Carrying capacity on a motorhome.

[wildebus]

But with towbar and no passenger camper already almost 100kgs over weight

If box trailer used then nose weight of trailer will add considerably to the rear axle weight and consequently GVW

Usually hitch nose weight is 100Kg max, but there will be a moving of stuff inside the van onto the trailer as well as the Scooter I would expect if a trailer was used.

I can't quite gets my head around the high tow limit! My GTW is just 6400kg and the GVW is 4500kg

 

[Trek]

 

[Trek]

The above from fiat professional price list may help you identify your chassis from the chassis number ???

 

[Mobilvetta]

Thanks everyone for your replies, off for some sleep now, I will ring Marquis and SV Tech tomorrow to see what can be done, if anything to improve the pay load

 

[Val54]

If it was mine I would be rechecking the weight at a different weighbridge before spending any serious money. If you keep it at home with a flat drive etc you could consider buying one of these so that you can play around with the weight distribution. Reich are used by local authorities etc so pretty accurate if used in accordance with the instructions.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=r...8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=ggLBDlMM0kfDRM:

Dave

 

[Mobilvetta]

Having spoken to SV Tech today I can get the motorhome upto 3850kg if I have 16" wheels, which I have and have rear air assist fitted to the back axle, this will then allow a weight of 2240kg on the rear axle instead of the present 2000kg. He said if I have new struts fitted to the front axle, then this will allow them to take the weight upto 4000kg overhaul. SV Tech would want £260.00 + vat to do the paperwork and I have been quoted £375.00 for the air assist. Not sure about upgrading the struts on the front axle as it only weighed 1540kg on the weighbridge and it is plated already 1850 kG

Definitely need the rear axle sorted as this will allow a bit more in the garage.

 

[nabsim]

With the weights you gave earlier just doing the back isn’t going to give you enough to take wife and supplies, unless you really want to run with no water. If you will be using sites then it won’t matter but no good for wilding.

I would get the axles weighed again and see if it’s as bad as you got before

 

[PeteS]

I hired a set of vehicle scales accurate to 1kg and spent the day playing around with load distribution with and without e-bikes on the bike rack. It's worth doing once you have established what you need to carry and then want piece of mind.
I spent too long going to weighbridges and never getting the same weight even though little had changed.

With the scales I got the answers I was expecting as having weighed everything individually over the years I knew what it should be but could never match it on a weighbridge.
These scales are calibrated and come with a printer so I now have printouts for all sorts of configurations and I can comfortably run close to 3500kg with the bikes on the back reassured.

I'm a natural worrier and an engineer so this has given me piece of mind, its expensive I negotiated £150 for 24hrs but well worth it and interestingly my Reich scales agree with the hired scales, something that never happened with weighbridges.

 

[nabsim]

I hired a set of vehicle scales accurate to 1kg and spent the day playing around with load distribution with and without e-bikes on the bike rack. It's worth doing once you have established what you need to carry and then want piece of mind.
I spent too long going to weighbridges and never getting the same weight even though little had changed.

With the scales I got the answers I was expecting as having weighed everything individually over the years I knew what it should be but could never match it on a weighbridge.
These scales are calibrated and come with a printer so I now have printouts for all sorts of configurations and I can comfortably run close to 3500kg with the bikes on the back reassured.

I'm a natural worrier and an engineer so this has given me piece of mind, its expensive I negotiated £150 for 24hrs but well worth it and interestingly my Reich scales agree with the hired scales, something that never happened with weighbridges.

When I worked at the quarry our weigh bridges were calibrated regularly and had checks by some ministry or other. They were accurate, you could pull a wagon off and keep putting it on an weights would be the same.
The weigh bridge was open to the public although this fact was never advertised (May be all weighbridges are so no need for advert?) so if you have a quarry or anywhere that needs to weigh vehicles pop round to them and ask if they do it. Do councils still have them?
Sounds more like the operator didn’t know what they were doing or it wasn’t a calibrated weighbridge.

 

[Val54]

From memory I think quarry weigh bridges have to be registered as public weigh bridges, so not all of them bother due to the small amount of extra income. I know a sand quarry near me which was public closed and moved onto another new nearby quarry. When I tried to get the van weighed at the new site I was told they didn’ttransfer the public license. He still weighed me, I just couldn’t have a ticket ....
Dave

 

[wildebus]

There may be more weighbridges around then you think!
Most (all?) council depots have one (I've used my local one in the past). A lot of Haulage companies have them. I live in a no-horse village, but can drive 2 miles to another no-horse village (one pub and no shops in the pair of them combined) and use the weighbridge in a haulage depot there. Only time they want money is if you ask for a printout of the weights as it is a legal document (got one ticket once as need it to show my ULW is under 3.05t)

 

[Mobilvetta]

There may be more weighbridges around then you think!
Most (all?) council depots have one (I've used my local one in the past). A lot of Haulage companies have them. I live in a no-horse village, but can drive 2 miles to another no-horse village (one pub and no shops in the pair of them combined) and use the weighbridge in a haulage depot there. Only time they want money is if you ask for a printout of the weights as it is a legal document (got one ticket once as need it to show my ULW is under 3.05t)

When I googled weighbridge Blackpool, it came up with our local council yard, but when I went down, they said they had stopped doing it, someone told Butons biscuit factory had one, which they did, but they dont use it for public use now unfortunately. We have a local VOSA station about 5 miles away at Kirkham, so I will make some enquires there.

 

[Magsandshirl]

We have an older van and needed more payload to stay legal. We bought a box trailer in the end and if we want to take a load of stuff (electric bikes, golf clubs etc.) we take that. other times we travel light and stay within limits. SVtech did our upgrade and it wasn't anything like as expensive as one of the previous responses suggests. They will give you advice for free. Good luck!

 

[Mobilvetta]

I have decided to have the air assist fitted on my back axle this Friday and are using JR Consultancie to up plate the motorhome to 4050 KG, he charges £180 for seeing to the paperwork and the air suspension is £375 fitted, it will make the motorhome more useable.

 

[chas142]

I may have weighed it wrong then, as I only just put the front Axle onto the weighbridge and did similar with the rear axle, but still the overhaul weight when the full motorhome was on, was still over the 3650kg allowed

My older Hymer 524 on a Ducato 14 is plated at 3400kg, I have the 15"wheels, I have a garage with 2 bikes, tow bar, never been to a weigh bridge with it but it has been weighed for the MOT, on the brake tester, even with full water and fuel we were quite a bit under the 3400kg. I did find out that mine has a maximum chassis weight of 3750kg, think I got that from the Fiat Manual. How accurate that MOT weight test is a question, so I use it as a guide. Saying that on one of the axel weight tests for the car, one year it was a fraction of it's was on the previous test. I suspect it's quite possible to get an incorrect readings on all types of these tests, do a quick test and the machine hasn't settled.

So if under 3500kg we pay more road tax than you, (as you have Private HGV), but you have lower speed limits and may have problems with breakdown insurance in Europe, according to A.I.B. I think you are also not supposed to cross a pavement unless it has been approved by the Council. I wouldn't get away with it here, it's communal parking and someone would complain about it.

 

[wildebus]

My older Hymer 524 on a Ducato 14 is plated at 3400kg, I have the 15"wheels, I have a garage with 2 bikes, tow bar, never been to a weigh bridge with it but it has been weighed for the MOT, on the brake tester, even with full water and fuel we were quite a bit under the 3400kg. I did find out that mine has a maximum chassis weight of 3750kg, think I got that from the Fiat Manual. How accurate that MOT weight test is a question, so I use it as a guide. Saying that on one of the axel weight tests for the car, one year it was a fraction of it's was on the previous test. I suspect it's quite possible to get an incorrect readings on all types of these tests, do a quick test and the machine hasn't settled.

So if under 3500kg we pay more road tax than you, (as you have Private HGV), but you have lower speed limits and may have problems with breakdown insurance in Europe, according to A.I.B. I think you are also not supposed to cross a pavement unless it has been approved by the Council. I wouldn't get away with it here, it's communal parking and someone would complain about it.

Breakdown cover in the UK can also be an issue for >3.5t vehicles. As standard, neither RAC or AA cover them directly.
No problem with speed limits in the UK - limit is >3.05t ULW, not >3.5t GVW (think France operate on a >3.5t rule for speed limits though?)

 

[Okta]

I estimate that your awning, towbar, spare wheel etc. will have taken about 150kg out of your payload. Do you also have some factory fitted extras like comfort packs and auto because these also come out of the payload? Many dealers only talk about the payload based on the original MIRO given in the brochure, not the finished weight with extras. I would be surprised if any motorhomes come off the production line without some extras. Indeed some manufacturers will not build a motorhome without comfort and chassis packs, they just show them as extras so that they can advertise a theoretical payload figure that looks good. The figures on your Certificate of Conformity are far more likely to reveal the true weight of the vehicle and even these can be up to 5% out.

 

[Mobilvetta]

Thanks for the replies, the easiest way was to have the plate uplifted and fit air assist to make the payload larger and more useable, as for breakdown cover, it is a new vehicle so is covered for 3 years with Fiat Assist who state they don't have any issues if you are over 3500kg, I also have free vehicle cover with my Nationwide Flex account that does not have any limits on weights that might effect the motorhomes recovery.

 

[Barge1914]

If it was mine I would be rechecking the weight at a different weighbridge before spending any serious money. If you keep it at home with a flat drive etc you could consider buying one of these so that you can play around with the weight distribution. Reich are used by local authorities etc so pretty accurate if used in accordance with the instructions.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=r...8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=ggLBDlMM0kfDRM:

I’ve got one of these. It’s important the surface is dead flat, any unevenness will transfer load unevenly between wheels. Also they need calibrating from time to time.
Dave

 

[Mobilvetta]

I've used an official council weighbridge, that is calibrated, instead of going back to the weighbridge at the scrapyard, I have got a print off of the results and I am under the maximum gross weight. If stopped by any officials and I was found to be over on there weighbridge, I can prove that I have used due diligence. I can't really do much more.