Van nearly overweight

You could have a heavier duty axle fitted to the caravan. Such a modification would theoretically require an IVA if the manufacturer, in this case Coachman, won’t support it, but that sort of thing is not cheap and therefore only worth doing if you intend to keep the caravan for a long time.

It's worth checking the spec of your axle, many at  or within 50kg of the MTPLM. Generally these are the ones with suspension problem. It's on a sticker in the middle of the axle. Yo should be limited you have a 100kg plus headroom.

As you have found 150kg is an inadequate load margin, my van from 10 years ago had 220kg and 20 years ago 300kg. The formula adopted by the industry only makes any sense if there is a reasonable MRO allowance which in general there isn't. The formula should have been regarded as a minimum allowance not the maximum. Such is progress

I have the 2016 version of your caravan. 

I removed the spare wheel and carrier, the wheel lives in the car spare wheel well. Manufacturer no longer supplies a spare for the car but does the space. Carpets are in the attic.

I have the weight plate upgrade, not sure about the in a year thing as you said, all I needed was the registration card.

Only the two of us, no awning or pegs in the caravan, but if you add the axle load and hitch load I'm over weight.

I weighed it recently axle was 1510kg, which is 40kg under the axle load. 

If I had to shed weight I wouldnt know what to loose, theirs not that much personal stuff in here. 

I would phone Coachman about up-plating.

Its tight.

I weighed every item into the van when new.

I was 15kg ish over.

I no longer carry the awning in the van.

I also gained by removing stuff we don't use:

Table 5.3kg

Spare wheel carrier 6.4Kg

Sink drainer 0.3kg

Steady wrench 0.9kg

I also use a Safefill that saves a lot on bottle weight.

As a point of order, I really do try to stay legal but assuming I was stopped by the law, would the axle weight prevail or the MTPLM?

The UK makers payload limits are all but criminal IMO as typically used many vans will be overloaded. The makers and dealers must know a battery is a norm as is for most users a mover, but there is no provision in their trade associations NCC's formula for that 60 -75 kgs.

It was a factor why we when German where the option was to have far greater payloads, our first was 330 kgs. The current was contracted at 300 though turned out overweight and we settled for a slight loss. Weight ratings were on the options list.

If we left the dealers holding unsold stock with these pathetic payload vans, I am sure the industry would change; it needs buyers looking at this seriously before buying and before being seduced by the more visual features.

In reality the axle load whilst towing will be the noseweight less than the van's actual weight. This raises the question what do the authorities weigh and compare with the VIN plate, the axle weight or the van's stand alone weight?

Using the formula that Easy quoted, which I have never heard of so thanks for that, I would be 57.69+40+50= not a lot.
 

I have seen the formula on a number of makers websites and it appears in my Caravan Handbook. It is daft. My present Clubman ES is the same model as my previous one. The only difference is that the bunk which would be used over the spare bed is optional whereas previously it was included. The previous van had a MPTLM of 1,435 Kg. I removed the main table and mattresses, bunk sides etc and replated to 1,495kg I think. So on paper a 60kg upgrade plus the gain on items removed. Also 12kg allowance for water and so flush empty and hot tank drained gave another 12Kg

Without the bunk the present one would have had a 1,400 kg MPTLM but upgraded to 1500Kg. I am positive that the majority of caravanners have never weighed their caravan. 

In 2012 the MIRO included an allowance of 15Kg for two 5kg BP gas lite bottles, 10kg in water heater and 2 kg in the toilet flush. (I wonder how we are supposed to carry this 5kg of gas? Presumably in a plastic bag!) 

Fast forwards to 2018 (change was earlier) and allowance for gas bottles only 8 Kg and no allowance for 12kg of water and so caravan becomes 19kg lighter straight away.  For many that reduces available payload by 19 kg

I am certain that the majority of caravanners, like myself, have never been near a weighbridge. But the sadder thing is that, in my experience, dealers never offer the weight upgrade option to the unwary. Why would anybody with a full licence to tow not wish an upgrade.

Fozzie, it might be worth getting your caravan reweighed on a public weighbridge and see if the weights come out similar.

Our caravan's plated MRO is 1156kg but the weighbridge gave me a figure of 1109kg. The question is, of course, which one is correct? I go for the figure from the public, council run, weighbridge on the basis that they are weighing vehicles all day long and guess that the system is calibrated regularly.

That said, and erring on the side of caution, I have always used the plated figure and, sad as it may seem, know the weight of just about everything that goes in the 'van. I keep a self totaling excel spreadsheet so that if I add or remove anything I can very quickly know what my total weight is and what spare capacity I have from my 1350kg MTPLM.

Another thing to check is what is actually included in the MRO figure. Bizarrely Lunar include 8kg for gas, 10kg of water in the heater and 5kg for the hook up cable. I never travel with water in the heater and the hook up cable can, if necessary, travel in the car. Why a battery is not included is very strange. Other manufacturers may list different things in their MRO so it's worth checking. There ought to be an agreed standard that nothing 'extra' is included.

The first thing I did when picking up new TA van in March this years was go straight to the council weigh bridge, motor mover fitted and 110ah battery and whatever was in the van from new. Taken straight to storage site and when home weighed everything that was going back in the new van, even put all cutlery in a carrier bag and weighed that. My updated weight plate went from 1840kg to 2000kg and worked out I have about 100kg left to play with.