Arriving back from holiday on Tuesday and having plenty of time available, we decided to check the loaded weight of our van with the CWC (Caravan Weight Control).
I must admit, I was surprised at the result, so I thought I should share it with UKCS as it may prompt others to be wary.
Our van has an MTPLM of 1540kg. We had all our basic equipment habitation stuff in the van, but no food, clothes, towels/linens. Our van is minus the front drawer chest and we have one BP gaslight bottle, so I was expecting it to be fairly light.
The only heavyish items we were carrying was a satellite suitcase, the LCD TV and some partition poles for the awning - all stored in sensible positions for weight distribution. All our other stuff was in the car.
The result was that the van weighed 700kg on each side and 100kg on the jockey wheel - 1500kg in total (and 25kg too much noseweight).
What I'm suggesting is that you can easily be nudging close to your van's MTPLM even when you think you don't have much on board.
Very interesting point that ulti-mates. I've just finished loading our caravan, for tonights journey, and I hope that I've distibuted the weight evenly.
------------- "Steve Bloomers watching....Guiding our hero's in the black and the white"
Quote: Originally posted by Rizzo on 02/8/2007
I thought you had overeaten!!
Yes, we did that too! Well, what can you do when its raining all day?
- It just goes to show how over a few months you add a few handy items here and there and the fact that the wardrobe and many of the lockers are empty give you the false sense that the van is nowhere near full.
Did you remember to include items like leisure battery, any motor movers etc? By the time we tallied all that up we got the shock of our lives too!!!
Actually just bought a new van so we thought we would weigh absolutely everything that went in from scratch and have kept a spread sheet for future amendment so we always know what we are carrying. Just a suggestion.
Never heard of a caravan weight control so Googled it...eeek £103! I guess weighing everything and doing a spreadsheet is cheaper, bit of a mammoth task though.
You've definitely got me wondering now. 2 x 11kg gas bottles, 85amp leisure battery, spare wheel, wheel clamp, etc, etc, etc.
Hang on a minute though, doesn't the MIRO include things like the battery and gas bottles?
We actually weighed our van when we collected it (new) and on the first outing. Between our first MIRO weight (lean and mean -a bit like me) and our "holiday weight" we have gained almost 100kg!
Note to Wizard. If you want to borrow our CWC for a trial you would be welcome...don't know where you are in Bristol though.
Hi Mr Ulti-Mate , thanks for the offer , could i borrow it tomorrow please , we're away very very soon and it would be very handy to know how much weight we have with the caravan loaded , we're probably doing in excess of a 1000 miles and i definitely wouldn't won't to be towing the caravan over loaded . I'm in frenchay . My email is bobanoba86 at hotmail.com , note change at for the correct symbol and no spaces .
The payload on our caravan is supposed to be 350kg but when you take the motor mover, battery, spare wheel, gas cylinders, empty water barells and waste container into account, it makes a fair dent and that is before you start talking about bedding, clothes, pots, pans, plates etc. Awning, food, beer etc is carried in the towing vehicle.
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Topic: Gaining weight on holiday
