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

[Byronic]

Thanks both, I understand what you're saying now. I had assumed the vehicle was a motor caravan from new, a factory conversion, and imported as such, therefore the DVLA would have been satisfied with classification and so on as part of the import process. Sorry if that took us off at a tangent.

Cheers
Shaun

And I thought it must have been a rebodied job sometime after importation. But it was an imported as a camper and yet detals in the V5 don't match, confusing!
Benedict Cumberpatch might conclude that the Importer got all his V5 mixed up and assigned them to the wrong vehicles.

 

[vwalan]

cant help with organic porridge but lots use soya milk when away . dont know the prices as i tend not to use alot of milk use coffee whitener.
as for books . you might say i carry a library. dont think many carry more than me . usually got at least 200 books on board . i do enjoy a good read.
i need space as well for bacon and gammon joints . dont like lots of the stuff sold in southern europe .
i dont really drink alot but coming home for 6 months at 3 cans a beer a day is almost 200 litres . never mind some spare . add wine and 400 litres fuel soon mounts up. can save 160 quid sometimes just on diesel.

 

[delicagirl]

And I thought it must have been a rebodied job sometime after importation. But it was an imported as a camper and yet detals in the V5 don't match, confusing!
Benedict Cumberpatch might conclude that the Importer got all his V5 mixed up and assigned them to the wrong vehicles.

i think Dominic would not get chance to do any "concluding" if he came round to look at it !!!


Seriously - i think the data in my V5 log book is accurate its just that there is very little data on it..

 

[delicagirl]

cant help with organic porridge but lots use soya milk when away . dont know the prices as i tend not to use alot of milk use coffee whitener.
as for books . you might say i carry a library. dont think many carry more than me . usually got at least 200 books on board . i do enjoy a good read.
i need space as well for bacon and gammon joints . dont like lots of the stuff sold in southern europe .
i dont really drink alot but coming home for 6 months at 3 cans a beer a day is almost 200 litres . never mind some spare . add wine and 400 litres fuel soon mounts up. can save 160 quid sometimes just on diesel.

So is soya milk readily available in Europe and northern africa Alan ?

 

[trevskoda]

I did not want to say but as you left my cave i thought it was well over axle weight and looked as if it were under sprung and not to stable,i would as others have said get it looked at by someone who knows what there at for you safety sake .
I can carry a big load in my bus & tow 3 ton trailer but it is in the higher weight bracket which requires a med cert at 70 so 11 years to go,but i think its worth it and turns well over 30mpg.

 

[Tbear]

A lot of talk about tyres but if you increase the weight by 40% then you will almost certainly bottom the suspension constantly and the shocks will be useless so making cornering dangerous. The brakes will be inadequate so braking distance will be extended and on long downhill runs they may well overheat and fail all together. Apologies for being so negative but you really need to take it to someone who can sort it properly for you.

Sorry!

Richard

 

[Tbear]

I did not want to say but as you left my cave i thought it was well over axle weight and looked as if it were under sprung and not to stable,i would as others have said get it looked at by someone who knows what there at for you safety sake .
I can carry a big load in my bus & tow 3 ton trailer but it is in the higher weight bracket which requires a med cert at 70 so 11 years to go,but i think its worth it and turns well over 30mpg.

Sorry Trev. I was faffing about while typing and missed your much more diplomatic post

Richard

 

[colinm]

Talk of 3.5t and 40% increase in MAM is a bit OTT IMO.
THE 'empty' weight has been established at 2490kg, most vans don't have more than 500kg user payload, some have more some have less.
I don't know if thats doable or not but thats 3t and 20%. At a squeeze 300kg ehich is just over 10% might surfice
My last MOT the van was weighed by MOT garage to establish axle weights for brake test, has this been done for yours?

 

[Tbear]

Talk of 3.5t and 40% increase in MAM is a bit OTT IMO.
THE 'empty' weight has been established at 2490kg, most vans don't have more than 500kg user payload, some have more some have less.
I don't know if thats doable or not but thats 3t and 20%. At a squeeze 300kg ehich is just over 10% might surfice
My last MOT the van was weighed by MOT garage to establish axle weights for brake test, has this been done for yours?

From my reading and I will admit that I just skimmed some of it, it is a 2500kg that OP wants to plate as 3500kg and may well be running as such now. I make that 40% but if you are at the maxed out end and you increase by 10%, then you are dangerous. I am not going to advise someone to rake a risk without knowing for sure what is going on. The facts here are sketchy to say the least. MOT station may well help but for an import I would want to know the tester well. Yes I am a sceptic at times but we are giving advise to a lone female camper.

My van failed its last MOT because of rust around places like the suspension mounts so I sold it for Parts.

Richard

 

[colinm]

From my reading and I will admit that I just skimmed some of it, it is a 2500kg that OP wants to plate as 3500kg and may well be running as such now. I make that 40% but if you are at the maxed out end and you increase by 10%, then you are dangerous. I am not going to advise someone to rake a risk without knowing for sure what is going on. The facts here are sketchy to say the least. MOT station may well help but for an import I would want to know the tester well. Yes I am a sceptic at times but we are giving advise to a lone female camper.

My van failed its last MOT because of rust around places like the suspension mounts so I sold it for Parts.

Richard

Nobody has 'advised' this, AFAIK contact is being made with SV Tech.

 

[delicagirl]

Talk of 3.5t and 40% increase in MAM is a bit OTT IMO.
THE 'empty' weight has been established at 2490kg, most vans don't have more than 500kg user payload, some have more some have less.
I don't know if thats doable or not but thats 3t and 20%. At a squeeze 300kg ehich is just over 10% might surfice
My last MOT the van was weighed by MOT garage to establish axle weights for brake test, has this been done for yours?

Thanks for that colin - i hadn't known that - and its most useful - i can take the van a few miles to the MOT garage and get the axles weights very easily.

Based on your 500kg user payload - i guess i also need to know my fuel tank capacity so that i can work out how much my diesel weighs - then i can work out how much "stuff" i can put inside. I wil go back to the specifications posted earlier in this thread and see if that is there.,

I don't want to put the total mileage i have driven in this van in the 2 years i have owned it on a public forum, but it has been "well used". In all that time i have never felt unsafe, or unstable, or in danger, or that the brakes were iffy. However, since posting here i now absolutely recognise the inherent problems if i am overloading this van, hence this post, and my quest to find out its weight!! Until i get the axles weighed then we are speculating. I will do that tomorrow and come back and tell you all.

Even when the van is empty its rear end has always looked low in comparison to the front as the hab body has been designed that way. Obviously when i drained the water tanks prior to being loaded onto the trailer, the rear end came up a small amount - to be expected.

I am not giving up on this van and no i don't want a big hymer - far too big for me.

 

[delicagirl]

Nobody has 'advised' this, AFAIK contact is being made with SV Tech.

I am not contemplating a SV Tech paper-exercise to replate - i am trying to establish my safe user payload - if i can find it, i may then replate - one step at a time.

 

[wildebus]

Talk of 3.5t and 40% increase in MAM is a bit OTT IMO.
THE 'empty' weight has been established at 2490kg, most vans don't have more than 500kg user payload, some have more some have less.
I don't know if thats doable or not but thats 3t and 20%. At a squeeze 300kg ehich is just over 10% might surfice
My last MOT the van was weighed by MOT garage to establish axle weights for brake test, has this been done for yours?

Colin, what class of vehicle do you have?
I don't think I have ever seen an MOT station either weigh a vehicle prior to an MOT test, or even have the facilties to do so, except for my local Council depot which has a weighbridge, but totally separate to the MOT area.
I honestly think you are bringing questions into this which are not normal at all.

 

[vwalan]

Colin, what class of vehicle do you have?
I don't think I have ever seen an MOT station either weigh a vehicle prior to an MOT test, or even have the facilties to do so, except for my local Council depot which has a weighbridge, but totally separate to the MOT area.
I honestly think you are bringing questions into this which are not normal at all.

alot of mot stations have weigh bridges built into the brake tester machine .
you dont see anything it just comes up on the computer .
motor bike ones usually weigh as well. its all modern technology these days . they can be a bit out so dont treat them as being as truly accurate as we would like but close enough for brake testing .

 

[wildebus]

alot of mot stations have weigh bridges built into the brake tester machine .
you dont see anything it just comes up on the computer .
motor bike ones usually weigh as well. its all modern technology these days . they can be a bit out so dont treat them as being as truly accurate as we would like but close enough for brake testing .

Ah, that is interesting to know.
Does that mean that you pop into your local MOT station on which you are on reasonable terms with and get a reasonably accurate (bearing in mind your comment) weight for each axle rather then hunting out a weighbridge which are usually a lot more scarce on the ground?

 

[mark61]

I am not contemplating a SV Tech paper-exercise to replate - i am trying to establish my safe user payload - if i can find it, i may then replate - one step at a time.

One step at a time is the way, lets see what the axle weights are and what info (if any) the dealer is able to get from VIN.

Looking on Mobile.de, there are a fair few coachbuilt MH's on the same or similar model, Hymer, Dethleff, plus other well known makes.

I wouldn't be thinking of trading it in yet.

 

[vwalan]

Ah, that is interesting to know.
Does that mean that you pop into your local MOT station on which you are on reasonable terms with and get a reasonably accurate (bearing in mind your comment) weight for each axle rather then hunting out a weighbridge which are usually a lot more scarce on the ground?

you can only ask . but i think it only works in a sequance . plus no weight slips .
but almost every town as weigh bridges . many hgv yards have them . they usually will do it as a favour . builders yards you name it they are all over the places , sand pits . steel yards .

 

[delicagirl]

Delicious, it's a Mitsubishi l300 jb 500 there is a lot of photos on Internet I will do more research for you tomorrow is there not a weight plate near the passenger door shut? Andy

Thanks - there are no plates of any kind around the passenger door Andy

 

[colinm]

A couple of points.
Not all MOT stations have the facility to weigh vehicles, the one I use for my small vehicles doesn't, due to an odd brake test I weighed one myself and found it was approx 350kg front and rear with driver and half a tank!
I've never dealt with SV Tech, but my understanding is they will advise on more than just paperwork.

My van is based on Ducato H2L4 maxi , its MAM is 3.5t this is actually a down plating from 4.05t.

 

[Nesting Zombie]

Surly your insurance company would know what type of vehicle it is & there for the weight capacity !, As let's be honest 'They would have to know what they are infact insuring !'
Try seeing if the Engine number throws up any leads !.