Caravan wieghing - side to side

[RayS]

My van has all the heavy stuff - fridge, cooker water heater, table store etc. on the same (off) side and it appears it may be suffering some tyre wear from this side being overloaded i.e taking more than half the total load.

Short of going to a weighbridge and weghing the van with one wheel at a time on the bridge (necessitating turning the van round in a very tight space) has anyone any ideas for a DIY solution which would give at least an approximation.

Despite my personal somewhat overweight, bathroom scales are not up to this task !

 

[Rioja]

You don't need to weigh the van, it's so obvious on mine, a Lunar Clubman 475. I had problems with a collapsed suspension over the off side wheel.Quite simply the design is very poor from that score but it's not the only model.

Strange that in recent years there seem to be more dealers advocating emptying water tanks before you travel, but even that doesn't come near to rectifying the balance.

Off side.

Gas bottle

Water tank/heater

Zig charger

Table

Fridge

Oven( and obvious storage for pans etc underneath)

Shower cubicle made of very heavy solid plastic

loo and water tank.

Near Side

Gas bottle

Spare Wheel

Gas fire

Wardrobe (at the very rear)

Both side have locker and cupboards, but the nearside is the only one with space for the bedding...which is lightweight.

The off side has fitted plate racks for crockery which is heavy.

Keep an eye on the clearance between tyre and wheel arch as well as tyre treads.We couldn't even put a wheel clamp over ours and that was after the dealer assured us the only problem was the wrong size of wheel box had been fitted hence the lack of a gap.. Having agreed to let him fit new ones to increase the gap, the gap continued to narrow.By the time we got agreement from ALKO that the suspension was the problem, the van was out of warrenty.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

hi ray

dificult one this I had a similar problem on a fleetwood 5 berth, kitchen and toilet/shower on one side and one long bunk on the other making it lopsided sorry but I never found the perfect solution to the problem however I did make it a lot better as follows

1. place heavy items on other side in my case under the long bunk items like awning a full gas bottle and I used to carry a 10 ltr water container full this ballanced it out a bit.

2 I fitted coil over suspension legs in place of the standard shockers this lifted the ride height and stiffend up the suspension

3 fitted 8ply tyres inflated to 48psi

4 tighten up the blade stableiser to max and towed with the max nose weight permissable in my case 85kg

5 kept as much weight as possible as low as possible ie: empty top cupboards and put in box on floor

this seemed to work for me and as least made the van towable over greater distances 500miles + without any problems, I dont know if any or all of these recomendations will help but it might be a start.

colin

 

[Rod_5041370]

I bought a Reich Weight Control, they are expensive bit very good.

They measure the load on each individual wheel and the jockey wheel and add them together to also give total weight.

The difference in weight on each wheel was considerable but was easy to adjust by placing heavier objects under the bed on the lighter side.

The noseweight was also too light but this was remedied by placing more in the front locker.

And Colin, the standard tyre pressure for my caravan is 72 psi and is labelled on each wheel arch.

 

[anthony_5077518]

I noticed that the tyres on my van were 68 PSI & thought I had miss read it as this seems high but after what you have just said I see it isnt. Obviously the tyres on a caravan are a hell of a lot stronger than a car

 

[Lutz]

The ply rating on its own does not give any indication of the tyre's load carrying capacity. Only in conjuntion with tyre size does ply rating have any meaning.

Example:

A 195x14 commercial 6 ply tyre has a load rating of 850kg,

but

a 175x14 commercial 8 ply tyre only has a load rating of 775kg

It is therefore much safer to use the actual load index which is also marked on the sidewall:

850kg = Load Index 102

775kg = Load Index 99

 

[colin-yorkshire]

rod

I said I fitted 8ply tyres inflated to 45psi for a reason, yes they could be inflated to 75+psi but with the stiffer suspension setup it would probably of shaken the van to bits the tyres fitted to the van as standard were 175x14 4ply car type tyres which had a max pressure of 35psi and had soft side walls the 8ply steel rads were stiffer in the side wall and had a heavier tread pattern 45psi seemed about right to achive the desired effect stiffer but still supple, I hope this clears the inquiry up

colin

 

[Rod_5041370]

Colin,

I wasn't criticising your 48psi, the point I was trying to make is that caravan tyres seem to be inflated to higher pressures these days. The tyres on my previous caravan had a recommended pressure of 40psi, this for the same weight (1600Kg), single axle van.

 

[Lutz]

The answer could be that smaller section commercial tyres are cheaper than larger section car tyres of the same load carrying capacity and the smaller size requires a higher pressure.