gold dandelion wrote:

---

good work mate, can't wait for the comments.

---

 If I get time later today I will point out a couple of glaringly obvious errors. Cheers 

It appears that they offer a good service.

The more aware the average caravaner is with regard to vehicle / trailer weight and balanced loading the safer we all will be on the roads.

This type of business along with some advanced driver instruction (or dare I mention, licensing) will do a lot to ensure all caravaners are doing it safely provided those operating such vehicles take advantage of the advice and training that is becoming available.

A great post Ozzie Traveller..thank you.

If the cost is important anyone could just do it all themselves on a public weighbridge.

Of course it goes without saying that you will need to know all limitations and all facts of the regulations relating to your combination of vehicles.

I looked into this service in SA. This is the response I got from yourmobileweighbridge.com.au

Thank you for your enquiry regarding our weighing costs and services.
We weigh caravans, vehicles, trailers, boats, trucks and more, all over South Australia.
The reports provided are very comprehensive and we take the time to ensure that you clearly understand your
weights. We make recommendations to ensure your compliance to all legal requirements. We also advise, where
appropriate, how to have a new compliance plate fitted with increased maximum weight allowance while hitched
and not hitched (GTM and ATM). This can often be done with no costs incurred by any parties.
We charge:
$275 for two units that being the tow vehicle and caravan/trailer/boat
$225 for one unit that being a vehicle only or trailer/caravan/boat only
Pricing can be higher in some country areas
There are seven weights that we compare to your legal requirements to form your report:
ü The gross vehicle weight GVM
ü The vehicle gross weight including trailer GCM
ü The vehicle towing capacity BTC
ü The vehicle front and rear axle capacity FGAWR and RGAWR
ü The trailers allowable total weight while not hitched ATM
ü The trailers allowable weight while hitched GTM
ü The tow ball weight TBM
As well as these, we also weigh each wheel of the vehicle and trailer separately which gives a valuable and accurate
record of how the vehicle/trailer internal load is distributed which has a direct influence on your driving safety.
Please note: We consider the public weighbridge to be of value to the commercial sector but owing to their
calibration increments, they often do not provide the accurate readings required, particularly by the
caravanning/boating public.
Because we are a mobile weighing service. we come to you!
Please call me on 0418 229 229 so we can arrange a suitable time. Cheers Martin

No association with them, just passing on the info, while a public weighbridge may give you a reasonable amount of confidence, having individual weights for each wheel etc can be much more informative for those that know what to do with the numbers generated.
I may be biased, I have a background that involved weighing multiple types of aircraft and also needing to carry out before flight weight and balance calculations on various helicopters and other aircraft.

We had our rig done here in Lake Macquarie last September by a moblle service called Auswide Weighing Services prior to us leaving on a 3 month trip through Qld. We organised to meet them at a local club car park with the van and car fully loaded as it would be when we left home (inc. full water tanks, fuel tank, gas bottles etc.) We weighed in with the both of us sitting in the car and were pretty relieved when everything came back well within the limits we even had some room to spare. The only issue we had was  we were a bit light on the towball so we had to redistribute some of the load in order to raise it, that meant things like swapping heavier items from the car to the tunnel boot and lifting our towball a notch higher in the rack which surprisingly added 7.5kg. We were still on the scales so we knew exactly what the impact of each change we made had on the readings. One of the most useful things they did was to place a 10kg test weight in different locations and show us what change that weight made to the scale readings. eg. 10kg added to the rear bumper took 6kg off the towball and added 16kg to the vans wheels. Just opening the door which is behind the wheels and swinging it back took 2kg off the towball. 10kg added to the front toolbox went 6kg to the towball and 4kg to the vans wheels, adding it to the gas bottles in front of the toolbox was 7kg and 3kg. As part of their final report they gave us a map of the van so we would have an idea what effect adding or removing weight in different locations would be. The people who owned the buisness were a couple with a young family who were intending on setting out on a lap a few weeks after they did our weigh, they said that they were taking their scales and equipment with them and hopefully they could pick up some buisness along the way to offset their costs.. I'm glad that we spent the money to get it done not just because we found a problem with the ball weight and corrected it but also for the piece of mind it gave us knowing that we would be legal..

BB

Might be worth asking them for the caravan show discount, I think it was $45 off.

Saw a Landcruiser tray ute come through our home town this morning with an off road camper trailer behind it and so help me the front of vehicle and driving lights were pointing towards any low flying aircraft that may have possibly passing by. Certainly not a good look, and guessing if he had a van behind and same gear on board he would have been a ton over

Contacted the above recommended company for weighing my rig and was quoted $350 with going to Goolwa ( about an 1.5 hour return journey) and an additional $240 for them to come to me making $590. Thats getting a bit rich I feel. I think I will go to a public weighbridge and try to do the best I can. I may not know specific axle weights and the like but will know if my 4500gvm vehicle with 8000gcm is legal of not with everything onboard. :(

Hi Yobarr

Thanks.:) Any assistance is always appreciated.
I have a pretty good idea of things like my axle weight capabilities etc and these generally are well within limits as my vehicle is a 2021 Isuzu NLS AWD car licensed light truck with for instance a 5 ton rated rear axle from memory which is way over capable of my requirements.  
My primary concerns are the fully loaded weight of my truck and trailer towing the very big heavily equipped cruising yacht when the truck is also loaded with my heavy fully loaded extra high roof hard sided slide on camper which was custom built Beyond unit designed for a VW Transporter Light Truck.  
I understand adding trailer ball weight ( approx 320kgs ) to the total unit weight and have a GVM of 4500kgs and a GCM of 8000kgs to fit within.  
My concern revolves around being a bit of a take everything possibly necessary type person and heading off on very extended travels and just what I should leave unloaded until destination.  
For instance I have 230 litres of water capacity on the yacht along with 280 litres of fuel carrying capacity.
Its difficult to have the yachts 140 primary fuel tank fairly empty or to drain it due to its low down and hidden location.  Regarding the yachts water however I have just fitted an external shower unit to the slide on camper with a long enough hose to reach my yachts water tank filler.  My intention was to run the yacht fairly lean on water and dump the campers entire water supply into it when setting off to sail.  
I am considering doubling my camper/ trucks water carrying capacity to facilitate this.
Filling the 140 litres of unleaded extra carry containers in some very remote location could be very expensive but may be required to keep the yachts trailerable weight down.  
Balancing extensive provisions and long range cruising equipment between the camper and the yacht is the other issue I am looking to understand.  
My yachts trailer was a little overbuilt and is easily the required 3.5ton limit capable but I need to stay within this for legal reasons.

Typical! You upgrade your towing vehicle to carry more legally so you carry more! :) 

 

 

 

kgarnett wrote:

---

"What surprised them (and me as a fly on the wall) is that the tow vehicle only had 5kg spare between its current weight vs the manufacturer's designated rear-axle weight. Obviously that will soon vanish as the children grow a bit bigger.

The van as weighed had a tow-ball weight of 9%, but the owner mentioned that the water tank was empty. Adding a notional weight for a filled water tank then put the towball weight into the 10% range, so everyone was happy again"

Increasing the ball weight by filling the water tanks would undoubtedly increase the rear axle weight in excess of the manufacturers designated rear axle weight so no reason to be happy !

---

 G'day mate

Please don't take offence -- but such comments from armchair experts who were not present are not helpful

The empty water tank WAS IN FRONT OF THE TWIN AXLES and thus when notionally added its 100-Ltres / 100-kg into the grand total it REALLY DID take the ball weight to 10%

Phil

Ozzie_Traveller wrote:

---

---

 G'day mate

Please don't take offence -- but such comments from armchair experts who were not present are not helpful

The empty water tank WAS IN FRONT OF THE TWIN AXLES and thus when notionally added its 100-Ltres / 100-kg into the grand total it REALLY DID take the ball weight to 10%

Phil

---

 Precisely my point.

 

 If the ball weight increased from 9% to 10% of the van weight this would mean an increase ball weight of 25kg for a nominal 2500kg van.

The effect of an increase of 25kg ball weight would be more than 25kg increase in rear axle load.

It was stated that the tow vehicle only had 5kg spare between its current weight vs the manufacturer's designated rear-axle weight.

Thus increasing the ball weight to 10% would cause the rear axle load to increase beyond the 5kg available and hence  be over its designated rating  and no reason to be happy.

In general  I believe  these caravan weighing services do a great job and more people should use their services.

 

Ken