Rimor - A question of weight (1 Viewer)

[Sidders]

Evening Funsters,

Hoping to get a moho once everything settles back down and this virus does one.
Spotted the below and hoping to view it if it’s still available by the time the travel restrictions are lifted.
I know payload on these larger Rimors can be rather tight. The current owner said he’s had it on a weigh bridge and it came in at 3200kg with fuel, gas, 2 adults and one child on board - no water though.
He had it plated back down from circa 4t to 3.5t due to license restrictions for him.
Not having these restrictions on my license and given the tight payload, I’d be looking to plate this back the other way - is this just a paper exercise, or is there more involved? Given it was plated higher previously, I’m hoping it’s straight forward..
Any other advice/tips are welcomed.
It’s had a habitation check within the last year (which I’ve seen) and nothing was flagged up other than an out of date smoke/co detector. No damp reported either, though I’d be taking my damp meter with me come such time.
Many thanks

<Broken link removed>

 

[68c]

Plenty on this forum about up and down plating, use the search function. Google SV Tech, they do most motorhome weight changes. Cost a couple of hundred quid. Look on your weight plate, probably done by them. Good thing is your road tax will be cheaper than at 3500kg.

 

[Sidders]

Plenty on this forum about up and down plating, use the search function. Google SV Tech, they do most motorhome weight changes. Cost a couple of hundred quid. Look on your weight plate, probably done by them. Good thing is your road tax will be cheaper than at 3500kg.

Thanks 68c ??

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[PeteH]

John Ruffle, did my old Fiat one a few years back. if it`s been plated down it should be a simple exercise. And cost me at that time under £150. S-V are good, but 2 or 3 times the price.

EDIT; If as you say it has been plated down once, then a word with DVLA may be all is required? as the original data should still be on their database?. Worth a phone call or E-Mail, you never know?.

Also, when you get a look, check the existing plates on the vehicle, (usually under the hood on the front cross member (fiat)) , If the original plates are there, you may be in luck?.

 

[Onemanandhisdog]

728 ft long and 2700 bhp it's quite a machine!!

 

[Minxy]

If you have the original COC for it you might be able to get DVLA to uprate it based on that alone if not and they still want confirmation from an engineer then John Ruffles would be your best option as he's a lot cheaper than SVTech and he would in effect just be confirming what it was originally.

Check the rear axle load though as it could already be quite heavy at the rear so even if you uprate it doesn't guarantee that you will have sufficient allowance left on the rear axle.

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[The Coops]

728 ft long and 2700 bhp it's quite a machine!!

Its not a motorhome its a Type 42 Destroyer!

 

[Sidders]

John Ruffle, did my old Fiat one a few years back. if it`s been plated down it should be a simple exercise. And cost me at that time under £150. S-V are good, but 2 or 3 times the price.

EDIT; If as you say it has been plated down once, then a word with DVLA may be all is required? as the original data should still be on their database?. Worth a phone call or E-Mail, you never know?.

Also, when you get a look, check the existing plates on the vehicle, (usually under the hood on the front cross member (fiat)) , If the original plates are there, you may be in luck?.

Good point PeteH, will check the situ with DVLA first. Thanks for the heads up re price too
It's plated back at 3.5t - under the drivers seat. Badge looks to have been done by SV Tech

 

[Sidders]

If you have the original COC for it you might be able to get DVLA to uprate it based on that alone if not and they still want confirmation from an engineer then John Ruffles would be your best option as he's a lot cheaper than SVTech and he would in effect just be confirming what it was originally.

Check the rear axle load though as it could already be quite heavy at the rear so even if you uprate it doesn't guarantee that you will have sufficient allowance left on the rear axle.

thanks Minxy Girl
Rear axle load on the current badge is 2240 max, with the front being 1750max. I take it when they re-plate these max weights stay the same?
I wonder if they can weigh axles separately on a weigh bridge or if it's just taken as a total..
I also seem to remember you mentioning you had a Rimor when I was looking at the Ford Chassis last year (a dealer bet me to that one and then sold it for 10k more). Did you ever consider air suspension on yours? I've heard the Merc chassis can be a little bouncy.

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[Minxy]

thanks Minxy Girl
Rear axle load on the current badge is 2240 max, with the front being 1750max. I take it when they re-plate these max weights stay the same?

Yup

I wonder if they can weigh axles separately on a weigh bridge or if it's just taken as a total..
I also seem to remember you mentioning you had a Rimor when I was looking at the Ford Chassis last year (a dealer bet me to that one and then sold it for 10k more). Did you ever consider air suspension on yours? I've heard the Merc chassis can be a little bouncy.

It depends on the weighbridge, the ones you drive over are the best for this, so unless you can do it you won't know if uprating will give you any usable payload on the rear where you need it most.

We had a Rimor Sailer 645TC, beautiful thing, and had AS air suspension fitted at a MH show and it totally transformed the ride and handling, wouldn't have a coachbuilt without it. This is the difference it made to our Rimor, before and after photos:

 

[Sidders]

Yup

It depends on the weighbridge, the ones you drive over are the best for this, so unless you can do it you won't know if uprating will give you any usable payload on the rear where you need it most.

We had a Rimor Sailer 645TC, beautiful thing, and had AS air suspension fitted at a MH show and it totally transformed the ride and handling, wouldn't have a coachbuilt without it. This is the difference it made to our Rimor, before and after photos:


View attachment 375462 View attachment 375461

Wow, what a difference?
Was that an expensive system and would you recommend that over some of the other systems? I’ve read so much good stuff about the air systems, if I can get a system for reasonable money it would seem like a no brainier

 

[Minxy]

Wow, what a difference?
Was that an expensive system and would you recommend that over some of the other systems? I’ve read so much good stuff about the air systems, if I can get a system for reasonable money it would seem like a no brainier

At the time we had it done (Sept 2007) there wasn't a lot of choice of who could do it (not sure if there were any DIY kits then at all) so as AS were going to be at the York MH show (no longer held there ) which was fairly local to us that's why we had them do it. You can get DIY kits now so if you want to have a go yourself see if there's one for the Merc based ones, alternatively get it fitted for you by one of the suppliers although of course it will cost more due to the labour but it shouldn't be overly expensive, probably £500-£700 as a rough guess - I recall when we had it put on the Rimor it took less than an hour for them to do it.

Our current MH, a Carthago with an Alko chassis, took ages to do and cost £2,000!

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[mitzimad]

we put air suspension on to haganaps merc one morning at a rally so not difficult

 

[Sidders]

At the time we had it done (Sept 2007) there wasn't a lot of choice of who could do it (not sure if there were any DIY kits then at all) so as AS were going to be at the York MH show (no longer held there ) which was fairly local to us that's why we had them do it. You can get DIY kits now so if you want to have a go yourself see if there's one for the Merc based ones, alternatively get it fitted for you by one of the suppliers although of course it will cost more due to the labour but it shouldn't be overly expensive, probably £500-£700 as a rough guess - I recall when we had it put on the Rimor it took less than an hour for them to do it.

Our current MH, a Carthago with an Alko chassis, took ages to do and cost £2,000!

Thanks for the advice as always Minxy Girl
Had a quick word with Marcle Leisure and they do kits
Yours sounds like the Starship Enterprise?

 

[Sidders]

we put air suspension on to haganaps merc one morning at a rally so not difficult

Awesome, thanks

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[Innkeeper]

A bit off subject. Been told if we were to uprate tax would be cheaper. But does it make any difference to MOT. Are they stiffer more vigorous if you get my drift.

 

[Minxy]

A bit off subject. Been told if we were to uprate tax would be cheaper. But does it make any difference to MOT. Are they stiffer more vigorous if you get my drift.

No difference to MOT, it's the same one, the only difference being if you uprate mahoooooosively which your chassis won't be capable of!

 

[mitzimad]

A bit off subject. Been told if we were to uprate tax would be cheaper. But does it make any difference to MOT. Are they stiffer more vigorous if you get my drift.

mot is the same do you have the correct licence to go over 3.5tonne

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[Innkeeper]

mot is the same do you have the correct licence to go over 3.5tonne

Yep to C1 am old. Did ring SV and they said with our van. (Le Voyageur) no work was needed. But it was not needed at the time so got left.

 

[Innkeeper]

No difference to MOT, it's the same one, the only difference being if you uprate mahoooooosively which your chassis won't be capable of!

Mahooooosively?

 

[Emmit]

Sidders

You said in an earlier post.
"Rear axle load on the current badge is 2240 max, with the front being 1750max. I take it when they re-plate these max weights stay the same?"

I'm assuming that, not withstanding that your Max has been downplated to 3.5 T those weights (above) have not moved down from the original plate.

You further stated even earlier on that it had been downplated from "Circa 4.0T".

It is not 'normal' for the Max Plated Weight of the 'van to be the sum of the two plated axle weights. There is normally some leeway because frankly, it would be impossible to get to the maximum plated weight of the vehicle and still be under on one of either the front or rear axle.

I see the sum of your two axle weights is 3990 kilos. I would expect that if you applied to be up plated, your Max for the vehicle would be 3900 kilos.

That 400 kilos will come in very useful.

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[Minxy]

Sidders

You said in an earlier post.
"Rear axle load on the current badge is 2240 max, with the front being 1750max. I take it when they re-plate these max weights stay the same?"

I'm assuming that, not withstanding that your Max has been downplated to 3.5 T those weights (above) have not moved down from the original plate.

You further stated even earlier on that it had been downplated from "Circa 4.0T".

It is not 'normal' for the Max Plated Weight of the 'van to be the sum of the two plated axle weights. There is normally some leeway because frankly, it would be impossible to get to the maximum plated weight of the vehicle and still be under on one of either the front or rear axle.

I see the sum of your two axle weights is 3990 kilos. I would expect that if you applied to be up plated, your Max for the vehicle would be 3900 kilos.

That 400 kilos will come in very useful.

As you indicate the plated maximums for each axle will remain as they are with the absolute max it can be uprated to being 3990 kgs, not 4000kgs as you cannot exceed the total of the 2 axles. Whilst its true that sometimes the new total figure will be slightly less than the total of the axles, there's no reason for it NOT to be done to the maximum although it would be difficult to balance the MH exactly to get the maximum load on each axle.

 

[Emmit]

I'll turn that one on it's head.

Is there any Funster out there that has their Max Weight the sum of the Max weight of their axles?
SV Tech pushed it when they got ours within 50 Kgs on the paper exercise of up plating our van, but I've not heard or seen examples of the weights matching.
There are too many variables in a vehicle with different overhangs, and different designs.

 

[Minxy]

Yes, we have and I think jezport did, and there are certainly others, can't remember who they are at the moment.

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[bigtwin]

I'll turn that one on it's head.

Is there any Funster out there that has their Max Weight the sum of the Max weight of their axles?
SV Tech pushed it when they got ours within 50 Kgs on the paper exercise of up plating our van, but I've not heard or seen examples of the weights matching.
There are too many variables in a vehicle with different overhangs, and different designs.

Yes, ours is (uprated by SV Tech):

GVW - 5300
Front - 2000
Rear 1 - 1650
Rear 2 - 1650
GTW - 5500

Ian

 

[Sidders]

Thanks for your replies and input fellow funsters
I had been speaking with the seller most days since the ad went up at the weekend and offered to pay a deposit but was told "I'm a man of my word - no deposit needed. If someone wants to see it, I'll let you know and you can decide at that point if you wish to leave a deposit - you've got first refusal as you were first to get in touch"
I then got a text message yesterday saying it had been sold
The search goes on....

 

[Emmit]

Yes, ours is (uprated by SV Tech):

GVW - 5300
Front - 2000
Rear 1 - 1650
Rear 2 - 1650
GTW - 5500

Ian

I wonder if that is because it's got two axles at the back?

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[bigtwin]

I wonder if that is because it's got two axles at the back?

I doubt it.

Ian

 

[Minxy]

I wonder if that is because it's got two axles at the back?

No, ours hasn't and we're at the maximum of both axles - below is the original Alko plate - when it was uprated it was able to be done at the total of both axles, ie 3850kg, without modification. However we also put on semi-air suspension on the rear so the back axle now has a capacity of 2240kg but the overall limit is still 3850kg, even though they now add up to more than that. If we want to use it all we'd need to have uprated springs put on the front which isn't worth is as increase the capacity further won't benefit us as we wouldn't be able to utilise it at the front in any case as there's no-where to stow that much stuff!