Know your Limit

Following the letter in Novembers issue from the Crow family I was compeled to write giving my experience of an over weight caravan. I purchased a 2 berth caravan with an MRO of 1215kgs from a super dealership in Leicester. We had a motor mover installed prior to collection and the only other additions were a battery and the spare wheel which I am assured are not included in the MRO figures, this was confirmed by the manufacturer as correct. On my return journey I took the caravan to my local weigh bridge and was shocked to discover the caravan weighed 1440kgs. I checked with the manufacturer of the caravan who confirmed that the wheel, motor mover and spare wheel would all only add 105kgs to the MRO.

We were left with 60kgs to our MTPLM, having discussed the issue with our dealer they agreed to supply the other caravan in the same spec that they had for sale and would take to matter of our current van up with the manufacturer.

We duly swapped the vans and on my return home again weighed the caravan, this time it came out at 1320kgs which was spot on its MRO. Had we not weighed the first caravan we too would have been signicantly over the maximum MTPLM had we been stopped on a spot check.

I too would strongly recommend that you weigh your caravan because I fear too many of us are towing caravans that exceed there MTPLM

Richard Wallace - West Midlands