Weigh-bridge Shock

A cynic might say as we buy the caravans.  Then, from the caravan designers point of view its mission accomplished.  

An optimist would suggest that being 20kg wouldn’t result in anything happening if you were to be weighed unless you really talked yourself into a ticket.  

Thanks Boff - I'll stick with being an optimist!

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Unless one overloads the caravan excessively, the only implications other than legal are the fact that one would lose warranty coverage. Under normal circumstances, there should be a margin of safety large enough to accommodate an overload of, say, 10%. After all, the weight limits that the manufacturers specific should take into account a certain amount of usage under heavy duty conditions such as towing over unsurfaced roads, etc. They'd be cutting things a bit fine if there weren't some margin of safety.

I would guess that Bailey have used 2 axles both rated at 1000kg. It would be practically impossible to ensure equal weight on 2 axles.  Bailey have asked for and  received type approval  at a maximum mptlm of 1800kg.  To increase from this value Bailey would have had to fit higher rated axles and gained a type approval for a hinheritance Mptlm.  

Also as far as I know the breaking system of most caravans is very highly developed and they break at regular intervals. 

For this very reason, we have fitted only a single wheel mover, a Truma TE which is however designed to be used on a twin axle, with the correct electronics to do so, and weighs 33kg.

I would not claim it to be as good/fast as an all wheel mover, but it does what we need it to do......moves our van nose first off the street and up our 1 in 10 sloping driveway to its storage position.  As it has to go nose first, I cannot use the car to position it.

It also sites the van on pitches without much trouble, and i use it to hitch up too.  With a bit of shuffling, it is surprising the tight places it can get the van in and out of!  Our van weighs 1900kg fully loaded.

Just emptying our van and I am amazed at the junk that we carry. The front locker has enough cleaning materials plus toilet fluid, and weighs heavy. Toilet fluid is a 'must have', but not a full bottle! I certainly don't go on hols to clean my van so the cleaning stuff can stay at home. Memo to self :'think before you just pack it all in !!!'

Hi BB, having a great time, weather very hot and sunny 

Like the op we don't have a problem with the tow car as we have a Kuga titanium x sport 2.0 tdci. Great space inside and more than capable to do the job, which is a good thing as everything goes in it. Caravan has very little in it, a few clothes, 1 light gas bottle 6kg, a bit of food in fridge and a few toiletries. We have not gone down the route of wastemaster or waterhog, just 2 x 20l containers as we tend to use full sites over here.

We did bring a small lightweight porch awning, waste of time its way to hot to even think about putting it up  next trip no awning but an extra bag of clothes(for me)

No problem with that, it was weighed when caravan was done.

I’ve not been on here for a VERY long time, but having just changed my caravan I thought I would have a browse.

What an interesting and informative discussion. I have been caravanning since 1976, but had m/hs for 8 years and got a shock when I returned to tugging in 2012. Only half the stuff from the m/h, no clothes, no food but still 100kg over at the weighbridge! Weighed everything as I took it out and confirmed the MRO was spot on. Heavy stuff went into the car, lots left at home, minimum clothes etc. and off to France.

Changed the van to a 2 berth in 2015 but SWMBO didn’t allow me to weigh it so used the previously obtained weights to pack it. No problems. Changing back to 4 berth with fixed bed (getting old now!) next week with an enormous cavern under the bed. Fortunately the new van was destined for Germany but the order was cancelled and it has been converted back to UK spec, apart from the weight plate. UK spec MTPLM is 1365kg, ours is 1700kg! That’s almost half a ton of payload! We shall never use all that, but it is comforting to know we shall never be overweight.

I didn’t know about the plate in the gas locker, so will look for it at handover. Great info, thank you.