For the last few weeks we have been going through the excercise of setting up our new van for an extended trip. My wife reckons that I am paranoid about weights so for peace of mind we decided to engage a company called Auswide Weighing Services to check 1) we are legal 2) our load is balanced correctly. Prior to the weigh in we loaded both the Jeep GC and the van as it will be when we hit the road and that included clothing, food, full gas bottles, water tanks, full fuel tank, annexe, chairs, tables, Baby Q and everything else that we will be carrying with us in either the car or the van. When we weighed in we both had to sit in the car - unfortuantely my side was heavier than hers by the difference in our body weights which she was pretty quick to highlight . After all the measurements were in the box they showed us by using a 10kg test weight the impact of adding or removing weight to different locations and what % of that 10kg went on (or off) the towball/the vans wheels. As a demonstration to show us just how much impact adding loads behind the back wheels can have they swung the vans rear entry door open onto its stops the towball weight reduced by 2kg and the weight on the vans wheels increased.. I am waiting for the full report to be sent through but we actually faired a lot better than I thought I was picturing us having to come up with a list of what we were going to leave behind.. According to the results we are well within our limits on the van, the car , the GCM and all of the axle loadings.. The only issue we had was that it was a bit light on the towball and could have done with another 20 - 30kg. After inspecting our loading they gave us advice on how to relocate certain things in order to give us the extra weight that we needed .. Now if we are stopped somewhere for a weight check or (touch wood) need to make an insurance claim I'm pretty confident that we wont have too much to worry about. IMHO it was well worth the $350 investment and 3 hours of our time that it took to get it done...
I was very pleased with their thoroughness and the time that they took explaining things to us. The owners are a young couple who are about to hit the road in their own van with 2 small kids and their equipment in tow. If you happen to see Auswide Weighing Services out there and are looking to get your rig weighed I can fully recommend their service.. Attached is a diagram that they gave to us on the change a 10kg test weight made when put at different locations in our van.
unfortuantely my side was heavier than hers by the difference in our body weights which she was pretty quick to highlight .
Does she have enough mass to loosen wheel nuts. It's weight & not strength!
gold dandelion said
09:59 PM Sep 5, 2022
Oh No. here we go, can't wait'
gold dandelion said
10:04 PM Sep 5, 2022
Oh No. here we go, can't wait'
yobarr said
02:43 PM Sep 6, 2022
Great to see that you're taking your weights seriously, and the summary you've been provided with seems to comprehensively cover many issues. The one that I think members should take particular notice of is the 160% increase in weight applied to the van's axle group by items hung on the back bumper, which means that as well as increasing yaw a 30kg spare wheel puts 48kg onto the van's axle group, with the extra 18kg coming off the towball weight. Seesaw effect. Not good. Important to keep weight as central as possible. Cheers
For the last few weeks we have been going through the excercise of setting up our new van for an extended trip. My wife reckons that I am paranoid about weights so for peace of mind we decided to engage a company called Auswide Weighing Services to check 1) we are legal 2) our load is balanced correctly. Prior to the weigh in we loaded both the Jeep GC and the van as it will be when we hit the road and that included clothing, food, full gas bottles, water tanks, full fuel tank, annexe, chairs, tables, Baby Q and everything else that we will be carrying with us in either the car or the van. When we weighed in we both had to sit in the car - unfortuantely my side was heavier than hers by the difference in our body weights which she was pretty quick to highlight
. After all the measurements were in the box they showed us by using a 10kg test weight the impact of adding or removing weight to different locations and what % of that 10kg went on (or off) the towball/the vans wheels. As a demonstration to show us just how much impact adding loads behind the back wheels can have they swung the vans rear entry door open onto its stops the towball weight reduced by 2kg and the weight on the vans wheels increased.. I am waiting for the full report to be sent through but we actually faired a lot better than I thought I was picturing us having to come up with a list of what we were going to leave behind.. According to the results we are well within our limits on the van, the car , the GCM and all of the axle loadings.. The only issue we had was that it was a bit light on the towball and could have done with another 20 - 30kg. After inspecting our loading they gave us advice on how to relocate certain things in order to give us the extra weight that we needed .. Now if we are stopped somewhere for a weight check or (touch wood) need to make an insurance claim I'm pretty confident that we wont have too much to worry about. IMHO it was well worth the $350 investment and 3 hours of our time that it took to get it done...
I was very pleased with their thoroughness and the time that they took explaining things to us. The owners are a young couple who are about to hit the road in their own van with 2 small kids and their equipment in tow. If you happen to see Auswide Weighing Services out there and are looking to get your rig weighed I can fully recommend their service.. Attached is a diagram that they gave to us on the change a 10kg test weight made when put at different locations in our van.
BB
Does she have enough mass to loosen wheel nuts. It's weight & not strength!