Is there a way of finding out the kerb weight?
I understand and comply agree with you profjohnL. Im new to caravans but Ive plenty experience towing, I come from a farm background, class 1 driver and have overloaded many of trailers carting wood around, what ive not got great experience with is how a car handles towing a big sail in cross winds.
Based on your past experience you have a head start especially as you have mentioned overload farm trailers! We have had quite a number of HGV drivers who have added their experiences to the forum, and whilst the principles of towing are very much the same, I think most of them have admitted that caravans and cars do need careful handling. It's not the mass of the outfit which requires bulk of the attention (though it is important) it's the way its driven.
Caravans are essentially almost balanced over the axle, and as you allude the size of the side panels do make then susceptible side winds and bow waves from other vehicles. For some reason car transporters are frequently commented about by caravanners as being particularly problematical. A sensitive driver may well feel the trailer move first one way then the other as the trailer moves through a bow wave, the uninitiated caravanner may try to react to the sensation, and that could be the start of an moving traffic incident.
Whenever a caravan experiences instability, the single biggest factor will excess speed for the given conditions, so be prepared to drive a little slower.
The industries advice often fouls up, as all to often you can't easily identify your "Kerbweight". It is usually given in the cars handbook, but even that is unclear where different models have a mixture of different options. Generally cars gain weight over their theoretical kerb weight.
A more consistent criteria would be the cars stated Mass in Service, on its V5c document, but even that does not take into account dealer options that may have been added, or things like towbars, so the industry advice whilst well intentioned, is a real hotchpotch based an indeterminate variables.
Using good sense about good loading practice, keeping car and caravan mechanically well maintained, getting rid of lead boot on the right probably be of greater safety value than loosing too much sleep about trying to follow the industry guidance to the letter. Incidentally as far as I know there is no other country that has the same type of industry advice for caravanners.
If you can manage to keep your trailers mass down to 1600kg, I can only guess but it likely to be tter than 1800kg
The legal criteria you must always achieve whilst on the road is to keep you outfit within the cars GTM (Gross Train Mass) and all the axle limits across the outfit. and if you are going to use a weighbridge, don't forget the loads must also have all the luggage and passengers and driver in situ for the measurement.
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