Weighbridge results

David and Sally

David and Sally

Joined
Apr 9, 2018
Posts
9,638
Likes collected
54,075
Location
Worcestershire
Funster No
53,271
MH
Bailey Adamo 75-4t
Exp
March 2018
I took my Adria for its MOT today.

The tester said I may be overweight on the rear axle. His MOT weights measured on the brake machine were

Tester Front 1630 Adria Plate 1850 Fiat Plate 1850
Total 3688 3500 3650
Rear 2058 2000 2000

So Idoubted his weight figures and he did admit they were probably not that accurate ???
Anyway, up the road is a quarry that will weigh motorhomes. Lovely lady said unless I needed a certificate just drive over the bridge and take a note of the numbers..

F 1500
T 3380
R 1880

so, I'm a bit happier.

But weights were with

Towbar
Driver
Garage usual stuff incl spare wheel

But no food, water, very little fuel,

Leaves me about 120Kg of fuel, water, passenger, clothing, food which is not a lot.

Van can be up-plated to 3650 kg so I might explore that. Looks like I might have to transfer the spare wheel to somewhere further forward too. That would help the rear axle loading.

Not easy all this motorhoming stuff is it?:)

Sorry figures not easy to read, computer bunches them up!
 
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Hard to comment without knowing what is stated on your vehicle’s weight plate.
 
I would suggest that van is almost unusable without uprating. You have virtually nothing left to play with once two people are in it.
 
JeanLuc said:
I would suggest that van is almost unusable without uprating. You have virtually nothing left to play with once two people are in it.
Click to expand...

Driver in there but no passenger

I have left

Front 350
Total 120
Rear 120

against the Adria plate

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I think you will struggle even updating to 3650kg as that’s only an extra 150kg by time you’ve put the other half in and filled up with fuel not much payload at all.:(
Good luck with whatever you decide(y)(y)
 
ShiftZZ said:
Had an MOT yesterday and after taking everything out of the van the previous day, I happened to ask the garage did their equipment weigh the van they said that their breaktesting machne did.
As a matter of interest I asked for the weight and remember the van has been plated to 3850.
They cam back and said that it was 3700 :eek:
Thats with a full tank of LPG 1/2 a tank of diesel 1/2 fresh water. and nthing else...

Thats a worry,150kg for fuel and everything else..

Plan of action...
Off to get the van weighed on Monday then decide what to do.

Questions..
How do I work out the axle weights? Is that on the existig plate?
How hard is it to increase the plate weight? Simple form filling?
Will I need to change the suspension/tyres etc.

Wish I never asked now...

There is very little that can be removed from the van and adding two funsters will reduce the spare payload .

Suggestions sensible ones please..

Oh yes the original spec for the van suggested that the unladen weight was 3100 goodness nows where the 600kg has appeared from? The only mods are sat dish, Galsow 11kg x2, two solar panels. )
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ShiftZZ said:
Update - took the van t a local weighbridge... Result...

Whole vehicle 3140kg (1/3 tank of fuel, plus 22kg of lpg)
Front axle 1420 kg
Rear 1700kg


Plated Front 1850 Rear 2210 Total 3850

So, I have 710kg's to play with...(y)

Just txt @The Happy Hooker , she replied
s432421685253334662_p361_i1_w960.jpeg
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I think a forensic going through the garage contents.!!

I'll read up on the process pros/cons of up-plating
 
Do you really need the tow bar? If not, they are heavy things to carry just in case you might need to tow at some point. My Hymer had one fitted when we bought it but as we never towed, I had it removed - and I had enough payload anyway. The tow bar is still in my garage but when I move it to clean behind, I can barely lift it!
 
You said the weight included a towbar. You could put all the heavy stuff in a trailer to get a bit more payload or remove the towbar which might save 50kg+.

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Need the towbar as I tow a m/cycle. I do have a separate box trailer so when we go on hols this year I might take that if I don't take the m/cycle.
It just shows how soon payload is eaten up.
 
David and Sally said:
Leaves me about 120Kg of fuel, water, passenger, clothing, food which is not a lot.

Van can be up-plated to 3650 kg so I might explore that. Looks like I might have to transfer the spare wheel to somewhere further forward too. That would help the rear axle loading.
Click to expand...
Just a full tank of water will put you on the limit, you should be able to uprate to 3850 not sure why the Fiat plate says 3650. Need to talk to SV Tech, they will be able to confirm.
Also not much capacity on the rear axle so you may need to fit rear air and higher rated tyres, if you have 16" wheels tyres shold be OK .That will give you a rear axle loading of 2240kg.

Edit:
Just saw your post about motorbike and trailer, when hitched you probably only have a few kg left on the rear axle, so won't be able to put anything in the garage unless you uprate the rear axle.
 
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Perhaps you could find a van type trailer that would take the m/cycle and some payload?
 
Thanks Lennie. If I carry just a few litres of water - just enough to get by to get to a site, keep fuel sensible - why haul a full tank unless doing serious miles a day - and buy my beer when I get there I'll probably just up-rate & move some weight from back to further forward if possible.
 
Pausim said:
Perhaps you could find a van type trailer that would take the m/cycle and some payload?
Click to expand...

I have a trailer like that too. It's rated at 2.6t so too big for the Adria (on paper). Roller rear dor so I could make up a ramp.

For me, the main issue is how little real-life payload the makers expect us to get on with. On our holidays last year the MH did not look overweight and I guess the chance of getting pulled are quite slim - but it is something I am going to keep an eye on.
 
When we moved from a VW camper to a Ducato PVC I wondered what my weights might be so on return from France with full fuel tank (120L), full Gey and fresh water (100L each) two people and all our gear plus the 'contriband' of wine and beer I took it to a weighbridge and found I was 50Kg over the 3500 limit. So, quite happy with that as I would never travel with that combination again!
 
David and Sally said:
Thanks Lennie. If I carry just a few litres of water - just enough to get by to get to a site, keep fuel sensible - why haul a full tank unless doing serious miles a day - and buy my beer when I get there I'll probably just up-rate & move some weight from back to further forward if possible.
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I think under running conditions you are going to be over by quite a bit on the rear axle usually not much heavy stuff you can move forward.
 
Lenny HB said:
I think under running conditions you are going to be over by quite a bit on the rear axle usually not much heavy stuff you can move forward.
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Yeh. The only thing that is significant weight in the rear is the spare wheel. Not sure what that weighs? - steel 15".

In the UK I might just leave it behind and rely on recovery if I get a puncture(?) or one of those goo/CO2 kits. If abroad I'll reengineer our load. I think the towbar has eaten into our allowance a fair bit so I'll just have to use it and tow some payload.

I have a 6' x 4' Box trailer so will probably use that if away for some time. That is ok for about 250kg.
 
David and Sally said:
Not sure what that weighs? - steel 15".
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25kg

Towbar weight at least 50kg and it's all behind the rear axle then there is the nose weight of the trailer maybe around 50kg.

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How does everyone cope then? Especially those who tow cars and bike trailers? If a towbar and noseweight is 75kg that's a lot of the payload used. I'm just going to have to strip out the garage and lockers cos it's way too easy just to 'add' something, then something else, then etc.

Wonder how fulltimers do it all?
 
as you say, your first job is to strip the van out, go to a weighbridge and get a starting point then work up from there

towbars vary wildly in weight, i once removed one from a burstner and needed a forklift to move it
 
David and Sally said:
I have a trailer like that too. It's rated at 2.6t so too big for the Adria (on paper). Roller rear dor so I could make up a ramp.

For me, the main issue is how little real-life payload the makers expect us to get on with. On our holidays last year the MH did not look overweight and I guess the chance of getting pulled are quite slim - but it is something I am going to keep an eye on.
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You maybe able to use the van trailer as it’s the actual weight that counts not the plated weight of the trailer.
 
David and Sally said:
How does everyone cope then? Especially those who tow cars and bike trailers? If a towbar and noseweight is 75kg that's a lot of the payload used. I'm just going to have to strip out the garage and lockers cos it's way too easy just to 'add' something, then something else, then etc.

Wonder how fulltimers do it all?
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Hi David,

I think the majority of vans are running overweight, a couple of years ago we visited the weighbridge before our main holiday, we were fully loaded, water, gas fuel etc, even a 44kg inflatable with 38kg engine and all the crap that goes with it,

our Adria, the one parked near you at the Shrewsbury bonfire meet came in at 3550 out of 4000kg, axle weights were well in also, pleasantly surprised

we are thinking of adding a towbar due to a possible winter trip, also with a box trailer, just hope it doesn't push us overweight, 6000kg train weight

Andy
 
David and Sally said:
How does everyone cope then? Especially those who tow cars and bike trailers? If a towbar and noseweight is 75kg that's a lot of the payload used. I'm just going to have to strip out the garage and lockers cos it's way too easy just to 'add' something, then something else, then etc.

Wonder how fulltimers do it all?
Click to expand...
Buy a van with a big payload, our van fully loaded with full tanks we still have 400-500 kg spare, our payload is over 1350kg.
I always reckon that for two people you need a payload of 700kg, 500 kg for normal running & 200 kg for options & extras. Our last van only had 580 kg payload we ended up uprating.

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Lenny HB said:
Buy a van with a big payload, our van fully loaded with full tanks we still have 400-500 kg spare, our payload is over 1350kg.
I always reckon that for two people you need a payload of 700kg, 500 kg for normal running & 200 kg for options & extras. Our last van only had 580 kg payload we ended up uprating.
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Wot he said.. With tanks full etc two on board we still have over 1000kg spare though once Mrs McHood has loaded all her requirements its probably down to around 20kgs...:D
 

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