richardandros replied on 14/09/2018 15:51
Posted on 14/09/2018 15:51
We have owned a 2015 Bailey Barcelona from new and have become increasingly concerned as a result of discussions on here about payload that I have eventually got round to taking the van to a weigh-bridge. Part of that concern has centered around my wife's insistence that she really does need to take six week's worth of clothes for a fortnight's holiday - together with a commensurate amount of food!
With the van stripped down to the basics - no carpets - aquaroll and wastemaster, awning carpet, lightweight clothes dryer and air pump under the bed, two 6kg gas bottles (one almost empty) and two plastic boxes in the front locker containing waste connections, hammer and mallet, plastic awning pegs plus two boxes of steel pegs and all the other paraphernalia we caravanners need; the usual melamine crockery and a small amount of cutlery and kitchen utensils, duvet on the bed (but no pillows) and that's about it - so nothing particularly extravagant and no clothes whatsoever and nothing in the fridge or freezer. However, it does have an AWD motor mover.
The MTPLM of the van is 1723 kgs - it actually weighed in at 1840kgs!
My first reaction was to query the accuracy of the weigh-bridge - particularly at such low weights, but I am assured by the local authority department responsible, that they would expect an accuracy of at least +/- 20kgs - so that doesn't help much!
Having seen the amount of equipment that quite a lot of 'vanners pull out of their units - none of which was present in our van when it was weighed, makes me think that most caravans on the road today, must be grossly over-laden.
I am going to have to have a serious re-think about what extras I have got to try to load into the car but that is already pretty full of all the things I quite rightly assumed were too heavy to go in the van.
What does everyone else do?
richardandros
Caravanner from East Yorkshire