Know your Limit

bessy525
bessy525 Forum Participant Posts: 1
edited November 2012 in Your stories #1

Following the letter in Novembers issue from the Crow family I was compeled to write giving my experience of an over weight caravan. I purchased a 2 berth caravan with an MRO of 1215kgs from a super dealership in Leicester. We had a motor mover installed prior to collection and the only other additions were a battery and the spare wheel which I am assured are not included in the MRO figures, this was confirmed by the manufacturer as correct. On my return journey I took the caravan to my local weigh bridge and was shocked to discover the caravan weighed 1440kgs. I checked with the manufacturer of the caravan who confirmed that the wheel, motor mover and spare wheel would all only add 105kgs to the MRO.

We were left with 60kgs to our MTPLM, having discussed the issue with our dealer they agreed to supply the other caravan in the same spec that they had for sale and would take to matter of our current van up with the manufacturer.


We duly swapped the vans and on my return home again weighed the caravan, this time it came out at 1320kgs which was spot on its MRO. Had we not weighed the first caravan we too would have been signicantly over the maximum MTPLM had we been stopped on a spot check.

I too would strongly recommend that you weigh your caravan because I fear too many of us are towing caravans that exceed there MTPLM

Richard Wallace - West Midlands

Comments

  • tadhatter
    tadhatter Forum Participant Posts: 47
    edited November 2012 #2

    To be honest I sometimes wonder what planet caravan manufacturers live on when it comes to weights. For example many so called light weight vans are descrivbed as being able to be towed with many/most family cars! We drive a Citroen Xsara Picasso which is
    a typical, and very popular, family car - yet it's weight means that very few caravans (next to none since around 2000) can be safely towed - especially if you pay strict adherence to the 85% guideline.

    Furthermore, if you have a family which requires you to own a 7 seater car. A typical 7 seater would be a Seat Alhambra, Ford Galaxy, Peugeot 807 etc all with kerb weights around the 1700-1800kg mark. And yet some caravan manufacturers of have 6 berth 'vans
    starting at 1800kg and going beyond 1900 meaning that you need a huge SUV or off-roader to pull the thing - most of which do not have 7 seats!!!!!!

    Thank goodness, at last, manufacturers are starting to bring down the weights of vans to more realistic levels - still along way to go though! 

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