Delica - the next challenge - help please me re weight issues

[YeoBlade]

As I understand it SV Tech have the expertise that has earned a degree of credibility with the DVLA. That's what you pay for.

I would imagine an application based on the information within this thread would give ol' Brian at the DVLA a nervous breakdown, and accidental inclusion of some the dietary advice would probably see the poor b'stard top himself. :lol-061:

:raofl::raofl::raofl::wacko:




If SVtec are just plating the van the same as Mitsibitsi Japan produced it to, then Collette's own detective work has to take the credit and SVTec the credit for making a sticky label.
And, of course Collette is happy in her own mind she is driving a safe vehicle.

 

[delicagirl]

:raofl::raofl::raofl::wacko:




If SVtec are just plating the van the same as Mitsibitsi Japan produced it to, then Collette's own detective work has to take the credit and SVTec the credit for making a sticky label.
And, of course Collette is happy in her own mind she is driving a safe vehicle.

and lets not forget the masses of Delica Detectives on here who contributed so much to this saga......:wave:

 

[colinm]

Because it would not have been safe to do so - if you haven't read this thread properly then i suggest you do - this whole saga was about me finding out if I WAS DRIVING A SAFE VAN and CARRYING A SAFE PAYLOAD. This was never just about a plate........ Should there be an accident. having a SVTech plate which i have organised, shows an authentic and trustworthy source has enumerated the van's payload capacity and that i have done everything in my power to drive safely.

Sadly there seem too many vanners( some here, some at home, and some i met on the road) who don't want to find out if they are safe, and just stuff more and more stuff into their vans and have no idea if they are a danger to themselves or other road users.

i am not saying you are on of these colin, i dont know you.

i have had private messages from some who say "pump up your tyres to 64psi - you'll be ok." Well no i wont do that.

Vans contain both flammable fuel and gas and gas bottles and a lot of wiring - unless maintained well and the weight limits adhered to, they are a disaster waiting to happen. i am mitigating a disaster as best i can.

Colette, my first posting relating to this dates back to the AIB thread when I queried the amount of water you thought was being carried, as it seemed too much for a van of this type, I have been following it closely since then, I have done my best to try and give advice which I thought would be safe and in your best interest, as I posted before, weight and balance (abeit in aircraft) is part of my work and I've known people to die because they have been blazay over such things.

 

[wildebus]

Sort of on and off-topic ... SVTech are also a popular source to DOWNPLATE a vehicle in the VW World.
Quite a few people use them to certificate a revised weight of 2499kg GVW to be recorded on the V5C on the older T4 diesels post 'Motor Caravan' reclassification to allow them to be used within the LEZ (so generally within the M25 ring) and avoid paying £100 a day charge.
I don't think a DIY replating would be recognised by the DVLA and it needs to be an officially recognised body (this is my understanding - might be different for an increase?)
My own T4 conversion was the lowest weight already at 2460Kg so I didn't have to bother

 

[delicagirl]

Colette, my first posting relating to this dates back to the AIB thread when I queried the amount of water you thought was being carried, as it seemed too much for a van of this type, I have been following it closely since then, I have done my best to try and give advice which I thought would be safe and in your best interest, as I posted before, weight and balance (abeit in aircraft) is part of my work and I've known people to die because they have been blazay over such things.

Colin. i was a pilot for a few years and saw a video of a 4 seater plane in the bush loaded to the gunnels with about 8 people and their luggage, which crashed on take off as the payload was waaaay too high. They were all killed. i have been interested in safety ever since - but as you guys all know i am not a scientist and these new technical issues are a lot for me to learn, but learn i have. I value your input on this thread and others.

i wont be carrying quite as much water in future - now that i know the capacity of my tanks !!!!!

its interesting that my first simple question has led to such a long and fascinating research project.

 

[colinm]

AFAIK the data that has so far been obtained is not the actual weights but the allowed maximum weights, it's not often these vary from the original.

 

[Byronic]

and lets not forget the masses of Delica Detectives on here who contributed so much to this saga......:wave:

Thanks.....From Detective Jacques Clouseau, one of the masses.

 

[ricc]

the weights on the plate, gross train weight , gross vehicle weight and the axle weights are maximum design weights influenced by the strength of the axles, suspension rates. strength of chasis , capabilities of the brakes and the ability of the clutch to restart on a specified hill amongst other things. the actual body and hence unladen or kerbweight of the vehicle dont come into it.

there is also a considerable difference to making your own plate to published figures cos the vehicle didnt have one and dvlc has nothing recorded to making a revised plate and requesting a change to dvlc database for uprating based on desired figures plucked from thin air.

 

[vwalan]

use a vtg10 form for down plating . and send 26 quid to swansea and you can voluntarily down plate a vehicle with no alterations .
if altering the vehicle might have to visit a ministry station just so they can look at it .
then change the plate or better fit new plate with voluntary down plated on it to?????
then at least every one knows what it could be uplated to easily later on .
its common for trucks to be down plated to alter taxation classes or to be driven on B+E licences when pulling fifth wheelers .
fifth wheelers are the way forward for over 70yr olds .

 

[vwalan]

easier than pulling an aframed car.
or a steerable drag trailer.
bet its easier with a fifth wheeler than towing a m,bike trailer behind your hymer.
and the m,bike can be inside the fifth wheeler.
but lowering the gvw is easy.
on some like 10 tonners we used to have to raise the rear bumpstops on a few trucks . to drop the gvw to 7.5 ton .
we used to do alot of daf trucks at one time . 10 tonners were alot cheaper at auctions than 7.5 tonners so best learn how to drop them.
but these days lowering iveco 6.5 ton cassis cabs or mitsubishi or izusu trucks is almost just a paper exercise.
reading a post above about vw ,s they should be very easy.
there are several people in the chassis alteration game . wheel base are another crowd and i used to have a list of them . got given it by vosa years ago. cant find it must have been chucked out . but visit a truck body builders and they should be able to give a list of some . or vosa will know .
i admit gareth marsh at svtec as always been very helpful if i had any problems .
but there are others .

 

[Wooie1958]

easier than pulling an aframed car.
or a steerable drag trailer.
bet its easier with a fifth wheeler than towing a m,bike trailer behind your hymer.
and the m,bike can be inside the fifth wheeler.
but lowering the gvw is easy.
on some like 10 tonners we used to have to raise the rear bumpstops on a few trucks . to drop the gvw to 7.5 ton .
we used to do alot of daf trucks at one time . 10 tonners were alot cheaper at auctions than 7.5 tonners so best learn how to drop them.
but these days lowering iveco 6.5 ton cassis cabs or mitsubishi or izusu trucks is almost just a paper exercise.
reading a post above about vw ,s they should be very easy.
there are several people in the chassis alteration game . wheel base are another crowd and i used to have a list of them . got given it by vosa years ago. cant find it must have been chucked out . but visit a truck body builders and they should be able to give a list of some . or vosa will know .
i admit gareth marsh at svtec as always been very helpful if i had any problems .
but there are others .

Gareth at SvTech is unbelievably knowledgeable and helpful :dance:

He was the one ( through his contact at ALKO ) that found me the new part numbers for my ALKO shock absorbers.

I came up against a brick wall as the old number was showing as discontinued and nothing was cross referencing.

2 local dealers were little better than useless as they both suggested completely the wrong shocks.

 

[wildebus]

use a vtg10 form for down plating . and send 26 quid to swansea and you can voluntarily down plate a vehicle with no alterations .
if altering the vehicle might have to visit a ministry station just so they can look at it .
then change the plate or better fit new plate with voluntary down plated on it to?????
then at least every one knows what it could be uplated to easily later on .
its common for trucks to be down plated to alter taxation classes or to be driven on B+E licences when pulling fifth wheelers .
fifth wheelers are the way forward for over 70yr olds .

Good info. Thanks

Don't see many (well, I personally never seen any myself) 5th Wheelers in the UK. I was thinking about them the other day in fact and wondering if the trailer part is classed as a towed unit and your B+E comment tells me yes

 

[Byronic]

They are sometimes spotted alongside caravans in campsites. But nobody has ever seen a fifth wheeler in the wild, occasionally one is said to be seen wandering around in Spain but it could be just a rumour.

 

[Tbear]

Good info. Thanks

Don't see many (well, I personally never seen any myself) 5th Wheelers in the UK. I was thinking about them the other day in fact and wondering if the trailer part is classed as a towed unit and your B+E comment tells me yes

Normally a couple at the Peterborough show.

Richard

 

[vwalan]

Good info. Thanks

Don't see many (well, I personally never seen any myself) 5th Wheelers in the UK. I was thinking about them the other day in fact and wondering if the trailer part is classed as a towed unit and your B+E comment tells me yes

mine is a proper mini artic the truck is a 6.3 ton gvw .the trailer was a 5 ton gvw trailer . but i lowered it to 3,500kg when i converted it to a living van . .my trailer puts half its weight on to the towing vehicle .
you need a c1+e to drive it . but the next adaption to it is to move the trailer axles forward so the pin weight will be only 500kg , i will then lower the trucks gvw to 3,500kg gvw then when i reach 70 just drive it on a b+e .
many fifth wheel caravans are pulled by vehicles under 3,500kg gvw . with b+e before january 19th 2013 there was no weight limit on the trailer .just the train weight of the towing vehicle .
the true trainweight of mine is 9.800kg gvw .
i only lowered the trailer for mot purposes .
when i get to 70 i shall up lift it back to 5ton .
if i,m still alive . ha ha .

 

[vwalan]

They are sometimes spotted alongside caravans in campsites. But nobody has ever seen a fifth wheeler in the wild, occasionally one is said to be seen wandering around in Spain but it could be just a rumour.

cheeky monkey!!
there is also a didicoy style merc drifting around spain and portugal as well.
the owner is quite freindly . he doesnt bite . hee hee .
there is several old time wilders on here that drift around spain .
we do try to avoid each other but usually all head into the same hideaways .

 

[jennyp19]

I'd missed this post before and thought I would add part of another posting I made.


As some of you know we just bought a new Mobilvetta- our dream van after seeing one in Belgium last year. The price was excellent. I'm not knocking the quality of fittings and extras which come with and main template is just what we want. I was however sickened when paperwork came back 3257 leaving just 243 k payload and that didn't include even a passenger. They had done the paper exercise to take it to 3650. So this meant total payload of 393k. Sounds a lot. Add 1 large passenger down to 293 k. Add awning 23 k and extra leisure battery 20 k. Now down to 250 k. This is supposed to be a 4 seater MH - add 3 more passengers and you would be over loaded without adding anything else.
Just remembered spare wheel as well another 20+ kilo - we were provided with one of those inflation kits - not a lot of use if the tyre shreds and you are in the middle of nowher.


We did think of rejecting as not fit for purpose, but as we really do like the Mobi we decided to bite the bullet and have air suspension fitted to enable us to take it to 3850. If I was a few years younger I would have gone down that route, but really couldn't cope with the stress and we want a long break in Spain.



There are a lot of 3.5t MHs being sold to 1, people who don't want/can't keep C1 on licence after age of 70 or 2, were born after 1996 and haven't got entitlement to C1 on their licence.



I suspect we will soon be hearing many stories from people who do not know that they are driving illegally.

To the sceptic who say it won't happen, it does - i for one wouldn't like to be the one who gets pulled up weighed on weigh bridge and told to remove goods until vehicle is correct weight plus points on licence and a hefty fine. Also how long will it be in event of accident, your insurance company won't pay out because vehicle was overweight.