg.

The weight on the towing hitch will depend on on that as well as where the car is positioned in relation to the axle. The GT has 527kg on the front and 562kg on the rear, (543kg and 566kg for the RB) so in theory if the middle of the car were over the axle, would that tend to reduce the load on the hitch?

I see modern FWD cars are shown driven forwards onto the trailer, they have a much greater proportion of the weight on the front of course, and the blurb warns about having extra weight on the boot.

Also is the wheelbase suitable? Cars shown are very small, looking like they take up almost all of the available length supporting the wheels, unless they are telescopic (not the wheels ...).
paulh4

Unladen weight of a roadster is about 920kg ands gt a bit under a tonne. Make sure that the fuel level is as low as possible and load the car facing forwards. When the car is loaded make sure that there is sufficient nose weight on the trailer - if not the trailer will snake. I have happily towed an mgb roadster on my trailer which has a max weight of 1300kg.
DM Gibson

Can't see a problem John
Your GT will be well under 1200
Strange rating for the trailer at 1500, I think it's around 1800 from memory where the rules change for breakaway braking etc
Must be a spring/tyre rating thing
Is it single axle or dual

Towball weight rating is for the tow vehicle , not the car on the trailer
It's up to you to position the towed vehicle correctly on the trailer so as not to exceed the towball weight rating of the chosen tow car

Usually to get a single axle trailer to tow nice you would want your car on frontwards as normal and fairly well up the front of the trailer
If it's dual axle a good guide is to have the front of the trailer up a tiddle when loaded either by using an adjustable height drawbar or ball packers so that the natural load is slightly biased to the rear axle but still maintaining towball load, then off you go --100mph
lol
willy
William Revit

'Tis interesting, Paul. The B sits perfectly on the single-axle Tilta, and because one of the intended tow vehicles is a Fiat Ducato Winnebago motorhome, I'm limited to 1500kgs towing capacity there. The Nissan Dual Cab in the photo can tow considerably more.
It just so happens that the Tilta trailer (single axle) is rated to 1500kgs.

Willy, I take your point about the Towball rating being a matter for the tow vehicle - and the towbar/hitch itself of course. Even the towbar fitting place here in Cairns has pointed out that a slight adjustment of the car on the trailer can adjust the towball load - safety being paramount at all times.

So whilst someone might report here from their personal experience and give me a clue as to the likely towball weight of the BGT, I'll soldier on and do the exercise as soon as I can. Might report my findings in case it's of interest to anyone else.
Thanks all for your comments.
Yours,
John.
J P Hall

John
The only way to know what the weight is going to be on your towball with the trailer loaded up with your Bgt is to measure it
If you take it into the towbar place there they can scale it for you
OR
Being a single axle trailer, where towbar height doesn't come into it as much as a dual
You could measure it yourself-
If you get your car loaded up, then unhook it off the towcar---Set your bathroom scales up on something solid around the height of your towball (stack of bricks) and a block of wood on the scales to protect them, then slowly wind the jockey wheel till the load is on the scales ---read the weight
Don't know what weight you're after but bath scales usually go up to 150Kg or more and you wouldn't want it any heavier than that
I'd imagine your towbar is a Hayman Rees so towball weight spec. should be around 100Kg max. if it's the heavy duty 1500kg bar
The weight ratings are fairly low because the towbar is so far back from the rear axle on the Fiat/Winn.
Just looked your trailer up, nice setup, that'll be handy with the open floor for doing oil changes / servicing etc of you MG
willy
William Revit

Ha! - right on every count, Willy:
I've been advised to use the Bathroom Scales method, because most towball-weight-measuring-sticks seem to start at 100kgs, whereas I'm limited to 80kgs under (1) the specs put out by Al-Ko the chassis manufacturer;and (2) the Hayman Reese towbar specs for the towbar specifically fitting the Winnie motorhome.
SO - I'm praying that the BGT can come in under 80kgs on the towball, possibly assisted by careful adjustment on the trailer tracks.
On the Tilta trailer, the tracks themselves are adjustable (judiciously) for width and also for-to-aft.

PS - just retired, so maiden voyage in the Winnie (hopefully with BGT behind) will be down to Victoria for Christmas/New Year. For English readers, that's over 3,000 kms each way.Might need a few wee breaks along the way.
John.
J P Hall

... not a good pic, but it gives you the idea.


J P Hall

Looking good, nice GT
One little thing that you probably know already--Make sure your car on the trailer is 'out' of gear when you are towing it about-
It doesn't matter how well you tie it on ,if it's left in gear it will pluck a tooth off somewhere in the g/box or diff
Main thing --enjoy your retirement
Cheers
willy
William Revit

Good point, Willy - I must admit I tend to put the B in first when I park, as back-up for the handbrake, so would have automatically wanted to do the same on the car trailer.
The advertising blurb for the trailer shows only the front wheels being strapped down, but I ain’t going nowhere without front and rear wheels strapped!
John.
J P Hall

Below is a pic of three well travelled MGs on trailers. They have been setup with 100 kgs on the tow ball using the bathroom scale system. Trailers are the ubiquitous MGCC Victoria single axle trailer design. Mine in particular has made the Melb-Perth trip once, 4 times to SA, twice to Qld and numerous intrastate Victorian trips. No trouble with tracking, tows comfortably at 100-110 kph (100 in WA!)
Mike


Mike Ellsmore

This thread was discussed between 28/10/2019 and 03/11/2019

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