So, how much Payload DO you carry? (1 Viewer)

[Papa Smurf]

Okay,

I think I've got my head around most things to a certain degree, but this is one area in which I have no knowledge, so all responses would be of value.

How much payload (weight) do you take with you in your MH / RV?

The reason I ask is that I want to make sure that the van we buy in the next month or so has a reasonable payload capability, but I have no practical idea of what that may be. Oh, and I like gadgets like Sat Dish, self-seeking solar panel etc.

June & I intend to go tour Northern Europe (France, Germany, Italy, - the usual suspects) for 3 months or so at a time, maybe longer (up to 6) if we can schedule things over here appropriately.

Please help if you can - I would hate to fall in love with a van that is just going to be impossible to use because of too a limited payload for our needs.

Thanks in advance.

Papa

 

[GJH]

We took our van (Elddis Autoquest 100) to a local weighbridge last February.

Apart from food & clothing (which don't weigh a lot anyway) I packed everything we ever take with us into the van. This included mutually exclusive items like the Khyam awning & free standing solar panel (which we tend to take only in the warmer months, especially for musters) and oil filled radiator which we take only in the colder months.

We don't have a satellite dish so that included all the heavy stuff we had.

Our van has a maximum user payload of 475 KGs and we found that we still had 160 kilos to play with - plenty given that there are only the two of us normally.

Hope this helps.

Graham

 

[Jim]

The Go Motorhoming has an excellent chapter on weight and payoad, it gives the weight of most items you might carry and is good at getting down and dirty to the exact payload you will require.

The absolute cheapest place to buy that book is here. Link Removed

 

[Papa Smurf]

Thanks both.

Anyone else want to help a novice out with their info?

 

[Terry]

Hi papa why not load your car and weigh it loaded /unloaded that way you will find it easy to see what payload is required,Factor in fuel,water passengers etc,to get a rough idea,then add 10/15% then jf you get rid of her indoors you can half it all
terry

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[highwayman]

Hi papa
We weighed-in at 3140 with half a tank of derv and half a tank of water
But empty of clothes, food etc.
A year later having taken-up scuba we weighed 3470kg everything-full :thumb:

I havn't had a pie in months incase



regards...nige

 

[highwayman]

Go for the biggest payload you can get in your preffered layout
cos it's better to have-it and not use it than not have-it and need-it !





regards...nige

 

[zulurita]

Hi,

When looking at motorhomes to buy check their specification regarding payload. Some continental motorhomes have a very low payload.

If you are planning tours of 3 months or more then I would suggest you look for a payload above 500kg at least. I had been thinking of changing to a Rapido from an Auto-Trail motorhome but the Rapido payload was quite poor. Our cheyenne 660 4ton has over 700kg which is quite respectable. If you are sticking to 3.5 ton and below then you can expect to find payloads above 400kg in British build motorhomes.

 

[Forestboy]

Go for the biggest payload you can get in your preffered layout
cos it's better to have-it and not use it than not have-it and need-it !

I agree with the above get the biggest payload you can especially if you intend to spend months away. Even RVs struggle with payloads especially if they are fitted with a slide and still under 7.5 t. My Daybreak is 7150kg with 1/2 tank water, full tank lpg, 3/4 tank diesel & me sat in I know because I weighed it. At 8250kg that leaves a decent payload for food, clothes, missus, booze, books, tools, etc etc etc & in my case a 650 m/cycle. At 7500kg its barely enough for food and missus and essentials. It gets better wthout a slide and better still with a petrol but you pay in economy, if you add LPG conversion you loose payload again. If you are thinking of an RV you need to bear this in mind. It does'nt have to be a 40ft Monaco with 3ton payload but you still need a decent capacity which usually means HGV even if you're only 8250kg.

Hope this helps and has'nt made matters worse.

 

[JayDee]

We took our van (Elddis Autoquest 100) to a local weighbridge last February.

Apart from food & clothing (which don't weigh a lot anyway) I packed everything we ever take with us into the van. This included mutually exclusive items like the Khyam awning & free standing solar panel (which we tend to take only in the warmer months, especially for musters) and oil filled radiator which we take only in the colder months.

We don't have a satellite dish so that included all the heavy stuff we had.

Our van has a maximum user payload of 475 KGs and we found that we still had 160 kilos to play with - plenty given that there are only the two of us normally.

Hope this helps.

Graham

Blimey
We were advised that after fitting bike rack and wind out awning we had something like 460kg of payload left.
Our MIRO (Mass in Running Order but it's not called that any more I don't think) includes nearly full fuel and full FW but empty loo. We loaded up with representative amount of food, clothing and accessories and a decent stock or wine and brandy, etc and were on our MGW without the wife. She was not impressed when it was suggested she would have to stay behind

So how do you do it??????? What's your secret? I suppose I could go naked, but it would probably scare the horses.

John

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[olley]

Hi I would agree, about 500kgs, the payload figure given may not include you or your wife, so thats about 140kg's off it straight away.

Olley

 

[Enodreven]

Hi,

I would agree that you should try and get the maximum you can and i would suggest that you don't opt for anything with much less than the 500kg as even that is hard to stay within if you want to go on extended holidays?

There are certain restrictions on vehicles over 3500kg so while trying to get the most you can ?, if you fall within any of the restrictions like age over 70 or will be within the lifetime of the vehicle or certain medical conditions like certain types of diabetes etc. which may preclude you from driving vehicles over 3500kg and therefore need to be taken into account with your choice

Hope that helps

 

[GJH]

Blimey
We were advised that after fitting bike rack and wind out awning we had something like 460kg of payload left.
Our MIRO (Mass in Running Order but it's not called that any more I don't think) includes nearly full fuel and full FW but empty loo. We loaded up with representative amount of food, clothing and accessories and a decent stock or wine and brandy, etc and were on our MGW without the wife. She was not impressed when it was suggested she would have to stay behind

So how do you do it??????? What's your secret? I suppose I could go naked, but it would probably scare the horses.

John

How do we do it? I don't really know

There are only the two of us and we don't take stuff we don't need. As regards accessories the stuff we have is pretty lightweight. The FW tank isn't very big on our van so perhaps we aren't carrying so much weight in that as some other vans.

As far as food goes we usually buy from local shops where we are staying - one of the things we enjoy is differences in local produce.

Graham

 

[2escapees]

We have a simple system I put out everything I want to take, my wife puts half of it back and we still take too much!

:thumb:

 

[Exustrek]

Our Dethleffs has a quoted user payload of 620kgs

This includes :
Full fresh water tank (some manufacturers payload figures don't include this & makes 100kgs + difference)
Full LPG X 2
90% Derv
Driver 75kgs

Don't forget to deduct any fitted options & these soon stack up!

Luxus Pack
Liberty Pack
Roof Air Con
Oyster Dish etc
TV DVD system
Wind out awning
Towbar
2nd Leisure battery
Reversing camera
Cab blinds
Engine upgrade

I doubt there's any change from 200kgs!!! that's before we load any personal effects.

Haven't made it to our local weighbridge yet but if we were loaded up for a 3 month tour of Europe I'd expect to be pretty close to the limit.

Bryan

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Phil]

I have a Swift Royale and the ex works weight from Swift is 1940kg. My max weight is 3100kg.

With all tanks full, all other equipment and clothing onboard, a motorcycle on a rack at the back and driver and passenger my total weight when measured on a weighbridge was 2897kg. So I still have around 200kg spare. I have to keep as much weight forward as I can to increase the load on the front axle as the bike on the back tends to make the steering quite light.

Phil.

 

[JayDee]

Our Dethleffs has a quoted user payload of 620kgs

This includes :
Full fresh water tank (some manufacturers payload figures don't include this & makes 100kgs + difference)
Full LPG X 2
90% Derv
Driver 75kgs

Don't forget to deduct any fitted options & these soon stack up!

Luxus Pack
Liberty Pack
Roof Air Con
Oyster Dish etc
TV DVD system
Wind out awning
Towbar
2nd Leisure battery
Reversing camera
Cab blinds
Engine upgrade

I doubt there's any change from 200kgs!!! that's before we load any personal effects.

Haven't made it to our local weighbridge yet but if we were loaded up for a 3 month tour of Europe I'd expect to be pretty close to the limit.

Bryan

Hi Bryan,
What's your Dethleffs? (just being nosy ); we've got the Advantage i5841 and the 'included in Running Mass' is as you state. Our extras are wind out awning, bike rack, satnav, an extra bit of worktop, external gas and electrics; so nothing really OTT and our MGW is 3495kg. With a stand alone awning (35kg), 5 litres can of fuel, tool kit (10kg), barbecue (10kg), outside tables and chairs (20kg), windbreak, groundsheets and sunblind (about 20kg more I imagine) we still have about 360kg left. The missus and the amount I am over 75 comes to 75kg, which leaves 285kg for food, clothing and contents of the cocktail cabinet, (which is where they would have put the telly if I had wanted one). We weighed in at 3.5 tonnes without the missus, so we must take a hell of a lot of wine with us . Seriously, though, I'm going to take the thing back to the weighbridge in MIRO state and see what that says - I wouldn't be surprised if it was out by several kilos :Sad:

Have a fabulous year
John

 

[Papa Smurf]

Thanks all. we're 99.9% certain of getting an RV (which one to be decided over the next 2 weeks or so), and a number I've looked up that are being sold as "can be driven on a standard car licence" obviously expect the buyers to be naturists who are on a diet, such is the poor payload available! Visits to Telford, Cannock and Morton-In-The-Marsh on to be scheduled.

And yes, I am diabetic, so I need to have a medical when my heart surgery scars heal to regain my C1 entitlement. However, June still has C1, so she can drive.

This in itself could be interesting, as I am THE world's worst passenger.....

 

[highwayman]

AND you'll be sitting in the wrong seat

 

[Papa Smurf]

No, I shall be in the correct seat, it's just the controls will be in the wrong place!!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Exustrek]

Hiya John

Ours is Advantage 6971 SG

It just occurred to me that i don't have any photos, pulled this from the dealer's website

Bryan

 

[rwhites1]

my Dethleffs 2007 globevan 1 as a payload of 780kg knock of passenger and our dog 680kg
Plenty to play with
It is now renamed Dethleffs SE1 for 2008

 

[justme AKA Grath]

Payload

Well, I have about 500kg payload and I am right on the border all of the time.
But I do carry everything for every eventuality as I am a Wildcamper and my water tank is usually full

 

[olley]

No, I shall be in the correct seat, it's just the controls will be in the wrong place!!

The Suicide Seat!!

Be careful you don't get a downrated RV as these can have next to no payload. At one of the shows a dealer admitted that the shipping weight on one of his downrated RV's was over 7 tonnes, and he had then fitted a gas conversion.

Olley

 

[pappajohn]

in real desperation you could always tow a small trailer.........

john.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[JayDee]

Hiya John

Ours is Advantage 6971 SG

It just occurred to me that i don't have any photos, pulled this from the dealer's website

Bryan

Looks like a meaty piece of kit. :thumb:

Here's our - we love her.:smalllove:

John

 

[Tony Hunt]

Our Bessacarr goes 4000kg and the mean towing weight or whatever they call it is stamped on our weight plate at 5500kg which allows me in that 1500 extra kg to tow our small vauxhall on an A frame which takes care of 1100kg of it that leaves me the extra 400 Kg to put the missuses small mobility scooter in the car and some of the odds and sods like camping chairs and water carriers etc also in the car which spreads the weight out of the camper and over the whole unit. If I used a trailer instead of A frame I would only have around 100kg to play with in the car. I think thats right
The one thing that would concern me with RV weights and this ability to drive them on a car licence like I and a lot of other people only have is that they have to be overweight in most cases. How can you keep a vehicle like a Damon Daybreak or whatever with slides that goes around the 7 tonne unladen mark before you start loading it with family and personal belongings under the 7.5tonne mark. I have to tow or A frame a car because of the wifes slight disability and the fact that she cant walk far when on site. 7.5 tonne plus an additional 750kg for an extra vehicle isnt enough for me and I reckon a lot of others. Theres no way at my age Im taking a HGV licence to drive an expensive RV with the thought of having to pass medicals in the future to keep that licence. If I wanted to tow an ordinary sized car behind a 7.5 tonne or bigger RV I would need to take the Artic HGV test which is even more involved and costly.

 

[pappajohn]

Our Bessacarr goes 4000kg and the mean towing weight or whatever they call it is stamped on our weight plate at 5500kg which allows me in that 1500 extra kg to tow our small vauxhall on an A frame which takes care of 1100kg of it that leaves me the extra 400 Kg to put the missuses small mobility scooter in the car and some of the odds and sods like camping chairs and water carriers etc also in the car which spreads the weight out of the camper and over the whole unit. If I used a trailer instead of A frame I would only have around 100kg to play with in the car. I think thats right

hi tony,
my corsa has a gross weight of 1400kg but the unladen is 860kg giving a payload of 540kg :thumb:minus weight of a frame.
i also have a 3500kg trailer which has an unladen weight of 600kg. when loaded to the m/h towing limit of 2000kg this gives me a total trailer payload of 1400kg.:thumb:
only problem is you cant unhook a trailer and then drive it into town.oh:

john.

 

[Tony Hunt]

Youve lost me totally Pappajohn with your gross weight and unladen weights. Our Vauxhall Agila goes 1050kg and thats the only weight I worry about. I guess thats its gross actual weight, the weight it would tip the scales at if I drove it on a weighbridge and got out. I was allowing about 50 kg for the A frame which is probably a bit excessive because theres no way it weighs as much as two bags of spuds. Our old trailer when we had it weighed 350kg actual weight. One of us is interpreting things differently I reckon.
what I might do before we go away next is tow the car behind the camper onto the weighbridge with all the usual clutter on board and see what we got in £sd then.

 

[pappajohn]

Youve lost me totally Pappajohn with your gross weight and unladen weights. Our Vauxhall Agila goes 1050kg and thats the only weight I worry about. I guess thats its gross actual weight, the weight it would tip the scales at if I drove it on a weighbridge and got out. I was allowing about 50 kg for the A frame which is probably a bit excessive because theres no way it weighs as much as two bags of spuds. Our old trailer when we had it weighed 350kg actual weight. One of us is interpreting things differently I reckon.
what I might do before we go away next is tow the car behind the camper onto the weighbridge with all the usual clutter on board and see what we got in £sd then.

hi tony,
if the 1050kg is on the plate under the bonnet then that is the fully laden weight(top figure on the plate is total weight and the other two are max axle weights) which means you can load it upto that weight(inc a frame). then you have the motorhome payload as well so you should have over half a ton of payload in total.:thumb:
my a frame weighs(at a guess) 20kg max.
while installing the new brake cable on the car today, i dropped the a frame down the inspection pit and caught it with one hand no probs, i think at 50kg it would have pulled me arm off..
worth going to a weighbridge for the sake of four or five quid. easier than unloading on the roadside if you got stopped and were overweight.

john.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}