Fleetwood Sonata Weights

memorymakers
memorymakers Forum Participant Posts: 9
edited April 2017 in Caravans #1

Hi, probably a common question but here goes.

Just bought a 2006 Fleetwood Sonata Prelude which has an MIRO of 1165kg; Essential Habitation of 65kg; Personal effects of 149kg; Opition equip of 22kg; Total allowable of 235kg and MTPLM of 1400kg

The caravan is empty except for factory fitted spare wheel and gas bottle. Am I at the MIRO except for gas bottle? Or am I at MIRO plus essential habitation plus gas bottle?

I intend to weigh everything before I load it all up with the usual stuff but just want to know what my starting weight is.

Thanks all

Comments

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
    1000 Comments
    edited April 2017 #2

    The MIRO includes 1x gas but not a battery

  • young thomas
    young thomas Club Member Posts: 11,357 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited April 2017 #3

    the starting point is the weight of the van, as you have it now, irrespective of any brochure 'info'.

    just weight it, then you know exactly where you stand, not where some approximations suggest you are.

    there is no real point in trying understand what the MRO is, all you can establish with certainty is that the difference between what it actually weighs now and the MTPLM is what you have left to load into it.

    even then, you need to weigh kit as it goes in or weigh the van full to be sure youre not overloaded. 

  • memorymakers
    memorymakers Forum Participant Posts: 9
    edited April 2017 #4

    Yeah that makes sense, weigh it as is and establish its actual weight and not to worry about what it states in the facts and figures.

    Next thing is to find a weighbridge!

  • young thomas
    young thomas Club Member Posts: 11,357 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1000 Comments
    edited April 2017 #5

    its so reassuring to hear someone taking the time (and sense) to weigh their van before taking it out on the road, ots so easy to be overloaded these days.

    i have just changed vans and am now running on 3.5t MTPLM rather than the previous 4.25t.

    this was a deliberate choice, we wanted full access to all 'continental' town centres where weight limits are becoming commonplace.

    running even a 6.4m lightweight, slim van at 3.5t, complete with a full complement of kit for a 10 week plus tour of Europe, takes a degree of 'asset' management. there will be many using much larger vans at this weight who will be miles adrift and illegal. 

    we looked at a couple of vans (of the same model) and had them weighed in a known state. i also knew the weight of every item that came out of the previous van so that i was able to be confident about what our maximum weight, including water, fuel, OH, etc, etc would be.

    i weighed the van fully loaded a couple of weeks ago and was within 20kg of my 'calculated' estimate.

    in actual fact, the brochure figures werent far out but i wanted to be sure about the 'actual' van were were using....

    good luck.

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