Uprate weight, can now take clothes and food. (1 Viewer)

Bazzermc

Free Member
Feb 7, 2015
54
40
Wiltshire
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35,023
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Autotrail Cheyenne
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I'm a newbie
Thought I would share my experience of uprating our MH:

Decided to take "Penny" to be weighed to ensure legal with all base stuff we wanted to carry (folding bikes, spare wheel, folding chairs, etc.), so had reference.
Bought digital hand scales and weighed everything we put in or took out.
Setup a spreadsheet so we could easily juggle things around.
With clothes, food and drink for short trip we were overweight, so had to dump the spare wheel......not happy about this, but safer to be legal.
Decided to give SvTech a call.......we have the additional air suspension fitted at rear, so could add 100 Kg to back axle with existing tyres, or 200Kg with higher loading tyres. Recently fitted new tyres and SvTech confirmed they would send uprated plate if we changed tyres in the future, so decided the 100 Kg would suffice.

We looked carefully at saving weight to stay in current limits, but decided we wanted to enjoy our travels and not be worrying about a few Kg's here and there.
(We have a garage behind the rear axle so rear axle weight was our limiting factor).

Paid our £312 to SvTech, next day new plate arrives and certificate to send to DVLA.
Spare wheel back in and we can now take the required clothes, food and booze to start our travels with peace of mind.

Hope this may help others and not bore you all to death.
 

Abacist

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Oct 15, 2013
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I don't know what your gross weight was before your upgrade and if it was built to be 3,500 kilograms which is the only reason for manufacturers to plate at that weight providing that there is a reasonable load margin due to the licence restrictions.

In lots of cases however they seem to choose an arbitrary weight that is not one thing or another but makes it possible to do either:-

1) a paper exercise because the van and chassis are under the design weight
2) add air suspension and/or higher weight rated tyres to raise the gross weight to the maximum

All their pathetic action does is to cause many to run overweight and the rest to pay a lot in fees to the likes of SVTech plus the cost of air suspension, fitting and higher rated tyres.

As we have said many times the manufacturers don't seem to any consideration for their customers!
 

Bailey58

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Jun 23, 2010
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There have been many threads on this subject and far from bore us all to death a bit more detail on specific weights may have been useful, without reference to your age I assume you've taken into account the licence requirements at 70?

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Allanm

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Jun 30, 2013
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It's amazing how heavy a couple of bags of shopping are too, it soon build up till you have little or no payload. We went with svtech to increase our payload by 200kg, luckily we didn't need any mods, but saved a few bob on the new PHGV tax rate.
 

Minxy

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Its a shame you didn't uses the chap I recommended for this as he charges a third of what SVTech do, at least you're legal now. (y)
 

Armytwowheels

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Be a naturist a don't take many clothes !!!
Mitch. (y)

Leave the booze at home

I don't know which suggestion I am most shocked about.......the 2nd one I think, yes, definitely, go and wash your keyboard with soap and stop being so stupid!

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Jul 29, 2013
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As we have said many times the manufacturers don't seem to any consideration for their customers![/QUOTE]
all they want is you're money
 

SMB

Apr 26, 2013
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Its a shame you didn't uses the chap I recommended for this as he charges a third of what SVTech do, at least you're legal now. (y)
Can you give me his details Minxy Girl as I want to uprate my van when I get back to the UK thanks :)
 

Minxy

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Tootles

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Hope this may help others and not bore you all to death.
Not at all! In fact, a great idea!! (y)

And so, forty hours after starting.........
Spanner.....3oz
Orange........2oz
sink plug.......1oz
"Feeling tired love?? Not long now......."
Copy of Womans Own........6oz
Bra............16 stone..........:Eeek:
 
Aug 19, 2014
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Not at all! In fact, a great idea!! (y)

And so, forty hours after starting.........
Spanner.....3oz
Orange........2oz
sink plug.......1oz
"Feeling tired love?? Not long now......."
Copy of Womans Own........6oz
Bra............16 stone..........:Eeek:
Bra..16 stone.....! Is that empty or filled? :D

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Minxy

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2

2657

Deleted User
Not at all! In fact, a great idea!! (y)

And so, forty hours after starting.........
Spanner.....3oz
Orange........2oz
sink plug.......1oz
"Feeling tired love?? Not long now......."
Copy of Womans Own........6oz
Bra............16 stone..........:Eeek:
Believe it or not there was some guy on a caravan forum that had a list as long as your arm of the weights of everything that he might need to take in his caravan..........and I thought I was a bit OCD:)

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PeteH

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Nov 22, 2007
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I am proposing to lift the Limit on mine, AS SOON as the D******d`s at DVLA find the time to reply to my enquiry about eyesight following the successful removal of Cataracts and the insertion of Implants!!!. I am now virtually 20/20 without glasses after 50+ years of using them!. I enquired about flying fast jets, but apparently I am over the age?. Or so the nice man at the recruiting centre said?.

Pete
 

pigginchilli

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Not at all! In fact, a great idea!! (y)

And so, forty hours after starting.........
Spanner.....3oz
Orange........2oz
sink plug.......1oz
"Feeling tired love?? Not long now......."
Copy of Womans Own........6oz
Bra............16 stone..........:Eeek:
I have too much work to think about to worry about whether i have put too much in our van! When i get time off my first thoughts are , Dont overload the van!! If only i was allowed to swear.:mad:

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Candapack

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Oct 16, 2014
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My wife decided we would need the clothes and food, so ended up leaving the bikes. Missed them badly.
We too are uprating when we get back.:mad:
 
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Bazzermc

Bazzermc

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Feb 7, 2015
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Its a shame you didn't uses the chap I recommended for this as he charges a third of what SVTech do, at least you're legal now. (y)
Hi Mel, didn't see this until after I had done the deal....

Original weights -
4000
2100
2400

New -
4500
2100
2500

I still have 8 years before need to worry about being over 3500

If you make this change, don't forget to notify insurance, no addition charge in our case (Comfort)
 
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Bazzermc

Bazzermc

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Feb 7, 2015
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Not at all! In fact, a great idea!! (y)

And so, forty hours after starting.........
Spanner.....3oz
Orange........2oz
sink plug.......1oz
"Feeling tired love?? Not long now......."
Copy of Womans Own........6oz
Bra............16 stone..........:Eeek:

I am not that sad, I done it by the bag full, it was surprising the booze was heaviest.....

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Minxy

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Aug 22, 2007
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If you make this change, don't forget to notify insurance, no addition charge in our case (Comfort)
Same with us when we did our uprate, no charge by Safeguard however they did tell us that we will have some restrictions on our vehicle recovery - no free hotel for example as we now fall into the 'commercial' category but I believe this is the norm with all vehicle recovery over 3500kg.
 

Minxy

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laneside

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nowhere near long enough
and when you have gone to the trouble of weighing everything have you made any allowance for the additional weight that is added due to the cantilever effect. If it sits rear of the rear axle it will weigh more than what the scales say

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Bazzermc

Bazzermc

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Feb 7, 2015
54
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We went to the weighbridge with everything in the garage, all items weighed and added after that went between the axles.
I am retired engineer so understand loading, but good point for others to consider.
 

DBK

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and when you have gone to the trouble of weighing everything have you made any allowance for the additional weight that is added due to the cantilever effect. If it sits rear of the rear axle it will weigh more than what the scales say
Sort of, it will add more to the rear axle than its own weight, but the difference is taken off the front axle loading. The overall increase in GVW is only the weight of the item.
 

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