PUBLIC WEIGHBRIDGE QUESTION/INFO

wingman

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When attending a public weighbridge, is it necessary to load the MoHo up with absolutely everything including food and clothes? Or is it ok to estimate the weight of those items (plus the wife) as long as fuel, water, gas cylinders and all of the rest of the tut is on board at the time of weighing.
Don't really want to start a trip at a weighbridge!

Also, what's the drill? Do the weighbridge operators guide you as to the procedure? Do they explain the certificate? Do you drive on and weigh the front, then the rear, then the whole vehicle? What?

A local reputable metal scrap company specifically mentions weighing motorhomes on their website, so thought I'd go there.
 
Best speak to the operator first to explain that you want to weigh one axle (front or rear) and the complete vehicle.
Ideally it wants to be fully loaded as if you were starting of on your travels inc fuel, water, passengers, pets & food.
 
Thanks for this Wingman, you have given me some room for thought. In anticipation of the year away I shall load the van up to the gunnels with everything that i need for making the whole experience very comfortable, even the dog. I shall then go and visit the weighbridge and hopefully get a certificate to say that it is a well balanced load and be at the maximum permissible weight for travel and a certificate to prove it is just a dream. Then I can go home and show the wife the certificate, which will by this time framed, I will then have to inform her that as I am fully loaded no room for her. Year away with the van and dog what a dream.... er just woke up
 
When attending a public weighbridge, is it necessary to load the MoHo up with absolutely everything including food and clothes? Or is it ok to estimate the weight of those items (plus the wife) as long as fuel, water, gas cylinders and all of the rest of the tut is on board at the time of weighing.

Yes, load it up with the maximum amount you think you might need/want (including wife :wink:). You're bound to under-estimate things otherwise and that kind of defeats the object of getting the van weighed in the first place. :Smile:

If you don't want to load the van up unnecessarily, try looking for a weighbridge en route to your next destination.

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Mentioned before on towbars plus bikes and uprating but we get 2 printed weights for our tenner at the local grain merchant so I weigh the front and rear seperately for the print out and man writes the total by hand for me on the ticket. Fully loaded with fuel, water, wife, dog, often a crate of bricks for food and clothes etc. if it's a test run as last time when I weighed with the new towbar, bike rack and ebikes.
 
As others have said, load up as closely as possible to a real trip.

The bridge we go to weighs in three stages. Drive front on (leaving rear off) & weigh; drive fully on and weigh; drive front off (leaving rear on) and weigh. We just get the weights written on a piece of paper rather than a printed ticket. Costs about a fiver or so.
 
If you do a bit of Googling you should find public weighbridges near you listed. These could well be a lot cheaper than the Scrappie.
 
Thanks Gents.
Jeez; forgot about the bikes, good point! They aren't e-bikes, but mine is heavy. Must remember to bung those on.
Mrs W weighs 53kgs so I can dispense with her coming and just add her at a later stage?

Maz. I don't really want to do a trip via the weighing place. In fact, I don't really want to go to the place at all! It's just blooming' Funsters freaking me out with tyre pressure equations and tales of being pulled by the Gendarmerie!

I like the idea of a crate of bricks to substitute food though. Not that we take much. The wife eats rabbit food (like salads) all the time and I'm a 'grazer' rather than big meal person. Long as the biscuit tin is full of custard creams and there's something fried available, I'm happy. Hardly any weight in all-day breakfasts eh?

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Phone trading standards at your local council and they will send you a list of the weighbridges. You may find there is one very close by - or even on your route.

Our local one is a transport operators yard and they always laugh when we turn up as they don't weigh many motorhomes. It's sort of on the way to the fuel station / supermarket so not far out of the way.

Doesn't MMM have an article on weighing motorhomes this month? It's amazing the difference it makes as to where you put things. Leverage / physics in action.
 
Maz. I don't really want to do a trip via the weighing place. In fact, I don't really want to go to the place at all!

Why? It only takes 5 minutes and is not a major issue. Just drive onto bridge - get one reading. Drive half off bridge - get another reading. That's it!

Last one I did I fitted in during a tour around Dartmoor just after I'd done the weekly shop in a supermarket. There's a list of weighbridges on the web somewhere - been mentioned in many threads on this subject.
 
The main thing is to know what the weight distribution is for anything not included in the weighing. For example, your wife I guess puts virtually all her weight on the front axle so when you have a weighbridge figure for the front axle you can just add her weight to it. It's a bit more difficult for other items, for example anything added behind the rear axle will add to the rear axle weight more than its own weight and reduce the load on the front axle. However, it isn't an exact science, so don't worry about whether the tea caddy is full or not. :)

I would include bikes, fresh water, an empty waste tank, and for anything you haven't loaded such as food and books say, just add dummy weights on the floor more or less where they are going to be, fore and aft-wise, as if the were loaded.
 
The extra weight we added with the towbar and rack fitted by Watling plus the bikes minus batteries added 100kg to the rear axle but we were still under, just, the 3500kg. The problem I may find is the differential between the two axles which could lead to less grip on the drive wheels, a big problem on the old van and not easy to rectify with the axle so far forward and failry useless when moving stuff forward. I shall have to get the wife to eat more and maybe get a bigger dog to sit up front too. :whistle:
 
Thanks again all.
@Puddleduck and @DevonBeekeeper I did have a scout around on the net and this scrap yard is only 2 miles from me. It's a bit of an upmarket yard too; not a dump if you'll pardon the pun. I'm not too worried about how much it costs. Convenience is more important and if I'm overweight, I know how I can save 53 kilos :D

Good point about the leverage/physics/moments etc. my van has a long overhang (about 6 foot plus the rack) so bikes way back there probably alters things a bit?

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T

Good point about the leverage/physics/moments etc. my van has a long overhang (about 6 foot plus the rack) so bikes way back there probably alters things a bit?

Yes it will alter things. We try to put the heavy garage stuff as close to the back axle as we can, Not sure just how much difference it makes though :)
 
Thanks wingman for bringing this topic to the fore, and for all the responses, summat else to think about before our camper van arrives , will have to check local area for weighbridges, even if it's just to hear the words "computer says no, we don't take coach parties get off":LOL::rolleyes:
 
I had mine weighed at the local MOT test station, they do it on the rolling road and give axle weights. Went round with the van fully laden as we had just returned from a trip, even waste was half full, and the gut didn't even charge me for it.
 
Hi Wingman; I'll be different. Each time I've weighed our van I've done it to establish the payload. I've weighed it with full water tank, empty greywater tank, full fuel and gas, bikecarrier (no bikes), pots and pans, tv, spare wheel, toolkit, chemicals.
I can then calculate what's left as payload.
I then weigh the rest of the stuff, and use a spreadsheet to total it all up.
As long as you are consistant on each trip there's no problem. When you buy a new BBQ or table/chairs you can make allowance as necessary.
Enjoy
regards
alan b
 
Don't really want to start a trip at a weighbridge!
Why not? We always do before a longish trip, VOSA roadside one 5 min out of our way & free.:)

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I'd rather know I am legal than take a risk :)
 
I went on with full water, almost full diesel, waste water empty and everything else in the van that would be there for a few weeks away. They took my front axle weight first, then when indicated by weighbridge operator, I moved forward to get the rear axle weighed. After this completely on to get the whole van weighed........I left Margaret at home:D

Bill
 
Our local council has weigh bridge charges listed on their website .

Public Weighbridge Charges (per weighing)
(from 1st April 2014)
0 to 5 tonnes £4.58 + VAT (£5.50)
5 to 30 tonnes £7.50 + VAT (£9.00)
30+ tonnes £10.50 + VAT (£12.60)
 
Why not? We always do before a longish trip, VOSA roadside one 5 min out of our way & free.:)

And if you are over do you leave the wife behind and continue on your trip or cancel?

I know the first time I take mine to the weighbridge will be when I can go straight home if I'm over.

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VOSA, or DVSA as they are now known, will happily weigh your MH free of charge. The one I went to at Sawtry (A1M) is quite new, and they have small plates, which weigh the axles. For a tandem axled MH, they weigh the front, rear, and intermediate axles, in that order. All tanks (except waste) were full, and bikes on the back. Only Rita, food and clothes were to be added.

When I asked the (German spoken) operator how I was doing for weight, he replied, "You have capacity vor vun can of cocacola, and vun packet of sandviches." :LOL:

Going by the readings, he was very surprised that MH was already laden. They gave me their local phone number, so that I can enquire when they are open, if I know I will be en route that way.

Wingman, if no local DVSA weighbridge, and the scrappie set up is quite modern as you say, I'd go there too.

Good luck with it. (y)

Jock.
 
The first thing I did was to check where the public weighbridges were. Since we are on the Glos/Wilts border I checked both.
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/glos/weighbridge.htm
Link Removed

I then phoned the nearest one to me and checked they could do the job, as I wanted the load on both axles and the total weight.
They gave me their opening hours and said it would be £5 for a "public weigh".

We were off to France the day after we weighed, so that most things loaded, food, clothes, tools, laptop, books, dvds etc. The fresh water tank was full, waste empty. The thing we had to adjust for were fuel, (we had enough to get to Dover but I wasn't go to buy more at UK prices), LPG was half full and we still had to load the fridge.

When we arrived I was loaned a hi-viz jacket, to enable me to go on site, Linda as passenger didn't need one if she wasn't going to get out of the MH. I then pulled up short of the weighbridge and went inside to explain to the operator what I wanted. She asked where I want to be inside or outside of the MH when it was weighed. As I wanted to be inside she said drive the front wheels on and stop, She would then give me the thumbs up sign when she had taken a reading, and I should then move the whole van on to the weighbridge.

The ticket showed the first weigh (tare) as the front axle, the second weigh (loaded) as the total. The difference (load) as the rear axle. £5 paid and print out taken jacket handed back on exit, job done!. We were 220kg under our limit.:):D
 
If you are passing through Dover docks you can use this one...

Dover
Dover Harbour Board
Terminal Control Building
Eastern Docks
Dover
CT16 1JA

Telephone: 01304 240400Broken Link Removed01304 240400
Open 24 hours (only for vehicles passing through east docks)
Dynamic Axle Weighbridge - certified for assessing gross weight only.

Terry
 
I went on with full water, almost full diesel, waste water empty and everything else in the van that would be there for a few weeks away. They took my front axle weight first, then when indicated by weighbridge operator, I moved forward to get the rear axle weighed. After this completely on to get the whole van weighed........I left Margaret at home:D

Bill

Sorry to bring this up again but I' m a little confused. This post indicates that the front, then the rear, then the whole van needs to be weighed.
I'm having my van MOT and Serviced next week and they said they can also weigh it. When asked they said they weigh the front, then the rear but then they add the two together to get the all up weight. Is this right? I have my doubts. :think:
 
Sorry to bring this up again but I' m a little confused. This post indicates that the front, then the rear, then the whole van needs to be weighed.
I'm having my van MOT and Serviced next week and they said they can also weigh it. When asked they said they weigh the front, then the rear but then they add the two together to get the all up weight. Is this right? I have my doubts. :think:
What you have been told is correct, the total weight is the sum of the individual axles, in fact you only need 2 weights which can be either:
  • front axle and rear axle which you add together to get the overall weight;
    OR
  • overall weight and front axle which you then deduct to get your rear axle weight;
    OR
  • overall weight and rear axle which you then deduct to get your front axle weight
Once you've got the total figure you can then determine if you have sufficient payload for your MTPLM (motorhome plated weight).

There's a free weighbridge at our local docks which we can use, so once our van's fully packed and everything fitted we'll be taking it for a ride out there to see what's left!

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