‘To be, or not to be’

The long and the short of all of this is that all the measurements and the weights from the books that we have been working to; what the caravan manufacturer says it’s tare and its GVM is and what the vehicle we bought is capable of towing have not worked out as expected. (Definitions at the end of the blog) The vehicle is fine but the GVM of the caravan (a customized Jergens Clasique with an external kitchen) has been weighed at the weigh bridge today and the tare has come in at 1450kg’s and the GVM is 1495. Which means we only have 45kg’s that can be loaded into the caravan.  Bearing in mind that this load includes all our clothes and other worldly possessions we understood immediately that we have a huge problem on our hands even before we take possession of our caravan

The book says the Clasique has a tare of 1266kg’s with an expected GVM of 1495. Which would have given us 229kg’s for clothing, groceries, kitchen equipment etc that would travel inside the caravan.  The tent and spare wheel would travel in the Toyota Legend 40 which has a tare of 1850kg’s – in order to be able to break safely the vehicles tare must be equal or greater than the caravans GVM. We can load the vehicle to maximum capacity, which decreases its fuel efficiency, but we can load very little into the caravan as it stands now  (I have the clean shirt on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Clive can have it on Tues, Thursday and Saturday.  Sunday is the shirt’s day off)

The caravan supplier, Kempton Caravans  is now assisting us to work out why.  Why are the spec’s so different from those advertised? Where has all the weight come from?

The first step will be to check the weighbridge calibration to ensure that it is accurate. Kempton Caravans are going to weigh a standard Clasique to ensure that it is the advertised weight. We will look at upgrading the axel, tires and rims to bring the GVM as close to 1800kg’s as possible. An exercise that will probably take another week. During this time we will also check the tow hitch and ensure that it is capable of towing the increased load.

Although we left the supplier with our heads spinning we were both amazed at how good the van is looking and even the franchise owner said that it looks like something out of a magazine.

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Tare weight /ˈtɛər/, sometimes called unladen weight, is the weight of an empty vehicle or container. By subtracting it from the gross weight (laden weight), the weight of the goods carried (the net weight) may be determined.

The gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), or gross vehicle mass (GVM) is the maximum operating weight/mass of a vehicle as specified by the manufacturer including the vehicle’s chassis, body, engine, engine fluids, fuel, accessories, driver, passengers and cargo but excluding that of any trailers.

GA or Gross axel weight rating is the specific weight determined by the manufacturer to be the maximum allowable weight that can be placed on an individual axel

From the website  Eyershitch – The maximum trailer weight a specific axle is designed to carry is the GROSS AXLE WEIGHT RATING (GAWR). Again, the rating represents the empty vehicle’s axle weight plus the maximum added load. The total of the axle loads plus the tongue weight must not exceed the GVWR

Your load consists of the empty trailer itself, plus weight added in the form of water, food, clothing and anything else that may be stored in or attached to the trailer. The maximum load for which the trailer is designed is called the GROSS VEHICLE WEIGHT RATING (GVWR). This is the total of the weight on the axles and weight on the trailer tongue.

Tongue weight is simply the downward force that the tongue of the trailer exerts on the hitch that is connected to the vehicle. An acceptable tongue weight for any trailer is somewhere between 9 to 15 percent of the gross trailer weight (GTW).