ozysteve wrote:Guys……hope you are all well.

I have a question, one that has probably been asked a thousand times…..

I have a prado…..

tow ball weight 250kg
braked….2500kg

Now, what do I look for on the caravan.

I am told ATM is the figure I have to worry about and as long as that is about 2500kg, , im good to go……

as I understand it, the lower the TARE of the van, the better it is for me, , ie I can carry more stuff.

Why do some dealers give the GTM……..

Second question……if the van had a ATM of 2560kg……am I ok with that…??? one dealer told me you are allowed a 100kg over……ish!!…..

all sounds a bit flaky to me….

can someone spell it out to me, , in simple, plain English………seems like a mine field for the unwary
cheers all, , ,steve and Sue

Steve, just a couple of points:

The salesperson is trying to sell you a van. They will gild the lily or worse.

The driver would be legally responsible not the salesperson.

If you look up the Prado handbook, it will give you a Maximum Braked Towing limit.

You are unlikely to find : Give or take 100kg.

This is from the CCA web site;

Mick themungrel wrote:Sean please dont confuse people here by bring heavy trailers and vehicles into it.

Firstly, they’re the same inspectors so I’d expect they follow the same rules. My warning therefore stands and even if you could argue your way out of a fine you will have an unpleasant time and need to visit a weigh bridge. Start arguing with these blokes and they’ll find 100 other things to give you defects for as well – real or imaginary but either way a pain in the proverbial.

The correct way to tackle this is to have the van de-rated to below the limit of the towing vehicle

Secondly I have a few big vans. One is 40′ long and has 6 bedrooms with individual air conditioners and fridges. The other is 40′ long and has a commercial kitchen, laundry, bathroom, 20KVA generator and 6000L of potable water tankage

It’s not just my industry that gets around with vans this big, remote road works crews and circus’s do as well

Sean wrote:

Mick themungrel wrote:Sean please dont confuse people here by bring heavy trailers and vehicles into it.

Firstly, they’re the same inspectors so I’d expect they follow the same rules. My warning therefore stands and even if you could argue your way out of a fine you will have an unpleasant time and need to visit a weigh bridge. Start arguing with these blokes and they’ll find 100 other things to give you defects for as well – real or imaginary but either way a pain in the proverbial.

The correct way to tackle this is to have the van de-rated to below the limit of the towing vehicle

Secondly I have a few big vans. One is 40′ long and has 6 bedrooms with individual air conditioners and fridges. The other is 40′ long and has a commercial kitchen, laundry, bathroom, 20KVA generator and 6000L of potable water tankage

It’s not just my industry that gets around with vans this big, remote road works crews and circus’s do as well

So Sean, are you going to tell me you tow these 40′ vans behind a Land Cruiser and travel all over being a grey nomad. NO, of course your not, because these are specialised vans built for a specific industry.By the way, what is your industry? I have spoken to many grey nomads over the last few years and not one has told me they have been pulled over by Police or Transport inspectors and weighed.
You mention remote road work crews and circus’s, there again they are not the run of the mill grey nomads like we see on the road every day and they are the people this and other like forums are aimed at.

I’m only trying to make sure he never has a problem

Just because “nobody has been pulled over” doesn’t mean that nobody ever will get pulled over.

It also doesn’t mean you can travel around doing the wrong thing, or suggesting that other members here do, because nobody will check.

The people who are likely to pull a caravan over will go through the same things with a landcruiser and wobbly box as they will with a truck and trailer.

They’ll look at the towing capacity of the vehicle and the gross of the trailer. If they are ok and they have no reason to suspect overloading you’ll be on your way in a few minutes

If the numbers don’t add up then you wont be.

Reducing the registered gross mass of a trailer is a one page form at the motor registration department in SA and I can’t imagine it would be much more in any other jurisdiction

Sean wrote:I’m only trying to make sure he never has a problem

Just because “nobody has been pulled over” doesn’t mean that nobody ever will get pulled over.

It also doesn’t mean you can travel around doing the wrong thing, or suggesting that other members here do, because nobody will check.

The people who are likely to pull a caravan over will go through the same things with a landcruiser and wobbly box as they will with a truck and trailer.

They’ll look at the towing capacity of the vehicle and the gross of the trailer. If they are ok and they have no reason to suspect overloading you’ll be on your way in a few minutes

If the numbers don’t add up then you wont be.

Reducing the registered gross mass of a trailer is a one page form at the motor registration department in SA and I can’t imagine it would be much more in any other jurisdiction

I agree its good if all vans were loaded correctly and legally, but one van can be legal weight wise on all fronts but loaded totally wrong, to much weight at the front or to much at the back and get to 80kph and start swaying and possibly end up in disaster. The other van may be 300kg overweight and be loaded correctly and travel 1000’s k’s without a drama. Im not saying that the overloaded van is ok, but which would you rather have coming at you.
When I bought my last van the 1 st thing I looked at was the ATM to make sure that my tow vehicle would not be over on its tow capacity. When I picked it up from Port Pirie I used my work ute which has a tow capacity of 2250kg and had no problem towing the van back to Adelaide empty. But I would not use that ute as a normal tow vehicle for the van

Re(Second question……if the van had a ATM of 2560kg……am I ok with that…???)

My understanding is that you are OK with a Van with an ATM of 2560kg and a Tow vehicle with a 2500kg limit.
But, you must keep the load to 2500Kg or under and even with a weigh unit to check the towball weight and left and right side of the van ( yourself) you could still be out compared to going over a weigh scale.

And
A potential discussion with a police officer who does not appreciate that you are legal if you are/under 2500Kg, with a possible fine/court appearance.

Been there/not done that, with a van salesmen with the same spiel.

Probably a lot easier to downsize the caravan by 30cm to meet the Tugs specs, or pay a certified engineer to reduce the ATM by 60Kg and replate the van.

I would also consider your caravanning future, is it possible that you may want to go to a heavier/longer van, in which case, I would consider a change in the tug.

Peter