Watch your weights.

[PHOENIXFLIER]

Probably!
Anyway bit of a "heads up" and may get fellow caravanners thinking about weight issues and safety.

 

[Parksy]

Agreed!

 

[PHOENIXFLIER]

http://pdrs.co.uk/downloads/VOSA_Fixed_Penalties_and_Financial_Deposits_Guide.pdf
Some info on VOSA etc.

The maximum fixed penalty fine shown as part of the information you linked to is £200 for a vehicle weighing over 5 tons which is 30% anything above that could result in a court summons.
The lower end of the scale starts at £30 fixed penalties .
Caravanners should avoid breaking the law at all times but there haven't been any £600 fines that you originally mentioned
I think that your friend might have been telling porkies.

Another interesting article........and the dreaded £600!
http://www.chelmsfordweeklynews.co.uk/news/15210232.Drivers_fined___600_during_Caravan_and_Trailer_police_operation/

 

[Hutch]

Nice one, an interesting point though, is abought the 5 year tyre life, do any tyre manufactures recomend you to replace "Car tyres" at 5 years, as drivers get older and do less miles and the tyres are still, in legal limits the MOT never states to replace on age. I undestand vans sitting in the sun and never moving can deteriate, but As I tour all year round why should I replace my tyres if they show no deteriation on sidewalls . What is the legal situation. ?

 

[DavenGill1]

Question! I am going to weigh the van in a couple of weeks before we go on our travels, when the van is weighed, do I subtract the nose weight from the total weight as this will be carried by the car? Our van has a max weight of 1475kg, if the van weighs 1550kg on the weigh bridge am I ok as I have 100kg nose weight?

 

[Hutch]

Steve, all scrap metal dealers will have a weighbridge, just check your area.. also the gravel dealers around Leighton Bussard.

 

[Parksy]

http://pdrs.co.uk/downloads/VOSA_Fixed_Penalties_and_Financial_Deposits_Guide.pdf
Some info on VOSA etc.

The maximum fixed penalty fine shown as part of the information you linked to is £200 for a vehicle weighing over 5 tons which is 30% anything above that could result in a court summons.
The lower end of the scale starts at £30 fixed penalties .
Caravanners should avoid breaking the law at all times but there haven't been any £600 fines that you originally mentioned
I think that your friend might have been telling porkies.

Another interesting article........and the dreaded £600!
http://www.chelmsfordweeklynews.co.uk/news/15210232.Drivers_fined___600_during_Caravan_and_Trailer_police_operation/

http://www.practicalcaravan.com/forum/towing-driving-and-safety/54419-chelmsford-crackdown#430271
I saw that article and opened a forum topic which linked to it a couple of weeks ago P.F.
Again though, the reference to the £600 fine gives a false impression.
The £600 fines were not given to caravan owners if you read the facts in the article.
3.5 tonne commercial vehicles were above 15% over their weight limit and the drivers of those vehicles received a reported £600 fine.
It's good that forum members get a heads up about safety issues but the warnings are more likely to be heeded when they are accurate.
This forum tries to provide accurate information, talk of £600 fines for touring caravan owners is fake news. :dry:

 

[PHOENIXFLIER]

Agreed...my bad. Still makes caravanners aware of potential penalties though.

 

[ProfJohnL]

http://pdrs.co.uk/downloads/VOSA_Fixed_Penalties_and_Financial_Deposits_Guide.pdf
Some info on VOSA etc.

I'm not sure if the content will have changed , but VOSA no longer exists its now the VCA

 

[ProfJohnL]

Question! I am going to weigh the van in a couple of weeks before we go on our travels, when the van is weighed, do I subtract the nose weight from the total weight as this will be carried by the car? Our van has a max weight of 1475kg, if the van weighs 1550kg on the weigh bridge am I ok as I have 100kg nose weight?

Hi Caravan weights, what a thorny issue this is, and it is treated so casually by some, even though the regulations are there to be followed. There is considerable debate about how or if the regulations are enforced as you will have seen above, but the apparnt lack of enforcement is not an excuse to casual about the subject and to guess when there are ways to be certain. Much like speeding everyone knows its wrong, but they kick up an almighty fuss when they're caught doing it.

Rant over now to your particular question.

You tell us your caravan has a "max weight of 1475kg" I presume this is your MTPLM figure. If so then it represents the total maximum weight of the caravan including nose load, so you must not load the caravan to 1550kg as that exceeds its MTPLM.

 

[Chrisjkerr]

Personally, I don't treat weights casually or indeed touring in general. In fact my wife would say I have OCD when it comes to safety and I'm sure I've some folk off when they've shown little respect to loading, weights, poorly chosen tow car or just a lack of interest to it all in general and I've had to explain to them what they're doing wrongly or illegally.

I was commenting on a FB group around 2 months ago where a chap had shared his cars weight plate, caravan weight plate and his licence entitlement. He's over his 3500kg MAM limit by 150kg. He still thinks today that he's legal as he's not loading his car or caravan to their respective limits and continually posts his holiday adventures! I give up!

The attitude of just throwing it all in the van and hitching up is concerning and seems to be commonplace with the younger and dare i say it, my generation of 30 odd year olds!

My neighbour even mentioned the other evening in the local that if it wasn't for me explaining the whole B category limit he wouldn't have even knew and would have gone out and purchased a FreeLander 2 and a Sterling Elite Searcher taking him to almost 4,000kg MAM combined. Instead he's on the right side of the law and he's got a Bailey S7 Bordeaux and Passat Estate making him about 20kg under his MAM limit.

I had to do my B+E and could have turned a blind eye and been ignorant with the law but it wasn't an option.

I wonder how many folk are out there towing without the correct licence type, probably towing exceeding the cars maximum towing limit and train weight and then aspects over overloading inside the van!

Sorry. Rant over.

 

[PHOENIXFLIER]

I found the best way was as follows:
Load car and van as if going away
Find a couple of local weighbridges
Weigh car and caravan
Weigh car
Weigh caravan
Go home and work out noseweight etc.
Repeat all the above at the second weghbridge, maybe I have safety OCD, and certainly not treated in a casual or cavalier manner.
I found discrepancies between the weighbridges (not that surprisingly), but have now got my set up as close to perfect as I can get it!.

 

[DavenGill1]

Decided to finally get the van weighed, I always thought we are flying close to max and now found out we have been over weight every time we have been out, our mtplm is 1475kg and the van weighed without clothes and food at 1480kg. We are off to France in a couple of weeks so need to get the van on a diet and start putting more stuff in the boot of the car.