Getting your van weights checked

barrie · Guru

Getting your van weights checked

RustyD · Guru

Did you mean www.caravanqld.com.au ?

macka17 · Guru

YEP.

That page has been around for a few yrs now.

ALL these mag's should push.
Taking your van to local dump and over the scales.
Both BEFORE Buying. and Before EVERY TRIP after that.
I do.
We lucky here. One road out. Goes past local dump.

That way. You KNOW where you stand. before going out on the highways to run the Gauntlet.
Coupla thousand kliks from home NOT a good time to find you overweight.
with a Highways\police badge doing the checking.

Those blokes expensive.

barrie · Guru

Cost us 450 bucks to upgrade our van to an extra 400 kilos without having anything done to it ,money well spent.

Ge · Senior Member

Sorry Barrie you have lost me it's just an add.

-- Edited by Ge on Friday 30th of June 2017 06:20:26 PM

Cupie · Guru

Ge wrote:
Sorry Barrie you have lost me it's just an add.

-- Edited by Ge on Friday 30th of June 2017 06:20:26 PM

Just click on the top box "Free Caravan Safety Check" & it will take you to a page that lists locations of the checks.

Then click on the location suitable for you & booking details are displayed.

Chris61 · Senior Member

Broadford Weighbridge 9 816 pixels.jpg

GVM is uprated from 2900kg to 3300kg, GCM is 5900kg, fridge and cupboards all full, weighed at Broadford on Hume Highway, it won't take to much to reduce 60kg even though I'm not overly concerned. If everyone was only 60kg over weight we wouldn't have much to worry about.

All I have to do is carry a six pack instead of a carton, use up most of the pre frozen meals, carry a bit less bottled water.

-- Edited by Chris61 on Friday 30th of June 2017 09:42:24 PM

Desert Dweller · Guru

Basically any large rig with a tinny on the roof is overweight & illegal. Job done.

Bill B · Guru

Desert Dweller wrote:

Basically any large rig with a tinny on the roof is overweight & illegal. Job done.

What a broad unfounded statement

How do you know the vehicle hasn't had a GVM upgrade and maybe completely legal ?

PeterD · Guru

RustyD wrote:
Did you mean www.caravanqld.com.au ?

I think he really meant this one - http://www.caravanqld.com.au/showsevents/free-caravan-safety-checks.aspx

macka17 · Guru

Anybody towing anything much MORE than a coupla tons or so behind ANY ute.
is asking for it.
Paper legalities aside.

Check the figures.
Mostly if you load the tug first. add drawbar weight. then subtract the weight it's allowed to tow then.

INCLUDE You. the Missus and the dogs weights too in that.
(Don't step OFF the scale plate while they doing it. NEITHER of you.)

NO Ute is safe towing much over 2 to 2 1\2 ton MAX. on the roads.

If a person is 60kg's OVER the paper figures.

He's waaay over the real weight limits.
That centre axle Fifther will swing you around pretty quick too if it lets go.

UTES ARE Very rear end twitchy
unless carrying loaded tray to hold them down too.

Chris61 · Senior Member

macka17 wrote:
Anybody towing anything much MORE than a coupla tons or so behind ANY ute.
is asking for it.
Paper legalities aside.

Check the figures.
Mostly if you load the tug first. add drawbar weight. then subtract the weight it's allowed to tow then.

INCLUDE You. the Missus and the dogs weights too in that.
(Don't step OFF the scale plate while they doing it. NEITHER of you.)
You must be a special type of cynical person to even suggest that I wasn't in my ute. The two photos below show one photo through the windscreen with me in the ute and one outside and 80kg less, just for cynics like you and I weigh 93kg so that just shows why the scalies give you a little tolerance.

NO Ute is safe towing much over 2 to 2 1\2 ton MAX. on the roads.
If a ute is proerly loaded you can legally tow 3.5t very safely, especially if you have a fifth wheeler. I even weighed it in Tasmania before I left and it was exactly 3.5t but I don't have the weighbridge scales in the photos I took so I stopped at Broadford on the Hume Hwy so I could have photographic evidence, not just ramble on about something and act like a "know it all Bullsh!tter".

If a person is 60kg's OVER the paper figures.

He's waaay over the real weight limits.
That centre axle Fifther will swing you around pretty quick too if it lets go.
Having been weighed countless times in my own and other peoples trucks, I can guarentee that the scalies will give you a bit of tolerance. My hitch mounted over the centre axle will be way safer than any caravan.

UTES ARE Very rear end twitchy
unless carrying loaded tray to hold them down too.
My single cab ute has all the weight over or in front of the rear axle, not hanging behind the rear axle like in a dual cab including the tow ball weight, reducing weight off the steer tyres. If your tow rig is setup with safety in mind, not whether or not it has leather seats. Safety was a priorority when I chose my ute and I do as much as possible to keep it that way

Broadford Weighbridge 9 816 pixels.jpg

The photo above is a real world photo with Dianne and I sitting in the drivers seat less than an hour from Port Melbourne. My hitch sitting just in front of the rear axle not over a metre behind behind the rear axle needing all sorts of weight distribution hitches and electronic stabiliser devices to give me a false sense of security out on the road.

If I ran along beside my ute with Dianne driving I would be under my GCM

Broadford Weighbridge 4 816 pixels.jpg

I have since removed weight from the van and while I haven't reweighed I can travel around the roads of Australia knowing I have done as much as I can to be safe on our roads. I also have a Multi Combination License and drive B-doubles for a living.