And so it begins.

[Thingy]

Here comes the summer routine, its the same every year. Madam starts to pile stuff up to take with us, I go through the pile to save weight.
I take out the cookpot. Why says she. Because I will cook on the Cadac, we dont need it. I take out the hiking boots, its a beach holiday. I take out the Sub Zero winter clothing, again why. Because its summer dear, we are heading for the beach. The leave behind pile starts to grow and the moaning begins. I explain I am keeping an eye on weight. I then spend yet another hour explaining MRO and MTPLM, GTW and everything else.
But the cookpot doesnt weigh that much, neither does this, that and around two dozen other items.
Try to pick them up all together and see how heavy they are. Now you are just being silly says she. DOH.

And she sneaks things back in again when I am not looking.

 

[otherclive]

Here comes the summer routine, its the same every year. Madam starts to pile stuff up to take with us, I go through the pile to save weight.
I take out the cookpot. Why says she. Because I will cook on the Cadac, we dont need it. I take out the hiking boots, its a beach holiday. I take out the Sub Zero winter clothing, again why. Because its summer dear, we are heading for the beach. The leave behind pile starts to grow and the moaning begins. I explain I am keeping an eye on weight. I then spend yet another hour explaining MRO and MTPLM, GTW and everything else.
But the cookpot doesnt weigh that much, neither does this, that and around two dozen other items.
Try to pick them up all together and see how heavy they are. Now you are just being silly says she. DOH.

And she sneaks things back in again when I am not looking.

Sympathy. I have a similar problem, even years ago the Prestige Pressure Cooker was always sneaked in when we went camping. Who has stews in France? The reverse can happen to as Ive lost count of the number of times tins of Cassoulet have been retuned to France, only then to come back to UK, and the cycle continued until eventually I eat the darn when I was left on my own for a week.

 

[Anseo]

Timeley post OP,

Just 2 evenings ago and given the glorious weather we are enjoying, I decided to open skylights and windows and all cupboard doors etc. to air the caravan.

On checking the contents of the cupboards I found numerous duplicate essentials that my wife had stowed away.

No point in entering a debate into this (I would lose), so I deposited said items in the wheelie bin, it is unlikely that the boss will notice, we never use ore have used the darn stuff anyway.

Until I am found out, why worry

 

[Hutch]

WHY WORRY, you must be mad, SWMBO, Has agreed to weight loss in the caravan, but not the Hairspray , spare shower gel, but has done her bit being the boss , small glass spice pots have gone, replaced by plastic ones, great now only two bottles of wine in the fridge, I get to drink , Adnams in a can, (carried in the car) on arrival rather than a cold lager, to save weight. Ba Humbug.

 

[Thingy]

Ahh, thats where you guys are going wrong, carrying wine. Four bottles of wine or one bottle single malt..............same effect B)

We usually carry three bottles of suncream, one for me, one for madam and one for the grandkids, who havent even travelled with us yet. Reason, they dont sell it in Cornwall. Trip to Costco before we go, everything by the case instead of individual can. The whole damn case usually travels, her answer......we can bring back what we dont use.

 

[Craigyoung]

Timeley post OP,

Just 2 evenings ago and given the glorious weather we are enjoying, I decided to open skylights and windows and all cupboard doors etc. to air the caravan.

On checking the contents of the cupboards I found numerous duplicate essentials that my wife had stowed away.

No point in entering a debate into this (I would lose), so I deposited said items in the wheelie bin, it is unlikely that the boss will notice, we never use ore have used the darn stuff anyway.

Until I am found out, why worry

Anseo , it was nice knowing you !!
All I can say mate is if she ever finds out you have binned some of her stuff...... R.I.P !

 

[ProfJohnL]

What would be really useful if caravan or chassis manufactures could include some sort of load weight gauge so you can actually tell how much weight you are carrying, Now that wold be useful device, rather than being able to turn lights on or off from the beach.

 

[Thingy]

so you can actually tell how much weight you are carrying

I know what Im carrying. One that could convince madam is quite another matter.

 

[otherclive]

What would be really useful if caravan or chassis manufactures could include some sort of load weight gauge so you can actually tell how much weight you are carrying, Now that wold be useful device, rather than being able to turn lights on or off from the beach.

Prof
They already do. It’s called the Alko axle.

https://worldwidewalkies.blog/2018/02/10/bailey-alko-axle-problem/

 

[Dustydog]

Very good Clive
An excellent article. Seems to me the other manufacturers using Al-ko axles must be experiencing similar issues?

 

[otherclive]

Very good Clive
An excellent article. Seems to me the other manufacturers using Al-ko axles must be experiencing similar issues?

Tell me about it!!

 

[Thingy]

The Bailey question is a touch more straighfroward than it seems.

Bailey - "Do you have a wife"
Owner - "Yes"
Bailey - "You have overloaded your axle"

 

[ProfJohnL]

Prof
They already do. It’s called the Alko axle.

]https://worldwidewalkies.blog/2018/02/10/bailey-alko-axle-problem/

https://worldwidewalkies.blog/2018/02/10/bailey-alko-axle-problem/[/quote
Not quite what I meant

Seriously:

The article is tour de force on how to approach a legal challenge, and I congratulate the author. It will be a useful reference for some people on how to mount a challenge to company who takes an arbitrary warranty decisions without having verifiable facts.

In the context of my original point:

We know that especially caravans have a MRO figure which very large proportion (typically 85 to 90% of their MTPLM, which renders a very small load margin of only 10 to 15%. With such a tight margin, it is all too easy use it up with those items for habitation and personal belongings. It is strong suspicion that more than just a few caravanners are likely to be unknowingly overload whilst towing.

How much better it would be if the consumer had a permanently accessible method of checking the loads. Given that domestic luggage, bathroom and kitchen scales use load cell technology reasonable accuracy for just a few pounds these days, it should be possible to incorporate load cells into the caravan chassis to give an indication of the caravans loading's. Certain items that are on the wrong side of the load cells (like wheels and hitch mechanism) would need to be added to the measured values but as these are virtually constants that should not be a difficult.

Given that a correctly sized load cell is perfectly capable of resolving down to 0.1% of the applied load, such a system could be highly effective, and believable. However there is a mechanical issue that would need to be managed.

Thanks to Sir Isaac Newton and his lunch time pondering s about falling apples, we know Force = Mass x Acceleration. When a caravan is towed it is subjected to a wide range of accelerations caused by the unevenness of our cart tracks called roads. Measured results from tests we carried out in the 1990's at the Motor Industries Research Association (MIRA) showed that the vertical vibrations through a caravans suspension can develop accelerations of up to 4G but more typically 1 to 2G. This means if a wheel of a caravan is carrying a static load of 500kg under the worst dynamic towing condition it could see momentary loads in the order 2Tonnes If load cells were fitted they would need to be protected from these dynamic loads which could damage them.

 

[Dustydog]

Prof,
Do you think Al-ko have taken your figures into account? I do agree with your numbers btw.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Dusty,

I am pretty sure AlKo will be fully aware of the differences between static and dynamic loadings, and how F=MA works.

Reich offer the Reich Caravan Weight Control system, which measures the actual load on the wheels with a resolution of 1kg and 3% claimed accuracy. But you have to get it out and put it under the wheels to use it each time.