Firstly thank you all for the time and effort everyone put into this thread to enable me to understand the issues around weight and plating and tyres and loading etc.
As i promised here is The final jigsaw piece....
To summarise what happened -
When i thought i had an empty van I took it to the weigh bridge and it was 2490 kilograms. The weigh bridge man told me that i had a 2500 kgs truck and therefore i only had a usable payload of 10kgs left. At that stage i didn't know what payload meant. i accepted what he said and panicked because i had removed a huge amount of stuff from the van and had no water on board, and thought the van was almost empty of fuel. If this was true, i didn't know how i could safely drive, as i would inevitably exceed the user payload - ie the safe weight that the axles could carry without danger.
Payload is the total weight of everything i put into the van - me, water, fuel, clothes, food and 'stuff'. Weight figures are usually written on a metal plate normally found in the engine in the UK. My van is japanese and is not plated. There are no weight figures on the log book nor on DVLA. I didn't know how much my van was designed to carry and so didn't know if i was overloaded or safe to be driving it at all.
Finally, after much research by many on here, and several discussions with SVTEch and Mitsubishi in Japan, the latter informed me that my axle weights were : Front axle can carry no more than 1150 kgs and the rear axle no more than 1450 kgs - giving a total payload of 2600. They also informed me that no modifications can be made to the van to improve that payload.
Mmm .... a depressing response.
At this point i decided to completely empty the van, get it weighed again at the weighbridge, and then to weigh everything that had been in the van on my last trip.
With a full tank of diesel (60 kilos), and nothing else at all, the van weighed in at 2350 kgs.
2600 - 2350 = payload of 250 kgs = 550lbs. SVTech will plate the van for me at these figures. So it is going to be feasible to stay within safe load limits.
i implemented a lot of the weight saving ideas that were suggested here, removed some of the upholstery which i never used, and discarded several luxuries which were heavy and also discarded some of the spare water that i have always carried.
SVTech told me that over 80% of commercial vehicles, campers and caravans which were weighed by VOSA last year on roadside checks were seriously overloaded, and VOSA have now bought a further 10 mobile weighing units as they see it as such a dangerous problem.
So i now have a spreadsheet showing all the weights of my vans contents, and it has been a very challenging, at times stressful, but in the end very useful exercise. I recommend you give it a go over the winter.
Far too many folks, here and at home and on sites, seem to be saying "everyone is overweight don't worry" - well i think we should worry. If the weight of your English registered van is on your log book it is simple for VOSA/the police to discover if overweight is an issue in an accident, and if a van is overloaded you can bet your bottom dollar that the insurers will say "no payout" and if someone else is injured and your van is responsible... then what ?
As i discovered on emptying my van, it had been all too easy for me to say "i'll just take that, and that - just in case" - and they all added up to more weight than i should have been carrying.
Finally with regard to tyres and weight - i have been told by both SVtech and tyre specialists that just because you put a bigger tyre and/or more air in a tyre that does not mean that you have increased the payload, and it does not mean that you are safe.
i replaced all my japanese tyres with new 4wheel drive tyres so that i am legal in Europe in the winter, (without having to keep 2 sets of tyres) as well as retaining my 4WD capacity to get out of muddy places and wet grass etc which i have found useful when i go off tarmac.
thanks to andy for having photographed and translated the japanese labels in my van - and to everyone on here for their time and advice and help.
I hope this explains some of the issues, especially to newbies who, like me, probably never even thought about weight.
