Gutter press that doesn’t seem to achieve much!
glanyard

What it can do is bring to the attention of many van owners who are taking a huge unknown risk of having a van grossly over loaded.

Car warranties and insurance issues with over loaded van and over loaded vehicle ratings.

its only a matter of time before the RTA’s around the country figure out haft the rigs on the road are over weight and have a blitz.

Jase (Jo from down the coast’s other half and also a truck driver at the moment) just posted this on facebook:
A bit of a heads up to my horsie friends. I just heard on the grapevine (from a truckie sitting there watching it happen) that QPS and DOT are pulling cars with caravans, boats and HORSE FLOATS into a very busy Queensland heavy vehicle inspection point and checking trailer weights against both towing vehicle max weight and trailer max weight. Guess what if your trailer is heavier than your car can tow you CANNOT move it form the point. He saw a van get done while he was there….; Could be an issue if you have a car that cant tow a float and 2 horses…. How do you get them home? As i spend all day watching axle weights and truck mass I say good on them its about time!!! Do youo know the Max your car can tow and what your float and horses weigh? Apparently they are also checking trailer breaks, D-Shackle and chain raiting and tire weight ratings as well… 


I may have already have started as I got that in an email from a daughter:
regards
Gerry

Thats good news actually and its well over due with so many over weight vans on the roads.

I personally know a person who wont listen and doesn’t care that he is nearly 100% over weight on his trailer rating and some 50% over his vehicle rating.

he has been told by multiple people its dangerous and just keeps doing it

hawkie wrote:I personally know a person who wont listen and doesn’t care that he is nearly 100% over weight on his trailer rating and some 50% over his vehicle rating.

he has been told by multiple people its dangerous and just keeps doing it

He should be dobbed in to relevant authorities. If it was my son I would warn him that I would dob him.

its a friend of a friend he has gone from a very over weight camper trailer to a van, I hope he has woken up to his bad practices.

This guy against advice placed a new 60″ plasma face down on his roof racks for a 600km drive, he got away without it breaking and he is right and we all were wrong. thats the sort of person this is

Hey OT,
that kind of tough love reminds me of a young Turkish bloke I came accross on a building site.
By his own admittion he was a little doodoo as a teenager.
He must have been about 18 when his oldies sent him to Turkey for a holiday.
As soon as he was on the plane his old man rang the Turkish authorities and said that Ali was on his way.
Spent his holidays in the army. Straightened him out though.
Gerry

I think many double axle vans have the ATM very conservative and could have a higher ATM as the chassis, wheels, tyres, brakes and axles can usually carry more weight.

A friend of mine just recently had his van ATM up rated by another 200Kgs just by upgrading the safety chains. He could have gone higher but was advised that if it went higher it would eliminate many types of tow vehicles.

JR

JR,
Unfortunately when they built my van they used what a few suspension people call the cheap option. To get a greater ATM on my single axle van they have to replace the Slipper Springs with eye to eye springs with schackles.

Gerry

Hi Gerry,
Yes slipper springs are about as cheap as it gets but fitting long leafs with proper greasable shackle plus shocks will make the van ride 100% better.

Not sure how heavy your van is but if it’s up around the two tonne mark you may find not only springs will need replacing but brakes will need to be 12”, bearing type will need upgrading so that means new axles and tyres and wheels may also need an upgrade and that’s provided the chassis is a big one. Also if 2 tonne you would need breakaway braking.

JR