# Rear axle weight problem



## brandywine (Aug 28, 2007)

Our Hymer has a fitted, pull out Scooter rack & when we bought it was told max carrying weight was 100kgs. so we bought a little one 79kgs.

Having looked at the advice on the forum, loaded up the scooter on Saturday and went to the weighbridge, gross was 260 kgs under but rear axle was dead on max at 1900kgs.

Fridge is at back & was empty, water was quarter full.

Looking around everything heavy is over or behind rear axle except gas.

Its got air suspension & has already been uprated.

Help, any ideas please


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Rear axle weight*

Hi

A tricky one this.

I would be tempted to go to another weighbridge first of all and double check the figures.

1900kg is not a lot for a rear axle - is this definitely correct?

You can always dump the water - but without knowing what your tank capacity is, I do not know how much help this would offer.

Russell


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## brandywine (Aug 28, 2007)

Its a 1995 model originally 3200kgs uprated to 3400 in Germany but whoever owned it never put the new plate in. I spotted this before buying & the dealer went to SV Tech with the spec sheet & its now 3500 gross, 1700 front axle & 1900 on rear.

Water would probably be about 25kgs but if we are going to a CL or CS we like to take a full tank - 100litres.

This is the prob.


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Weights*

Hi

I am not sure what you could do in this situation.

I am in a similar boat really.

Max weight of motorhome fully loaded is 5000kg. I presently weigh about 4800 kg with just me in it, full water and fuel tanks etc.

I am looking for a Scooter - wighs about 90kg and a rack. This will leave me virtually on the limit - and that is not where I like to be. Arrive at Calais for instance and load in 15 crates of Stella like I did in September and I would be over loaded.

I have just spoken to a firm at Chesterfield who sell motorbike trailers for £345. Whilst I do not really want to tow, I will probably go for this option.

Russell


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## 102160 (Dec 20, 2006)

Russell, is this Towbars and Trailers on Storforth lane? You can get (good) trailers for a single bike much cheaper than this; get a copy of a bike mag or two and look through the adverts.


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## brandywine (Aug 28, 2007)

Thats clever - saw air suspension on my 1st post in blue clicked on it & it goes to Outdoorbits - amazing.

Back to the original problem, its the cantilever effect of the rack, without scooter & 100litres water weight was only 1700 kgs.

Does altering the pressure in suspension throw the weight forward by any chance?


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Trailers*



wireman said:


> Russell, is this Towbars and Trailers on Storforth lane? You can get (good) trailers for a single bike much cheaper than this; get a copy of a bike mag or two and look through the adverts.


Hi yes it was. I have looked on Ebay etc and can see trailers for not a lot of lolly!

Thanks for the tip about the mag.

Russell


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## 102160 (Dec 20, 2006)

Well if you get the one from T&T let me know when you do and we could meet up for a coffee.


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Coffee*

Hi

Sounds like a plan...

Russell


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## PAT4NEIL (Jul 21, 2007)

Hi ya, We are also in the same boat, and though we have a good paylod, yet to put on weighbridge ( due to a problem with water tank, being repaired and out of the van at the moment), so cant get accurate reading. We do have a large overhang but a good chassis. It is a minefield, do not want to go down that route due to the expense, unless we can do it safely for certain. I do not want to add a trailer, firstly because of the parking when travelling around, and the cost of the ferry. (we are going Plymouth to Santander, but maybe more expensive with a trailer on the toll road in France etc, because of the trailer and the fact that the vehicle is 4200kg.


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## haylingchrist (May 15, 2005)

Patsy,

Is your Laika on a Fiat or Iveco chassis? 

With Fiats you always seem to end up overloading the rear first, but twin-rear-wheel chassis like the Iveco are designed to carry much more weight at the back. Fully loaded, on the weighbridge my own 5200kg van was almost on the limit at the front but had several hundred kgs to spare at the rear. Despite a big rear overhang, adding a scooter actually helped redress this a bit.

Chris


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## PAT4NEIL (Jul 21, 2007)

Iveco with the twin wheel, or the rear axle. but a large overhang, I chose the Iveco because the chassis looked substantial.


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## PAT4NEIL (Jul 21, 2007)

have been too weighbridge

actual r1 1660kg
rear r2 2100kg
total 3780kg

overhang 2300
wheel base 3750

maxium allowed on rear axle 3100kg

total max weight 4200kg

does this help

thanks


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## haylingchrist (May 15, 2005)

Patsy,

I don't suppose it's any worse than this:

As close as I can measure overhang is about 2400 to the rear of the van and 2800 to the CL of the scooter. I tried _really_ hard to get the scooter as close to the rear of the van as possible, which is tricky. 

In your case, in crude terms, I think you'll be OK as long as your scooter is less than about 500kgs 

Chris


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## PAT4NEIL (Jul 21, 2007)

Thanks chris

the overhang is 2300 from centre of axle to rear.

Yours is a massive van, but I take it has a large GTW. What bike do you carry on the back and where did you get your rack from, is it hydraulic, or do you wheel it up there on a ramp.

We have been speaking to some highly trained traffic police officers, who have put our minds at rest, who say that it should be okay with what we are planning.


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## haylingchrist (May 15, 2005)

Patsy,

It's 5200kgs MGW (probably a bit more sometimes...)

The scooter is a Honda Dylan 125 which is great (but get the 150 if you can). dry weight is 120kgs.

There's no rack as such. The Phoenix has a telescopic rear bumper which is authorised for 200kgs as standard (one of the many reasons I bought the van). I just fabricated a 'U' channel from aluminum to take the scooter and bolted it on. Loading is easy using a ramp - you just use the scooter engine to run it up. (Standing alongside with two fingers on the brake - don't try riding it  A bit of non-slip tape (like sticky sandpaper available from ships chandlers) on the ramp helps.

Chris


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## PAT4NEIL (Jul 21, 2007)

does anyone know anything about the Suzuki an 400 Burgman as a vehicle, like the look, but maybe too bulky.


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## 101405 (Oct 15, 2006)

*overweight*

1 LTR water = 1 kg


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## claypigeon (May 9, 2005)

Overall length: 2270mm (89.4in) 
Overall width: 760mm (29.9in) 
Overall height: 1385mm (54.5in) 
Wheelbase: 1585mm (62.4in) 
Seat height: 710mm (28in) 
Dry Mass: 199kg (438.7lbs) 
Fuel capacity: 13.5litres (3gallons 


Hi Patsy4 these are the technical specs of the Suzuki an 400 Burgman as you can see it is pretty heavy and long probably needs to be on a trailer

Dave


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## PAT4NEIL (Jul 21, 2007)

thanks

we were looking at the secondhand market, if we go about 1999, 2002 the weight goes down to about 185kg, still a lot I know. Although we have enough load etc. I am worried about the overhang, because I have read some where about 60% of wheelbase rule, do you know anything about that as we are near that without having the motorcycle on a rack, dont want to go to the expense of fitting a rack etc, if we cant legally carrying it. If we resort to a trailer, then we already have a BRW1150RT, but I dont want to have to worry about the extra length of having a trailer to contend with too.


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## claypigeon (May 9, 2005)

Hi Patsy4 personally i think it would be too heavy to go on a rack,(but i could be wrong)as i am no expert on these matters.

Dave


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## 104705 (May 24, 2007)

claypigeon said:


> Hi Patsy4 personally i think it would be too heavy to go on a rack,(but i could be wrong)as i am no expert on these matters.
> 
> Dave


There has been some debate about this. For that weight you would need an extremely strong rack mounting. The bounce from road defects would be considerable. Would the mounting take it?


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## haylingchrist (May 15, 2005)

Patsy

Sawiko do a 200kg rack which I think is available for the Iveco. It's an eye-watering €1700 though. I saw several Laikas in Italy sporting neat racks that were telescoped out from the rear - undetectable when not in use.

I wouldn't worry too much about the effect on the handling - the effect of having our Dylan loaded is undetectable (though it seems to add about .3 second to our Silverstone lap times 

Chris


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## PAT4NEIL (Jul 21, 2007)

Thanks Chris looked at their website, via babel fish, dont speak german, impressive, but quite expensive.


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