I discovered a weighbridge this week on A38 2 miles south of Bristol Airport- Lye cross farm shop (Alvis Bros) only £2 to have your caravan or whatever weighed and you receive a timed and dated printout.
I thought this was excellent value so i took the van there today. I knew approx weight of items on board.
So loaded with the basics that i generally keep on board when towing, water containers, cutlery, crockery, microwave, TV, windbreak, bedding, towels and a couple of tins of food that were left over from previous trips.Half full gas bottle leveling blocks,jack,scrabble and a pack of cards. Nothing excessive i dont think, no awning no outside chairs no bikes etc.
I was most upset when the ticket showed that i was 90 kilos over mtplm.Please advise on what measures i can take to get to correct mtplm? I wonder if the van wieghs more than indicated on original documents?I always travel with awning and clothing in car so these were not on caravan when weighed
PLEASE take your caravan to be weighed if possible it is so easy to add weight as i have found out snd i have always been very conscious of what is loaded. I now have the very difficult task of unloading/ weighing (essentials) items as they come off instead of on.
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This is good advice and something that occassionally gets covered on here now and again. I reckon it's good practive to have your van weighed as it's all too easy to mis-calculate and overload the thing.
We generally always pack the same so I've not weighed since having bought this van and probably won't bother unless/until I change vans (providing my packed kit doesn't change).
I'm guessing that a BIG percentage of caravans being towed on holiday are over weight because the owners either don't care or just assume that there's no way that there over there MPTLM figure .
We weigh ours before we go abroad every time due to the amount of gear we take but when only going local for few days don't bother because most of the heavier stuff is left at home .
I would think that Road side checks are going to become more common in the holiday season which is a good thing .
What are all the cupboards for if you cant take any belongings to put in them.
I now have to squeeze 2 teenage girls along with their straighteners, hair dryers and limitless amounts of clothes and make up, awning, chairs, BBQ, bikes and any thing removed from the caravan into the car for a 2000 mile round trip to Spain!!!
Roof box needed...very big one
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Excellent advice. That is certainly a cheap weigh charge. It's surprising to find out how much stuff we tend to put in our caravan too. We always empty it right out when it goes for service, I wish I'd popped it along the road & weight it when it was empty now you've posted this.
Now you know the loaded weight of your caravan, is your car large enough to allow you to go to Alvis Bros & weigh your empty car, load it with the contents of the caravan & go & weigh it again then deduct this load weight from the weight of your loaded caravan to accertain the unladen weight of your caravan.
If you tell the weighbridge operator you're taring your car & will return to weigh it loaded shortly you should only pay one weighing charge, lorries often come to my workplace & tare weigh before going off to load then return to weigh loaded & only pay one charge because they only have one printed ticket.
My van will certainly be weighed next time it empty as I'm convinced we overload when we take everything we need, this has caused us to take two vehicles when we go away for long stays.
Quote: Originally posted by Basilbrush on 17/7/2011
]If you tell the weighbridge operator you're taring your car & will return to weigh it loaded shortly you should only pay one weighing charge, lorries often come to my workplace & tare weigh before going off to load then return to weigh loaded & only pay one charge because they only have one printed ticket.
Hi BB
The ticket has space for 1st and 2nd weight, but i did not think until i had left that i should of had car weighed also, i have been to caravan today and weighed items as i removed them, i have very little left on the van now and i have even removed the table(7.1kgs)as we tend to eat outside.
I was getting to the point where i thought i may have to remove the spare wheel.
I am taking van for service in a couple of weeks and will return to alvis bros to weigh car and van.
I can only think that spare wheel battery and electric hook up lead are not part of the MIRO.
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I am getting worried now after reading these posts. We have just bought a caravan after selling our beloved motorhome. Reason being we have new baby twins. Just started packing for 2 weeks in France and we seem to need to take LOADS of stuff. How do you calculate the weight of the van? Is it purely a case of weigh everything before you put it in? If you put stuff in your car is that better or because it is the same overall weight ie car and van does it not make any diference? Arghhhh this is getting complicated.
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Topic: WEIGHBRIDGE Bristol/Somerset
