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

[mark61]

[No message]

 

[Channa]

Does this mean Delicious , that delectable weekend you promised of depravity and delightful desires.. I now have to lose weight :rolleyes2:......Distraught I am :lol-053:.......Plan B my little nest of vipelets ...motorcycle and a tarp ...I like that word tarp !!!. ...no idea where all that lot came from!! (nurse my meds) I am glad you have a definitive answer.

Channa

P.s I have 25 kgs capacity on the bike do you take sugar with coffee...:scared:xx

 

[delicagirl]

Does this mean Delicious , that delectable weekend you promised of depravity and delightful desires.. I now have to lose weight :rolleyes2:......Distraught I am :lol-053:.......Plan B my little nest of vipelets ...motorcycle and a tarp ...I like that word tarp !!!. ...no idea where all that lot came from!! (nurse my meds) I am glad you have a definitive answer.

Channa

P.s I have 25 kgs capacity on the bike do you take sugar with coffee...:scared:xx

no sugar Channa.... I am sweet enough as I am..... I stopped taking sugar when I set off to hitch to Ethiopia when I was 19 - it was too heavy to carry - I never took sugar in drinks again.


you are in lyrical mode tonight !!! I am delighted that you are planning your great adventure... it will be amazing and as soon as you leave Europe you will forget all about WC and have a ball.... but do keep some records so you can tell us something about the adventure when you get back. Shame I am still at uni for another year - another time !!!!

 

[wildebus]

It is amazing how many people have no idea how much their vehicles actually weigh in both camping mode and also empty of all their removable gear (I am thinking mostly here of people with conversions rather then factory-built Motorhomes).
And on top of that, many of these people, at least in the VW Transporter world, fit lowering springs which will change the real, effective, GVW as well as wheels without known load ratings and tyres that are underspecified for the weight carried.

You are to be applauded completely for taking this action :dance:
I hope others follow if they are not aware of their weights (My latest van I took to the weightbridge prior to starting the conversion, but have not yet returned to it now it is fully fitted out. Might do that later this week after this update from yourself!)

 

[delicagirl]

So you have 72 litres of diesel in the tank and nothing loaded. Did that weight include you yourself, or did you get out first? What about gas bottles? Aux batteries?

this weight included all the "fixtures" as I call them - batteries, gas bottles, big dining room table, all the upholstery, - and I did include me in the calculation.

 

[delicagirl]

No, it doesn't, but it substantially reduces the risk of a tyre bursting because it is overloaded. Which is where we came into this discussion, I seem to recall.

without going back through the whole thread I cannot recall what I posted earlier about this - - another horror story that I discovered is that MOTs do not take any account of the age of a tyre and as long as the tread complies with the current law, the tyre will be legal. My van had passed three MOTS with no advisories on tyres. I did not realise that two of my tyres were 20 years old (the age of manufacture is on the tyre itself if you can grovel around and find it) and two were 12 years old. My local tyre specialist said the blow out was due to age. All my tyres had good tread.

My van now has 4 brand new tyres... at 36psi in the front and 41 in the back.

 

[Fazerloz]

Well done you. At least now you know exactly how you stand and can go on from there, which is more than most know.

 

[jda]

Delica description

Can't help with weight issue & jumped many posts but log book description was very similar to the Delica mpv I had - a great drive & seat arrangements allowed transport of bikes & basic camping except for the fact that the automatic transmission could not cope with the slightest mud!

 

[delicagirl]

That's good news!

At a pinch, you can switch to a single lightweight gas bottle, or perhaps a refillable one (you can top up a refillable, so don't need to carry a spare).

Batteries? Can you manage with just two? Perhaps that's all you have now.

You may find a smaller, lighter table would do.

I have 3 leisure batteries fed by a solar panel; and 2 gasit bottles - does anyone know if gasit do lighter weight bottles ?

I will give it a go with standing on the scales with my table on my head !!!!! I have thought long and hard about this table... it is huge and strong because it drops down to form the double bed in the dining area for sleeping in the winter (from where I can reach the gas fire to turn it on to heat the van before I finally get out of bed!!) I also love the table because it can accommodate my laptop and mouse and lots of books and files and stuff when I am writing, and its also good for maintaining a stationery drawing board when I am sketching.... so its a treasured possession.

 

[delicagirl]

The secret is to put the table on top of your head. Really!

Failing that, set your phone up to take a video of the scales readout.

But perhaps it doesn't matter if the table was included in the "empty" weight.

Most folks here know I am an IT-challenged woman !! last weekend I was telling vanning chums that my smart phone (always MUCH smarter than me) has a camera but its lens is hazy, and photos don't look good - "in fact" - I said sadly "it looks as if there is a sheet of crinkled cling film over the lens" Said vanning chum took the phone and then said "what ? like THIS Actual piece of cling film over the lens ?" and he peeled a bit off the phone.... I have only had the phone 3 years now and never noticed !!!! Laughing at myself again, .... or what ????

 

[colinm]

As i promised here is The final jigsaw piece....

The final piece of the puzzle is the weighing of each axle, until then you still don't know what it is practical to carry, the overall weight doesn't count for anything if the back axle(or front) is loaded up.

 

[delicagirl]

I thought it only polite to come back with some figures as soon as I could..... my next visit to the weighbridge will have to wait a while I am sorry to say as my life is a bit mad at the moment - but when I do I will come back with the final final bit of the jigsaw !!!:dance:

Maybe I can have some guidance as to "loading" and "balance" - now that I have the axle weights - I had thought to put all the paper goods towards the front of the van and the tinned stuff/books/spare wheel towards the rear.

 

[delicagirl]

Are you sure you need three leisure batteries? Try making a trip with just one.


I don't use camp sites other than for water and waste disposal-refilling. When i first bought the van I employed a local guy who put in "low wattage" new lights - but they were not LED lights. I knew no different at the time. I am about to have those replaced with LED lights, as the power usage of these low wattage lights is quite high. As soon as I have done this, it might be interesting to see how I get on in the wild with only one battery and one solar panel in the winter.

You don't need two Gasit bottles unless you use more than a complete bottlefull between passing LPG stations.

LPG is very rare in Eire (and not a lot easier in Scotland) and the gauges on these gasit bottles are notoriously inaccurate - you can tap one with your finger nail and it will move substantially, so it could be a tricky lifestyle with only one gas bottle as my heating (gas fire) and cooking relies on LPG.

Do you remember my post (a long way back) about what an item needed to be to get on board? Seems to me that your table qualifies.

I remember it well - and many things in there now are multi functional - thanks for that tip.


HUH ? what did I do there then ?????

 

[wildebus]

I have 3 leisure batteries fed by a solar panel; and 2 gasit bottles - does anyone know if gasit do lighter weight bottles ?

I will give it a go with standing on the scales with my table on my head !!!!! I have thought long and hard about this table... it is huge and strong because it drops down to form the double bed in the dining area for sleeping in the winter (from where I can reach the gas fire to turn it on to heat the van before I finally get out of bed!!) I also love the table because it can accommodate my laptop and mouse and lots of books and files and stuff when I am writing, and its also good for maintaining a stationery drawing board when I am sketching.... so its a treasured possession.

Huge and Heavy Table? Is it solid? I bet you could reduce the weight of it by a significant amount by drilling a range of holes in it. Make them small but regular and it will still be strong enough for a bed support, yet practical enough for a table top (especially if you throw a table cloth over it) and the weight saved could be considerable. If you consider most caravans have slats that pull out for the bed extension sections and make up a bed support which has as much free air space between the slats as the slat width themselves, it should be doable

 

[delicagirl]

Huge and Heavy Table? Is it solid? I bet you could reduce the weight of it by a significant amount by drilling a range of holes in it. Make them small but regular and it will still be strong enough for a bed support, yet practical enough for a table top (especially if you through a table cloth over it) and the weight saved could be considerable. If you consider most caravans have slats that pull out for the bed extension sections and make up a bed support which has as much free air space between the slats as the slat width themselves, it should be doable

you have outlined some interesting ideas here - I had no idea others vans use slats... no one ever shows you a van in preparation for "bed time" thanks for that idea

 

[colinm]

I thought it only polite to come back with some figures as soon as I could..... my next visit to the weighbridge will have to wait a while I am sorry to say as my life is a bit mad at the moment - but when I do I will come back with the final final bit of the jigsaw !!!:dance:

Maybe I can have some guidance as to "loading" and "balance" - now that I have the axle weights - I had thought to put all the paper goods towards the front of the van and the tinned stuff/books/spare wheel towards the rear.

We're still working in the dark here, but after reviewing the photo's in your profile, i'd say you will need to put as much stuff as forward as possible.

 

[wildebus]

This is my first incarnation for slats ...
[video=youtube_share;xzAc4S3wRwk]https://youtu.be/xzAc4S3wRwk[/video]
I experimented with making the gap wider, but then reverted back to equal slat width and air gaps width.
I did wonder about using a table instead of slats, as the dual-purpose would be quite appealing, but I have never actually used the table I made yet anyway, so didn't bother.

 

[Sidders]

Most folks here know I am an IT-challenged woman !! last weekend I was telling vanning chums that my smart phone (always MUCH smarter than me) has a camera but its lens is hazy, and photos don't look good - "in fact" - I said sadly "it looks as if there is a sheet of crinkled cling film over the lens" Said vanning chum took the phone and then said "what ? like THIS Actual piece of cling film over the lens ?" and he peeled a bit off the phone.... I have only had the phone 3 years now and never noticed !!!! Laughing at myself again, .... or what ????

Brilliant, now tryin to clean soggy rice krispies from the keys on the works laptop, thankyou Collette if I was rude I would call it a senior moment but it seems you had a senior 3 years, x andy

 

[Deleted member 27838]

Good progress.

As an aside, saw a coachbuilt Delica with a "for sale" sign on the back of it at the AO show at the weekend (think it was also on ebay a couple of years ago?). It had all manor of colourful steel attachments welded onto it, goodness knows what that weighs in at. Looks purposeful though!

 

[ricc]

before you go drilling holes in the table , bear in mind bed slats are real wood, the table top could well be some sort of chip board...basically sawdust and glue , which is nowhere near as strong , a chipboard slat is a lot weaker than a pine one.


id say when loading get heavy items as far forward as possible. if the van looks level its less likely to be picked for weighing at a roadside check.