# Just got back from weigh bridge....



## Snunkie

Went to local weigh bridge 15 mins away in Asheldham, Essex. Cst was £10 and had whole vehicle weighed and front axle only so they could calculate rear axle weight.

Front axle weighed 1980kgs
Rear axle 2960kgs
Total weight 4940kgs

Now to look into what that all means and what my max weights should be on a Burstner argos 747 2008 plate.....


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## Mike48

I hope you are licensed to drive an HGV?


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## 747

There is a plate with the details, usually near the front of the coachbuilt body on the UK offside.

I would expect it to read:

1 (front axle) 2,000 KG ... but this could be 2,100 on later models.
2 and 3 (Tag axles) 1,500 Kg each = 3,000 Kg.
4 Train weight probably 5,200 Kg (it is on my 2003 747).


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## inkey-2008

Hope you had your partner with you very close to the limit.

Andy


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## Snunkie

Mike48 said:


> I hope you are licensed to drive an HGV?


I have a 'grandad' licence which allows me to drive up to 7,500kgs, why?


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## Snunkie

No, hubby and eldest child were not with me, nor was the scooter in the garage and only 1/4 tank diesel and 25% water so that causes a huge problem.


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## Snunkie

Plate says

5000kgs
6000kgs
1- 2100kgs
2- 1500kgs
3- 1500kgs


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## 747

Looks like you need to buy a trailer. 8O


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## Snunkie

Trouble is there's so much fitted to it that it's eaten up all the payload

Dometic air con
Camos dome
Heavy duty towbar structure
80w solar panel
3 extra (empty) water tanks

Then there are 6 of us, all average weights (47, 44, 12, 11, 7 & 5yrs)

We have on board a week's clothing for 6 of us. Melamine crockery, cutlery, food etc
Swingball, badminton, tennis, rounders, etc
Cadac BBQ
2 tables (cooking and eating)
10 fold up chairs (6 small ones for the table, 4 comfy ones)
2 camp beds (need these when we get to Spain as staying at parents villa and 2 beds short)
Kippor generator (28kgs I think)
Toolbox
And all the other sundries such as oil, toilet fluid etc

Really concerned now. Going to empty it and weigh everything to see what else can go!


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## Snunkie

..... Spare wheel in garage apparently weighs 30kgs

Twin gaslow system with full size bottles

Jeez!


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## cabby

Unless you really need it get rid of the tow bar.

cabby


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## Snunkie

Can't say we need it. It does feel like it would protect the bumper area a bit though as towbar would touch anything before the bumper. It has a frame protruding right along the back, not just the tow ball


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## 91502

It looks like you need to come up with a solution very quickly as with your passengers your already well overweight. 
Also you have to remember that the scooter won't just add its actual weight to your rear, due to it being stuck out behind the rear axels it will add extra weight and lift some off the front.
I would look at losing the tow bar, spare wheel, second gaslow bottle to name just a few things you can do without.
10 chairs will weigh a lot, look around for lite weight ones that will do both eating and relaxing and maybe lose a table and the camp beds as you can always buy when you arrive or even sleep in the MH.
What type of table do you have inside, is it one you can buy a base for and lift outside?
You will need a full tank of fuel (around 75kg for us) and water if you are using aires along with your other two passengers so somewhere you need to be losing around 400kg.
The othe solution is as already mentioned a trailer or tow-a-van, if you lose some weight to get the MH legal you will have the capacity to tow at least 1000kg but this brings the extra expense on fuel, ferry and tolls.
Good luck.
James


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## Snunkie

The scooter goes in the garage, it doesn't sit on the back (although we had been looking into this but discovered max weight was 130kgs on the back or 200kgs in the garage) but we obviously won't be taking it now with this knowledge.

I've managed to drop a few more things to lighten it up a bit. 

Hubby weighs around 75kgs and 12 year old about 50kgs so with the water (?kgs) and fuel (75kgs)we shouldn't require an extra 400kgs surely? 

Can drop a couple of chairs. Table inside is not the sort we can use outside. We have a lightweight camping table and a lightweight cooking table. Can lose the cooking table for this trip as will just cook inside. 

Not prepared to buy more camp beds when we get there when we have bought 2 already. They're not that heavy. We've given up with inflatable stuff as it last about 5 minutes with our children!

Cadac outfit weighs a fair bit and have a kampa griddle that fits over inside hob so could lose the cadac too and just use the griddle

Would definitely not go with just one gaslow bottle as we won't be using hook up at all and we usually spend around 11 days on the road in total in addition to staying with my parents. With 6 of us to cook for Gas is important.

Not interested in towing a trailer, anything that we can't take inside the MH we don't need  

Not going to spend another £10 getting it weighed again but will weigh everything I've taken out and add it up to see what I've managed to save and then will add hubby and eldest on, together with weight of food.


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## 91502

Hi
You have 60kg to spare so that puts you about 65kg overweight with passengers.
Are you full of water,gas and fuel?
You need to remember water is 1kg per litre and diesel about the same and gas about another 20kg so this can soon add 200kg then food on top say 50kg for a supermarket shop.
You also need to allow for the times you pick up those extras, case of beer etc or a few books and a pair of shoes. you throw in just before you leave.
What you need to remember is you will struggle to get near 5000kg and still be legal as the weight needs to be within all the axel limits so the weight needs to be distributed very evenly and it never is. 
With us the fuel falls all on the front and gas and water on the back, then it depends who sits up front and who is in the rear.
A lot of overweight vehicles are actually withing their gross weight but overweight on one or more axels and MH's aren't like lorries where they just move a few pallets forward or backwards to get legal and be allowed on their way.
If your not full of all liquids I would say you easily need to lose 400kg to be safe.
It will certainly be worth the extra £10 to weigh again because weighing what you take out wont tell you which axels its come off just the overall weight loss.
As for not having enough gas in one bottle why can't you just top up every few days when you stop for fuel, this is what makes the gaslow system so good, for summer use I have never actually used more than one bottle on a 3 week trip using it for hot water, fridge, cooking and the barbecue. 
Regarding the scooter, I realise its not going on this trip but when it does if its in a garage I would guess its still behind the axels so it will add more weight to the back than the bike actually weighs.
I am sure you will work it out, we always take too many clothes and rubbish we never use so there are always savings to make.
Happy travelling.
James


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## goldi

Afternoon all,
I woulda thought that a 6 legger could esily gross up to more than 5 tonne. I,d try replating.


norm


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## peribro

I suggest you call SVTech. I have the same plated weights as you but I am currently overweight on my second axle and, like you, just inside the GVW and the front axle and combined rear axles . However that is with half a tank of fresh water and 3/4 of a tank of fuel. In addition I have vast amounts of almost everything else imaginable including a spare wheel, towbar, bike rack and bikes, additional gas bottle, numerous chairs, heavy BBQ etc etc. SVTech is increasing each of my rear axles by 100kg and the GVW from 5,000kgs to 5,200kgs. That will be sufficient for me.


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## Snunkie

Have managed to remove a further 34kgs but that's not going to help much.

It seems that with all the fitted extras and 6 of us we will be at our weight limit. 

I think replating is the only answer but too late for this trip so going to have to think about getting something removed


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## Snunkie

goldi said:


> Afternoon all,
> I woulda thought that a 6 legger could esily gross up to more than 5 tonne. I,d try replating.
> 
> norm


My husband is sure it could too. It's 29ft long on an AlKo chassis. I mistakenly thought it was 5.500kgs all this time too


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## Snunkie

Gas is full so that was included in the weight from the weigh bridge

Fuel is only 1/4 full
Water is somewhere between 25% and 49% as it only shows in 25% increments


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## peribro

Not sure if your trip is in the UK or abroad but in this country VOSA is supposed to allow you a discretionary 5% margin on your plated weights. In addition they should treat closely spaced axles as one i.e. 3,000kg on the rear rather than worrying if one of them is over. So saying if one is significantly over then they may not apply that discretion.


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## 91502

peribro said:


> Not sure if your trip is in the UK or abroad but in this country VOSA is supposed to allow you a discretionary 5% margin on your plated weights. In addition they should treat closely spaced axles as one i.e. 3,000kg on the rear rather than worrying if one of them is over. So saying if one is significantly over then they may not apply that discretion.


I have worked with VOSA for many years on operation mermaid (the countrywide days of action) and I don't think they have the word discretion in their dictionary. 
The 5% is allowed before prosecution, they still won't allow you to leave until you have dumped the extra weight. 
About 90% of all vehicles they pull in are overweight as they know exactly what vehicles (makes and models) to target. 
I have never seen them pull in a MH that wasn't overweight. 
I even saw one stopped 50 yards up the road and prosecuted by the environment officers (who are also part of the check) for the stuff they had left next to the roadside bins in black bags because it wouldn't all fit in, this was mainly food, chairs, tables and clothes all good stuff but it needed to go to be underweight.
They are also very good at finding every single fault on every vehicle they pull after spending tapping with their little toffee hammers.
James


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## Grizzly

Do you need the generator ? You've got a solar panel. Most of us do very well without one- plus the fuel you carry for it.

You should not find any problems re-filling with gas. We've had the Gaslow system for 4 years and have been all over with it, for long periods, and have not even used our spare ( non-Gaslow) bottle. Ditch one bottle. If all else fails you can always buy a Camping Gas bottle and then sell it when back in UK.

Let the children sleep on the van mattresses carried into the house and leave the camp beds at home too. In my experience all the things in a motorhome could be said to " not weigh very much" until you add them all up !

Ditch the chairs and buy (Poundshop) stools to sit around the table- £1 each and very sturdy.

http://www.poundland.co.uk/camping-stool-assorted-colours

Hope all works out well

G


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## fdhadi

I think the payload on the 2002 - 06 A747 active is 1200kg and the payload on the Argos 747 is only 700kg. The Argos payload seems very low for a 6/7 berth mh.


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## Techno100

All this just makes me really happy that I bought Carol's van there is no substitute for being sure your van has ample capacity. Strange is the role of fate as I could very easily have bought a brand new van that would have ended up as a nightmare. I hope I get pulled over some day 8) :lol:


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## Snunkie

We've got 2 75ah batteries and the solar panel barely trickle charges them. We've never had an impressive result from it and were running out of battery power, hence buying the Generator. I also changed all the lights to leds to save power. We're not bothered about things like the TV but the children are only 5,7,11 and 12 and like to watch movies etc so that uses some power. It was also so sweltering hot last year that the generator was a godsend so that we could use the aircon so don't want to ditch the generator to be honest.

We spent 3 days in sussex last week and ran out of battery power in the middle of the 3rd night. Even though it was sun all 3 days and we had an 80w solar panel. the MH was driven for a good hour and a half on the 2nd day and we weren't at the motorhome all day on the 3rd day so no power was used until the evening. we cannot currently afford to replace the batteries for bigger capacity ones but know that we need to do that at some point


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## Snunkie

Techno100 said:


> All this just makes me really happy that I bought Carol's van there is no substitute for being sure your van has ample capacity. Strange is the role of fate as I could very easily have bought a brand new van that would have ended up as a nightmare. I hope I get pulled over some day 8) :lol:


Have you got a good payload on yours techno?


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## Snunkie

We sold our last 6 berth MH, a Ford Kentucky Camp Estro because of the tiny payload on it and we were sure we were overweight so we bought a bigger MH hoping to solve the problem. I am sure I read in our paperwork that the payload was 1250kgs but the internet is stating 700kgs in some places, 775kgs in others. 

It's easy to eat up that payload with all the extras fitted. I forgot about the 5.5m awning too. No wonder we only get 18mpg out of it even after the engine having been 'Wow' powered for both economy and power according to the dealership where it originally came from


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## Techno100

Yes indeed.
There is only me and Mrs T
I don't know what the payload figure is as it rarely means anything of value to the end user (massaged by converters)
Despite the huge amount of permanent fixtures I've added we have 250kg spare without the 2 bicycles and food.
This is with 90 litres of diesel 100 litres of water 48 litres of LPG both of us on board along with sufficient clothing tools ladder spare wheel etc etc etc
Carol special ordered this van on a heavy Alko and it is very rare at 4250kg

230 AH elecsols up front with sterling battery to battery charger
375 AH maintenance free at the rear powered by 300 watt of solar and or BtoB to feed 1800 watt inverter


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## Snunkie

Techno100 said:


> Yes indeed.
> There is only me and Mrs T
> I don't know what the payload figure is as it rarely means anything of value to the end user (massaged by converters)
> Despite the huge amount of permanent fixtures I've added we have 250kg spare without the 2 bicycles and food.
> This is with 90 litres of diesel 100 litres of water 48 litres of LPG both of us on board along with sufficient clothing tools ladder spare wheel etc etc etc
> Carol special ordered this van on a heavy Alko and it is very rare at 4250kg


Andy, what's the length of your MH? I have read through your blog with interest by the way, reading up what you have added etc.

My 747 is 29fft on an ALKO chassis. I am sure it is capable of more than 5,000kg so will look into getting it replated. I've more or less emptied it now!


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## Techno100

It is 7.39 metres, that's longer than my house :lol: 
24.25 mpg average on very varied terrain.
Wifey is just about coming around to loving it (him "Robbie") now the kitchen has more work space and I'm off to Grimsby tomorrow for a better fridge freezer.


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## Grizzly

Snunkie said:


> .
> 
> We spent 3 days in sussex last week and ran out of battery power in the middle of the 3rd night. Even though it was sun all 3 days and we had an 80w solar panel. the MH was driven for a good hour and a half on the 2nd day and we weren't at the motorhome all day on the 3rd day so no power was used until the evening. we cannot currently afford to replace the batteries for bigger capacity ones but know that we need to do that at some point


I'm no expert at all on things electrical in a MH but it still seems to me that you have no long term- or short-term- solution until you sort your battery and charging problems. The scenario you mention above should not have left you without power.

Has it been checked to see if it is something simple like a wiring problem or whatever ?

G


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## Snunkie

Grizzly said:


> Snunkie said:
> 
> 
> 
> .
> 
> We spent 3 days in sussex last week and ran out of battery power in the middle of the 3rd night. Even though it was sun all 3 days and we had an 80w solar panel. the MH was driven for a good hour and a half on the 2nd day and we weren't at the motorhome all day on the 3rd day so no power was used until the evening. we cannot currently afford to replace the batteries for bigger capacity ones but know that we need to do that at some point
> 
> 
> 
> I'm no expert at all on things electrical in a MH but it still seems to me that you have no long term- or short-term- solution until you sort your battery and charging problems. The scenario you mention above should not have left you without power.
> 
> Has it been checked to see if it is something simple like a wiring problem or whatever ?
> 
> G
Click to expand...

No it's not been checked other than us looking at the reading on the Fox D1 panel and then checking the power that is being supplied to the battery. It's definitely putting something in but a very small amount. It's also odd that despite hunting in every nook and cranny we cannot find a solar regulator anywhere. The dealer says they did not fit it and the previous owner says it was on there when he bought it and he has owned it from new so I'm really confused as someone must know how it got there!


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## Grizzly

Snunkie said:


> . The dealer says they did not fit it and the previous owner says it was on there when he bought it and he has owned it from new so I'm really confused as someone must know how it got there!


Me, myself, personally I'd get it checked pdq. All does not seem well to me and, if sorted, I think you would be fine- and could leave the geni at home among other things !

G


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## datasafe

This thread is really worrying!

We have an Argos 748 and payload has always been a concern. Advertised as a 6/7 berth but the reality is that you'd likely be breaking the law with that many onboard together with essentials.

Is there anyway of getting the vehicle uprated or whatever?


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## peribro

datasafe said:


> I there anyway of getting the vehicle uprated or whatever?


As I posted earlier, SVTech should be able to increase a 5,000kg Alko tag axle to 5,200 just through a paper exercise. It can go higher than that but it will require air suspension which I think is in the order of £900 or so.


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## claymore

JP said:


> [
> About 90% of all vehicles they pull in are overweight as they know exactly what vehicles (makes and models) to target.


I bet Bailey 760s are on their list


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## teensvan

Hi.

The first time we put our 748 on a weigh bridge it we t 4960Kg. We had no water no motorbike no laptops or printer no gas bottle and very little food.

A lot of our weight was made up of miles to many clothes, towels, bedding, pots, pans, glassware of all shapes and sizes, the large table that is a ton weight. Also removed miles to many tools and odd bits.

We cleared out just under 400Kg of junk.

I know we still ran overweight when motorbike water gas laptops were put in but was a lot better.

steve & ann. ------------ teensvan


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## Snunkie

peribro said:


> datasafe said:
> 
> 
> 
> I there anyway of getting the vehicle uprated or whatever?
> 
> 
> 
> As I posted earlier, SVTech should be able to increase a 5,000kg Alko tag axle to 5,200 just through a paper exercise. It can go higher than that but it will require air suspension which I think is in the order of £900 or so.
Click to expand...

Thanks Peter, I did look into that as soon as I read your post but they were closed when I rang unfortunately. I was also told to contact the local VOSA test centre by my local garage but not sure that's a good idea?


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## Snunkie

I know we always carry too many clothes so will go through them again. We have a washing machine at the villa so we only need to take a week's worth of clothes for our 3 week trip.

Have already gone through the crockery and cutlery and taken a few bits out. I do tend to think I need everything on board and invariably only a fraction of it gets used. It just seems so ridiculously having all that storage space but no spare payload to use it?


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## Snunkie

We are 3 females and 3 males so now us girls are going to have to ditch some shoes. Not happy!


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## datasafe

peribro said:


> datasafe said:
> 
> 
> 
> I there anyway of getting the vehicle uprated or whatever?
> 
> 
> 
> As I posted earlier, SVTech should be able to increase a 5,000kg Alko tag axle to 5,200 just through a paper exercise. It can go higher than that but it will require air suspension which I think is in the order of £900 or so.
Click to expand...

I'd be mad not to go for the 200Kgs if it's just a 'paper exercise' So look forward to learning the process to follow.


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## Snunkie

I will go for it definitely but as we leave Tuesday evening I fear it is way too late for this trip sadly.


Peter, do you know how long the process takes and what's involved?


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## peribro

Snunkie said:


> Peter, do you know how long the process takes and what's involved?


It should be a straightforward form filling exercise plus payment of their fee. The form is the 6 x 2 up rate form here but best to call them in advance to confirm that they can do what you want. If they can it should only take a few days and they will send you a new plate showing the increased weights. You stick the new plate somewhere under the bonnet, ideally close to the existing plate. You then contact DVLA and get them to change the weight on the V5 to the new GVW.


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## goldi

Evening all,

I,d dead surprised if sv tech culdn,t put at least 250 kg on the 2nd and 3 axle. I t took me about two weeks thru sv. tech but i,m not very clever.


norm


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## Snunkie

We've managed to lose 74kgs more since being weighed. We had 60kgs left when weighed so no have 134kgs which is more than enough for hubby and eldest (12) to get in :lol: 

I haven't packed our holiday clothes yet but the clothes that are in there will be heavier than what we take and I have far too many spare towels so some of them can come out.

I will get it weighed again on Monday with a fall tank of fuel and then just add hubby's weight. If we're over then we'll have to toss a coin to see what's going!


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