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

If you must carry the spare on the roof then that is a calculated risk - and we all take those every day of our lives don't we. I am sure you are a good driver and your girl racer days are over.

You have had no problems up until the blow out and that was after thousands of miles.
You have had SvTech go through the weights, they are the real experts in this field.
You are having new tyres fitted.
Your vehicle is quite different from that in the video clip.

Collette, take no heed of the doomsayers, even if it is well intended advice, drive safe and you will not have any problems.

Bicycles and motorbikes are potential death traps on our busy roads, far more so than cars, it doesn't stop hundreds of thousands of riders enjoying them.

Just get out there and enjoy.
 
It may have already been suggested, but to reduce weight if you have steel wheels is to change them to good quality alloy ones, expensive,but it would give you a greater payload (low down in the van) and reduce the mass on the roof, a win win I think, :drive: whatever, enjoy your van! :wacko::wacko:
 
RoadTrek Boy said:
It may have already been suggested, but to reduce weight if you have steel wheels is to change them to good quality alloy ones, expensive,but it would give you a greater payload (low down in the van) and reduce the mass on the roof, a win win I think, :drive: whatever, enjoy your van! :wacko::wacko:
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I think the "alloys to save weight" is a bit of myth to be honest. If you are talking about lightweight racing alloys, that would be the case, but an alloy wheel does not really weigh much difference to a steel wheel.
Steel is heavier yes, but a pressed steel wheel has a lot thinner material then a cast alloy wheel, so the weight saving on the material is negated and certainly not a VFM or price vs performance option (IMHO anyway)
 
izwozral said:
If you must carry the spare on the roof then that is a calculated risk - and we all take those every day of our lives don't we. I am sure you are a good driver and your girl racer days are over.

You have had no problems up until the blow out and that was after thousands of miles.
You have had SvTech go through the weights, they are the real experts in this field.
You are having new tyres fitted.
Your vehicle is quite different from that in the video clip.

Collette, take no heed of the doomsayers, even if it is well intended advice, drive safe and you will not have any problems.

Bicycles and motorbikes are potential death traps on our busy roads, far more so than cars, it doesn't stop hundreds of thousands of riders enjoying them.

Just get out there and enjoy.
Click to expand...

Thank you izzy - that makes a lot of sense, i think i have now got peace of mind and understand a lot more than i did a month ago.

In the van i rarely go over 50mph - otherwise i can watch the fuel gauge dropping at an alarming rate !!

Girl racer - mmm - you should see me in my 2 seater soft top, like yesterday, with the sun shining, and the whippy petrol accelerator engine letting me overtake safely in places where the van would not, and me hair blowing in the wind, and Sky on the CD at full volume and me singing me head off, wearing dark glasses..... Girl racer ? Thats ME !!!! I'm never growing old in my head !!!!
 
Spare wheel @ say 25Kg. Which is 1% of the vehicles O/A weight, at a max. of a 3m lever, not enough to be really noticed in what is essentially a plodding commercial vehicle, sure as a principle weight (mass) should be kept as low as possible. The convincing way to confirm this is to drive with wheel on then with it removed.

Think of it this way when the driver of a double decker bus gets 2 or 3 obese people (say 400kg ie 4% of the bus O/A weight) on the top deck of his bus does he get out and refuse to drive the bus? No, he just takes the bends 1 mph slower he doesn't pitch and roll the bus as much, and he does all this by the seat of his pants. He automatically adjusts his driving style to suit the vehicles ever changing capabilities as we all do.
 
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I think the answer is actually very simple ...

Sell the Delica and get one of these ...
[video=youtube_share;HBDPRYjGZi4]https://youtu.be/HBDPRYjGZi4[/video]
Not quite "amphibious" but it will ford 3 foot deep water. Only £90K and I want one!!
 
Hi Gang,
Just reopened this thread,
Did we get to the bottom of the Axel weights and Vehicle payload capacity ?.
Is it sorted !. I will have a read through ofcourse but just wondering.
 
Nesting Zombie said:
Hi Gang,
Just reopened this thread,
Did we get to the bottom of the Axel weights and Vehicle payload capacity ?.
Is it sorted !. I will have a read through ofcourse but just wondering.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it !
I was just going to sake the same question.
 
Don't know if you watched through the video (it is quite long) but the owners HAVE done just that :)
It is a very well thought out vehicle and ideal for one or two people. At the price, would be just a pipedream for most though.

And to the previous posts, yes, it is answered :)
 
garypics1 066.jpg
its only water.
yet again dont need 4x4 to cross water.
mind i dont fancy crossing the channel ha ha
 
vwalan said:
View attachment 47042
its only water.
yet again dont need 4x4 to cross water.
mind i dont fancy crossing the channel ha ha
Click to expand...

Used to take my Skoda Trekka with LSD through water twice as deep as that regularly in NZ, only got stuck a few times actually quite a few times in a ribbon river. Trev. would have been justly proud.
 
What a brilliant top quality van on the UTube Clip !!! i would need an over cab bed though....The owner said £125,000 and if i had that amount i might have a purpose built one made specially for me !!! but i haven't - so delica it is......
 
Woelcke do some nice stuff. I've had a few good looks at their stuff.

That transporter may have done 3 foot depth and survived, but I doubt they make a habit of it. Chances of breathers being lengthened are small, plus there is also loads of electrics below 3 feet. Waterproofed maybe, but not submergible.

Land Rover owners will tell you the door seals leak to stop the vehicle floating. :)
 
delicagirl said:
What a brilliant top quality van on the UTube Clip !!! i would need an over cab bed though....The owner said £125,000 and if i had that amount i might have a purpose built one made specially for me !!! but i haven't - so delica it is......
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Euros, he must have ticked a lot of options too.
Nice thing about Woelcke is you can buy them empty and do the inside yourself. I spent far too long looking into this stuff, didn't I. :)
 
i once took a mk 2 escort through over bonnet flood water, took sometime to dry out the interior and within a year it needed all new wheel bearings and new front lights.... this was a nearly new company vehicle not an old banger so it was all down to the immersion.
 
Lol lol lol ha HA HA LOL Oh dear !,,,65 Kg per person,,,


I don't know why but that made me laugh ! But confirmed that I'm twice the man I thought I was !
 
Difficult to reply to that post without identifying my occupation which I prefer not to do. But I will mention the following:
25kg or 35kg still represents a small percentage of the O/A. In any event what you yourself "expect" the weight to be is not necessarily what it is either.

The height to wheel track ratio for both vehicles would be approximately equal or at least not so different 2.2 : 4m
versus 1.6 : 3m at a guess.

All vehicle manufacturers attempt to keep weight as low as possible, they don't deliberately make a vehicle more top heavy than is necessary. Mitsubishi included. Have you ever lifted vehicle double or bench seats they are bloody heavy, a bus carries a lot of weight at a high level even without passengers. I would not hazard a guess on whether an empty bus would tip over at a lesser or greater angle than an empty Delicavan, certainly not without a lot more data.

Obese people don't go upstairs? That's a fact is it? Actually the worst case scenario is a full top deck and no one downstairs, and the driver will still be able to drive the bus safely because he will drive within it's reduced capabilities. I hope you're not a bus driver!
 
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