Overloading - Are we all guilty as charged?

If you exceed your vehicles GVM & need to make an insurance claim you may well find you are in trouble. A friend rolled his 4by & caravan & the first thing after salvage was a weigh in to see if weight had been exceeded. He was ok just, assessor told him the claim would have been rejected if GVM had been exceeded. This
is apparently now becoming widespread, as the insurance man said
it is now commom place for GVM to be considered as increasing
number of vehicles are found to be overweight. Yes they can include the weight of passengers as well.
Solution...get weighed , dont guess, it could be exxie....oldbaz.

It's amazing what some people get away with. If I did some of the things I see others doing I'd either be booked or dead.

Saw`a mazda 626 towing a dual axle van with a tinny on top a while back.

Not just an insurance issue either; if you have an accident and they find that your vehicle was overloaded, especially if injuries are involved, you may find yourself with criminal charges......

I have the base weight of our vehicle and work out a load sheet when loading for a trip, find that works well to keep us within weight and to ensure we don't take things we think we 'might' need.

Many utes can slip in under the max GVM when loaded but it's unlikely a wagon will get any where near coming in under weight unless they put very little in the car & tow a trailer. The allowable payload on many is only between 400 & 800kg so when 250kg is taken up with bar work & winches it barely leaves enough for the fuel & passengers let alone any food or gear.
"ramifications of the overloaded vehicle"......... Have never heard 1st hand of a 4 wheel driver being booked for overloading or of an insurance company refusing a claim because of it but no doubt it does happen. Accessory companies are well aware they are overloading vehicles but at the moment it doesn't seem to matter. The main issue I see with overloading is the poor handling, increased punctures & breakages. Shedding weight & taking less junk will definitely be a feature of my next vehicle.
Cheers Craig........

Whilst on the topic of overloading... I just read this in the Kimberley Echo...

Over Loading

hi all i live in western australia and never heard of weighing a vehicle before travelling . does it cost to go over the weigh bridge ?

Get a C/T .. if anything happens while overloaded your in trouble.
I have a lawyer in the family and it would not be the first time someone lost the house over an accident.

I hope that the coppers will finally pull some over at the truck weigh bridges and check the load and get them off the road. especially the ones travelling 85 along the highway when speed limit is 100 or even 110. As it was mentioned above it can be a criminal charge and gross negligence when overloaded. I guess 90% are and give a damn about it. When you talk to people on the track they are even proud of what their jap crap can carry without breaking down.

good luck
gmd

Maybe ignorance is bliss - if you dont know its overloaded and provided the overloading does not contribute to the accident then you MIGHT be OK

The following is direcly from my insurance company web

There is no insurance under this policy if at the time of the
incident your vehicle was:
6.5.1 in an unsafe, unroadworthy or illegal condition, but
this does not apply if:
(i) the condition did not contribute to the cause of
the incident; or
(ii) you or an insured person were unaware of the
defect and it was reasonable to be unaware of it;


overloaded, but this does not apply if the
overloading did not contribute to the cause of the
incident.

For example, you would not be insured for an accident caused
by carrying a bigger load in the boot than your vehicle was
designed to carry or by similarly overloading your trailer.

This has been discussed before but I can't remember the thread. However the essence of the discussion was that it is possible in some cases to get your GVM upgraded. In NSW this involves getting an engineer who specializes in vehicle modifications to work in conjunction with the RTA to inspect you vehicle, work out what changes need to be made, (usually tyres and suspension components), make said changes and then be issued with a new compliance plate and certificate. Then own up to your insurance company (ours is GIO) who will add about $130 to your premium and issue you with a new insurance certificate. John Bourke at Specialized Vehicles did mine. It turned out that the shockers, springs, tyres and airbags I had already fitted were the same as they required, the vehicle got a good going over to check for cracks etc (none), he did a laser alignment after lowering the front diff to fix the CV angles and the thing drives better than ever, legally. New GVM is 3.758 tons.

Hello Tony,
I am in Nsw and have just had my 100ser petrol V8 GVM increased by 400kg GVM is now 3660kg. It is not impossible. To do it you must show how youve increased the load carrying capacity of the vehicle. My rig has the lot and empty with full fuel tanks weighs 3155kg and I weighed everything I normally cary in the draws and thats 145kg and thats 3300kg ,40kg over GVM before I went anywhere and thats with full fuel tank 275litres. I have weighed everything with my bathroom scales and know exactly what everything weighs and even the camping gear I put in for this trip to Innamincka next week. Camping gear and food etc is another 150kg so total weight is 3480kg leaving me 180kg for passengers. Not much carrying capacity left. Sh..t I'll have to lose weight. Lucky this trip I have only one passenger so I should make it under the Gvm. The only thing I can vary without leaving any gear at home is fuel .The rear tank is 180litres so this is my ace card where if I really want to I drop 70litres and hence around 70kg. I might go back and increase GVM by 100kg. I don't know what the upper boundaries are for this GVM increase are. I am glad I've got it done. I also tow a Trakshak CT hence thats why gear was only 150kg> If you have to carry tent and more gear etc in car that can be another 150 to 200kg.Then you'll have to start thinking what to take.
Now to get this done you will need to get an engineers report with all suspension mods done and LT tyres is one of them and in my case the trump card was the Polyair bags or any other airbags . My engineer said no airbag no chance. Now what happens if puncture bags , I don't know his logic behind why they were necessary.in lieu of a heavier spring. Next is a blue slip to prove that you have all this gear and then with both in hand down to RTA and fill out change of record form and its all done. Simple. My vehicle was technically legal but now I have it in black and white and I am covered > I also let my insurance know of GVM increase and all is good. . So go find an automotive engineer and get the ball rolling . In regards to smaller 4wds I don't know what GVM increase you can have. All up it cost me $800.00 small price to pay to be covered. Hope this has helped. regards Peter.

Hello Tony , Forgot to mention re GVM issue All this came about from a 4wd trailer course I did. The instructor said go and get your rig and trailer weighed and so I did. I wasn't really surprised with weighjts I got. . But now I have it all fixed up. The instructor told me something I didn't know. I will have to confirm this. That the Gvm for Toyota Landcruiser 100ser is the same as stated even if towing something as you would normally have to account for the towball weight of trailer and deduct it off the Total Gvm you can carry in vehicle. I don't know if this is across their whole range. And he also said that with the other brands you have to deduct the towball weight for your Gvm you can carry. With this Toyota you don't. As I said I'll have to confirm this I know it sounds odd. I don't have any affiliation with Toyota this is just something they have told me.
Now the only way you can decrease your load carrying capacity is put it in a trailer like I did. I am so glad I did as far as Gvm goes as I would definitely be over again even after increasing Gvm. It does affect where you can go obviously . My trailer with boat and motor and gear weighs in at about 1700kg and thats just a camper trailer . My V8 tows it no problems on black top and rough roads even steep rutted tracks but in sand thats another story it can get thru but not up any steep sand hills without going flat out. If I am doing any sand driving I would take my tent. If you must take a trailer make sure its light if driving in sand makes life easy. I thought I might pass this on incase you have problems increasing Gvm. regards Peter.

I will .Your right GCM does come into it. As I said I don't know what he was going on about. regards Peter

I agree with the fact that a lot of 4x4,s are overwieght probably without knowing it. I mean just chuck a winch, bar, spare wheel carrier, aux tank on any of them and you're probably 3/4 of the way there! I'd say the problem is that these days the car makers are designing them with all the off road capabilities, but in the weight and carrying capacity regard they are being made to serve as shopping trolleys and nothing more!

In WA now they have made it even easier to change rego over from other states, if you meet certain ownership criteria you don't even have to have it inspected. And you would only have to have it weighed if the tare on your rego papers was too high, otherwise provide original documents to say what the tare vehicle was from new.

We traded our old 80 for something smaller & more efficient, but it would have been pretty wieghty with the dual wheel carrier, draws, bullbar, winch, fridge, fat tires etc. We did have poly airs and tuff dog shocks / suspension so no doubt it could handle it. Hmm I tend to think it's a reason OME shockies never lasted very long on it, probably not built to take the weight, and yes I'll admit on trips we probably were driving over the legal limit unknowingly.
Being now more aware of the issue, and having kids you tend to take safety over anything else. I tend to think insurance companies are catching on to0.

Isn't it true that you can't get some things installed at the time of purchase (like a bullbar / towbar). I think my father in law looked at getting a new V8 toyota ute and said they wouldn't install an accessory of some sort for a reason (probably weight). So you get these things done after market and at your own risk.

Really manufacturers should lift their game and make the vehicles capable of driving with accessories that people are likely to put on them. But I suppose the fact of the matter probably is that 80% will get used as supermarket trollerys?

Just reading the comments, did not see any mention of need to modify or replace brake load proportioning valve, certainly the traybacks I modified this was necessary for engineer certification.

The other very important reason to weigh bridge tow vehicle and trailer is to know what tyre pressure to run

Yep, guilty as charged.

Remember the days before you owned a 4wd and went on holidays in the family sedan or station-wagon? Sure the rear end was low but we adjusted tyre pressures and then took it easy when driving. You weren't not going to go away because you didn't have a 4wd with an increased GVM and/or a trailer....and it's still going on.

When are we going to bring in the laws that say you can't go on holidays unless you can afford an modified vehicle with upgraded GVM? ;-))