Placing a box on the back of your van

Jaffa · Member

Placing a box on the back of your van

neilnruth · Guru

Welcome to the forum from us Jaffa. I can't help with your query but I'm sure someone will. Enjoy the forum.

mongrel · Guru

Welcome to the forum Jaffa .I gan't help you with your enquiry but I am sure some one here will be able to help.Good Luck..

dazren · Guru

I have 2 on bolted on to my rear bumper, 1 each side of the spare wheel, they are smaller than yours, [ 750Lx300Wx250H ] I do not put any Heavy items in them so they do not effect the vans handling at all, had them on the last van as well and in around 70000 k of travelling all was good and they are very handy,

Not sure about how you would go [ or trust ? ] Alum welding to steel bumper ?? That's why I bolted mine on ??

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Welcome from me too Jaffa, enjoy here and out in the playground.

As to the box, just check it doesn't cause a problem with registered length and all lights are still visible, also the extra weight carried in it.

Jaffa · Member

Thanks so much for your interest

Jaffa

Jaffa · Member

Thanks for y our interest

Jaffa

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Any extra weight at the rear of a van WILL make it much less stable on the road.
Be very very careful.

Cheers,
Peter

Jaffa · Member

Thanks for the info I intend to weld a bracket for it to site on and then bolt it to that so thank you.

Jaffa

Jaffa · Member

Thanks.

Doug

herbie · Guru

Before I would go doing any thing regarding what you intend doing I would first ring my insurance company

as I know they look very dimly on anything in this regard.

If the worst was to happen you may find you have no cover,this is not just confind to caravans it also goes for motor homes. As the insurance company sees it as aditions or add ons.

dazren · Guru

Peter wrote --Any extra weight at the rear of a van WILL make it much less stable on the road.

Be very very careful

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pretty broad statement there Peter ?? When we do not know what type of Van or any of the Weights involved ?? It is NEVER all the same ?? so it will always be Horses for Courses, and differing opinions ?? smile

TAJ · Senior Member

WE HAVE 2 SMALLER than yours on the back for light things ropes etc

inside i made 2 lexan washers full width and about 4 inches wide so

the heads of the bolts will not pull through the aluminium bottom

glued these down also

around the top got some sealing tape to waterproof when the lid closes

also drilled a few holes in bottom just in case

all the best suenray

2weis · Senior Member

jaffa
yes you CAN put a box on the rear BUT with alot of if s and buts
is your bar strong enough ?
is the distance from the rear axles correct ?
how will it affect your ball weight ?
how will it affect your total weight ?
can your rear lights still be seen clearly ?
plus more im sure others will point out
brian
ps
im in the middle of working it out myself

Legendts · Senior Member

Jaffa wrote:
Thanks for the info I intend to weld a bracket for it to site on and then bolt it to that so thank you.
Jaffa

That's exactly the way I have mine done. As far as lights go I also have additional high mounted, park, indicators and brake lights which I specified when we got the van built 10 years ago. I don't have a real issue with weight in the box as my wheels are set well back.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFzrWHTG5e8

http://www.towingstabilitystudies.co.uk/stability-studies-game.php

I'm now wondering why spare wheels are places on the back of caravans.

-- Edited by Gerty Dancer on Saturday 24th of August 2013 01:29:17 PM

jules47 · The Happy Helper

Something that I think about when I see a vehicle towing a caravan, with boxes on the back of the van, and other items - gas bottles, spare fuel etc on the draw bar of the van, is how much "stuff" do people need to take with them. Do they really need everything they take, or are some of the items "just in case"?

For myself, we did a 20,000k trip quite a while ago now, towing a camper trailer with a 4wd - we took a 20litre container of diesel "just in case" - put in the tank of the vehicle when we got home!!!!!!! Never bothered to take fuel again!

-- Edited by jules47 on Saturday 24th of August 2013 02:44:25 PM

Nomadicman · Member

I am about to get my first van and am interested about such questions of weight, balance, legality. But on weight and balance, surely if you put an equivalent weight at the other end (or equivalent according to the principle of moments) it won't affect the handling. And isn't it covered by the rules regarding down weight on the tow ball? Comply with that and you should be ok? Or am I missing sth?

ozjohn · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:
Any extra weight at the rear of a van WILL make it much less stable on the road.
Be very very careful.

Cheers,
Peter

Peter,
Give up Mate, you're banging your head against a brick wall.
Ozjohn.

sandsmere · Guru

Ozjohn , I was just thinking the same thing .

unclefester · Member

Giday the best ppl to ask is the registration from any state along with your insurance company they will be more than happy to help with answer .We are also going to be putting a tool box on the back of the van .

cheers Uncle fester

PS My wife has us on here as the hobbits I can never get in so I now have my own nic

Jaffa · Member

Thanks to every body for the info. A couple of things the van I have is a Golf Savanah which we bought new just before they closed down.
The all up weight of the box fully loaded would be no more than 60 kilos including box.
Jaffa

ozjohn · Guru

Depending on the rear overhang, the weight of the box on the rear can increase 10 fold as the van moves up and down and/or sideways.
So 60Kg can easily become up to 600Kg.
OJ

ozjohn · Guru

Nomadicman wrote:
I am about to get my first van and am interested about such questions of weight, balance, legality. But on weight and balance, surely if you put an equivalent weight at the other end (or equivalent according to the principle of moments) it won't affect the handling. And isn't it covered by the rules regarding down weight on the tow ball? Comply with that and you should be ok? Or am I missing sth?

There has been quite a bit written about the subject of Yaw inertia. (Van sway) and a lot of study carried out by Bath University, Bailey UK and Alko in Germany.
Collyn Rivers had also written some excellent articles.
Google - baileys of bristol caravan stability studies. The stability video is worth quite a few views.
Cheers, Ozjohn

sandsmere · Guru

I've read a lot of Collyn Rivers articles Ozjohn . It's because of the one about the yaw that I did not put a box on the back of ours .

And I was only thinking of carrying around 20 kgs . 60 kgs is a hell of a lot of extra weight hanging on the back of a van . That's over 10% of what some

tandem vans are allowed to carry all up .

wendyv · Guru

Gerty,

when designing a van with spare wheel on back, any reputable van builder will factor in that weight and its location, and place other weight, wheels position etc, accordingly. When you add extra weight to the back, post-manufacture, you run a major risk of changing the tow characteristics and road behaviour of the van.

jules47 · The Happy Helper

Well said wendyv!

moamajohn · Guru

I have one on the left side 900 ml wide280 H 350 deep, when I recently picked the van up from Supreme after having it repaired from a smash I asked them about putting one on the other side .They informed me that the rear bumpers on my model are all designed to take 2 spare wheels and 2 full jerry cans . So I would simply make a call to your maufacturer. Mind you I often can,t wait to pass a caravan that has a motor bike on the rear !! John

moamajohn · Guru

Here it is

Legendts · Senior Member

I need to qualify what we carry in our box on the rear bar. My wife collects shells hence the box carries the following, three plastic buckets, a couple of plastic strainers/colanders, several ice cream containers and other items for shell packing and a sponge or two.
On the return trip it will have any shells my lovely has found to add to her collection which is pretty extensive. So as you can see, our alloy box would likely be double the empty box weight when "full" with shells.