Weights and Measures by a layman

KevinJ · Senior Member

Weights and Measures by a layman

yobarr · Guru

Hi Kevin...great to see that you finally have this sorted,more than a year after we first discussed it! Unfortunately,I still have not got my laptop up to scratch,so cannot test your chart,but there are a couple of things that I have noticed after only a quick look at your figures.Later today,if I can find some time, I will have a closer look,and perhaps post further.Congratulations on your efforts though,as I am sure it will be of use to those with any interest in being legal,safe and insured? Cheers.

KevinJ · Senior Member

I have made a minor change to the spreadsheet by adding a hyperlink "Hide Maximums" so you can view more "Actual" detail on smaller computer screens.

I started looking for a van and vehicle almost 2 years ago and started out from a position of knowing absolutely nothing about weights, ratings and measurements let alone what an ATM, GCM and other acronyms meant. Though I had previously owned a Camry wagon towing a Jayco Swan for almost 10 years, looking back, I now know I was blissfully ignorant of what my setup was. I am certain that with 2 teenagers and my wife and I in the car, a dogbox fully loaded and all drawers, cupboards and corridor in the van stacked to the rafters and 2 pushbikes on the drawbar, I had to be overloaded. This time around, I thought I would do the research first to ensure I had the right rig for the job. After speaking to vehicle sellers, caravan sellers, weighbridge operators, Caravan Council of Australia staff, Service NSW staff, an Engineer and various others, I think I have a bit more confidence in the subject.

As a result, I thought I would share what I found in my travels by attaching a PDF file and a spreadsheet to this post showing my findings. I have settled on an Isuzu MUX and a Road van (details of which are in the spreadsheet) which should do everything I want and all legally.

I have taken the vehicle and the van to a weighbridge to get all the empty weights checked and this is shown in the first table in the PDF. The second table has a summary of the various weights taken from various sources and you can see that some values differ depending on which source it was found on. In my humble opinion, the weighbridge values win on measured weights while the ratings stand for themselves. I look forward to the experts opinion on this.

Following the tables, I have added some notes pointing out what my observations were along the way. I emphasize they are observations, not opinions. Finally in the PDF, I have included an exercise that you may want to try with the attached spreadsheet.

I created the spreadsheet so I could try combinations of vehicles and vans to see which gave me a suitable outcome. My considerations were budget, comfort, ease of towing, payload, places we would visit and layout.

The Luggage, Tools and Accessories TABs on the spreadsheet are for you to weigh your payload item by item if you like. My wife had a chuckle when I told her I needed to weigh our toothbrushes.

This information should be of value to the experienced as well as the novices like myself and I look forward to your comments, opinions, suggestions and improvements.