C
consultman
Deleted User
hello, we are a mature couple who have bought a new Compass Avantgarde 145. it's great on many fronts - it was the only arrangement we liked which had two sitting areas in a van just over 20 ft long. We knew nothing about vans so it has been a steep learning curve. The main reason for getting it is that I have just retired from full time work & we want to go and live in Falmouth Cornwall for a trial period. The van is our way back to keep in touch with family & friends in the London Area.
We have a bike rack fitted but having cycled out of St Ives back to our camp site (only 3 miles away) we both nearly expired with the 1 in 8 hill. We would like to fit a motorscooter rack but are concerned about exceeding the max overhang from the back axle. Our van has a wheelbase of 343cm and an overhang of 180 cm.
The Haynes motorcaravan manual states that the overhang should not exceed 60% of the wheelbase of the vehicle when carrying heavy loads on the rear otherwise the leverage on the back will make the front light with reduced traction resulting in possible dangerous handling. We would be in the order of 72-75% of the wheelbase with a 116Kg unladen weight scooter - one of the lightest we could find.
There is a company in Stoke -On -Trent that will supply and fit a scooter rack - they will extend the chassis members to the rear bumper ( at the moment they are some 25cm short). They only seem concerned about exceeding the back axle load.
We have been on a weighbridge and the figures indicate we have 200kg in hand for the rear axle so the scooter + rack will come within this. We will be just inside the overall mass of 3300Kg limit.
Are we being too worried about the overhang issue? after all our bike rack already exceeds the overhang rule at about 70% of wheelbase but of course the scooter will weight 4 times that of our 2 bikes.
Any thoughts or opinions would be most welcome.
oh:
We have a bike rack fitted but having cycled out of St Ives back to our camp site (only 3 miles away) we both nearly expired with the 1 in 8 hill. We would like to fit a motorscooter rack but are concerned about exceeding the max overhang from the back axle. Our van has a wheelbase of 343cm and an overhang of 180 cm.
The Haynes motorcaravan manual states that the overhang should not exceed 60% of the wheelbase of the vehicle when carrying heavy loads on the rear otherwise the leverage on the back will make the front light with reduced traction resulting in possible dangerous handling. We would be in the order of 72-75% of the wheelbase with a 116Kg unladen weight scooter - one of the lightest we could find.
There is a company in Stoke -On -Trent that will supply and fit a scooter rack - they will extend the chassis members to the rear bumper ( at the moment they are some 25cm short). They only seem concerned about exceeding the back axle load.
We have been on a weighbridge and the figures indicate we have 200kg in hand for the rear axle so the scooter + rack will come within this. We will be just inside the overall mass of 3300Kg limit.
Are we being too worried about the overhang issue? after all our bike rack already exceeds the overhang rule at about 70% of wheelbase but of course the scooter will weight 4 times that of our 2 bikes.
Any thoughts or opinions would be most welcome.
oh:
