BEWARE

[tedalley]

Hi People.

Well we wens away to Batemans Bay, for six days, a couple of weeks ago.
Lost my temp hatch between Nowra & Ulladulla. 40yo plastic risers ain't as good as they used to be - not happy Jan!!!.

This will be the last trip till I get new springs & axle.

Last week I finally found a guy down Port Kembla way who will test my old springs & if OK will add extra leafs -- if not will make me a new set of springs.

He told me that about 3 weeks earlier, down near Marulan (near Goulburn), that 32 caravans were put off the road for breaching the weight of their vans and combined weights.
He also said that the RTA inspectors wouldn't let them empty the water tanks and they had to put their vans on a tilt tray to get them home.

SO BEWARE - I was told that they did this in QLD -- now they are getting tough on ALL Caravans.

My mate, Peter, who lives just before Marulan said that there was a traffic jam for about 6k's heading south as they were blitzing everyone going south.

Ted

[pisces51]

G'day Ted,

Yeah, this was being bandied about the various caravan forums during last year. Seems the 'honeymoon' period is now over and they are getting fair dinkum about the rigs that are travelling around. The stuff I've seen added to some of the rigs during my travels is eye-popping.

When I travelled around in the 14ft Millard poptop I had, people would ask me how much it weighed. When I told them 860kgs tare, they were gobsmacked. That was about a third the weight of their big white boxes that were 20ft or so.

cheers,
Al.

[atefooterz]

I was inspected & weighed between Adelaide & Murray Bridge, they were a bit upset as i was 87KG above my Tare & well under the 1500KG i am allowed, by 460KGish lol! It pays to have all the stuff in the tow van & even the microwave is at floor height in the cara,when travelling, to keep the centre of ballance low, The 15-35knot side winds yesterday on the Sturt highway plus those nasty wind wakes off the open cattle/sheep B Double & roadtrains, and the way the Arrow is happy with no adverse buffeting = i am happy & stress free driving at highway speeds.

[tim]

You still have to watch out when you put the weight in the tow vehicle, you need to make sure you don't exceed the Gross Combination Mass of the vehicle.

Which weight rating are people being pinged for with loaded vans? There are so many different things to watch out for.

Tim

[atefooterz]

Mar 16, 2015 9:02:33 GMT 10 tim said:

You still have to watch out when you put the weight in the tow vehicle, you need to make sure you don't exceed the Gross Combination Mass of the vehicle.

Which weight rating are people being pinged for with loaded vans? There are so many different things to watch out for.

Tim

Exactly Tim, another reason i was glad to grab my Transit, i am allowed 1.6 ton payload 

[tim]

I have problems at present. My Rav4 can tow 1500kg, which is pretty good for a small awd, but it doesn't have a lot of capacity left after that. I'm in the process of upgrading.

Tim

[tedalley]

Mar 16, 2015 9:02:33 GMT 10 tim said:

Which weight rating are people being pinged for with loaded vans? There are so many different things to watch out for.

Tim

Hey Tim.
My guess is that many overloaded their Licence of 4.5ton Combined Vehicle Mass (ie. Tug + Caravan) why else would they have to get a flat-top to take their van home.

But then when you see some of the vans with huge boxes on the draw bar & rear bumper (one wonders what is inside them).

Then who knows what they have added inside the van.

Ted

[bobt]

Hey Tim

I am going to take a stab in the dark based on what I have seen on the road between FNQ and down here in Mexico they are most likely being pinged for exceeding the vehicles towing capacity and its total load capacity. Take a large caravan loaded for the winter then add a boat on the roof of the car with all the necesary accessories you need for the boat odds on you would be over. Very few people would think to run their rig over a weigh bridge. My car has a Gross combination mass (kg) of 6030kg I suspect if that was exceeded it could be a tow it away job, if it was detected.

We have dragged a variety of white boxes up and down the highway between here and up there over the last 10+ years seen lots of vehicles that would be over never seen any being checked or heard of it. A lot of people are ignorant to their weight limits.


You need to be aware of what your car is legally able to to and the weight you are transporting.

[tim]

So many traps for new players!

Tim

[doublechevron]

I used a crappy old range rover .... I doubt I'll find anything that weighs more than the 4tons it can tow ..... er.... I wonder if you'd get out of low range with 4tons on the back!

I reckon the majority of caravans on the road would be flat trayed away given the staggering amount of stuff piled on and into them.  Some would be weighing in at well over 3.5tons (which is the limit of the biggest 4wds).