towball weight

First of all I would take it to a weighbridge and check the actual weight of it empty. Because if you have added any extras this will bring that tare weight up. It is suprising how much the extra stuff can weigh. Ask the guys at the wieghbridge how to check your towball weight as well.

Next I would weigh it fully laden with all your stuff on board including clothes, crockery, cutlery, water, food and anything else you take away with you. And also check the towball weight again.

I would reckon that once you load up the van with all your gear that the 180kg ball weight will rise pretty quickly. And if you want the 10%, with the 3200kg when fully laden, will put 320kg onto the rear of the cruiser. If you don't have airbags in the rear srpings then I would seriously consider getting some put in.

Also the amount of towball weight will depend on how much gear you take and how you load it into the van.

crd

It is not the empty ball weight of the van that counts, it's the loaded ball weight that you should be concerned about. By all means weigh the van now and check that the tare weight is reasonably correct. However you will need to weigh it when loaded ready for your first trip. All the vans I have had carry more loading in the front (I have never had a rear kitchen model.) Hopefully when you load it there will be enough forward of the axle group to add the 175 kg or so to your ball weight. The weight in the boot will go a fair way towards that.

With a TARE of 2800Kg I'll bet my family jewels that the fully loaded weight of the van (Including 2 or 3 full water tanks) will be in excess of 3200Kg.
If the ATM is 3200Kg then a replacement VIN Plate maybe required from the manufacturer.
A loaded ball weight of around 10% of the total loaded weight of the van is a good starting point, but owing to the length of the van 12% plus maybe in order. That's assuming that nothing except one spare is attached to the rear bumper.
Cheers, Ozjohn.

PS> The Tow Ball weight on the VIN Plate should be disregarded as it's the unladen van ball weight.

To my knowledge the 100Series TD can tow up to 3400Kg with 340Kg on the tow ball, BUT you need to check to confirm the actual figures.

If I owned your Traveller, I would up the ATM to the Chassis Max Carry weight (GTM?) this weight could be around 3400Kg, there should be a plate on your chassis detailing the weight. You need to see an Engineer to get it certified could cost around $500 and an RTA check to make it legal another $250 or so.

Well worth doing.

Peter

There are some varying views about how much ball weight is required.
Some of the "creditable sources" recomend as little a 5%......between 5% & 10% is commonly referenced.

Simple maths shows that the at least 10% concept is only marginably creditable....on most of the big vans if you put 10% on the ball the ratings of the common tow vehicles would be exceeded.

Not all tow vehicles have 10% of their towing capacity as their specified ball weight.

if the van tares at 2800 and the declared ball weight is 180, scratch ya head over the 10%.

Then consider the effects of a weight distributing hitch

But the bottom line is that soo often we are trying to tow vans that are pushing the or exceeding limit of the very generous towing limits on the modern tow vehicles.

here are a couple of questions.
what is the GTM ( gross trailer mass) of the van, what is the ATM ( aggrate trailer mass) and you have the ball weight and the tare weight.

All those are " engineered at source " and legally binding.

GTM + ball weight =ATM.

ATM - tare = payload....how much stuff including fluids you can pack.

All this should be docmented and there should be enough on the VIN plate to fill the spaces.

Remember too that many of these vans we be engineered to be barely within the legal limits.

No matter which way you look at the van in question, unless you are towing it with a truck, it will be pushing the legal limits some how.

You will have to be very carefull how you load it to keep it within the legal limits and even more to keep it safe.


Then I ask myself....how many of these vans & tow vehicles are safe when within legal spec's...AND how many vans & tow vehicles are actually loaded and running within the specifications that apply.

Unless you put it over a scale, you cant have a clue.

cheers

Mally,

You must also remember that whatever the tow ball weight is, it comes off the vehicles GVM.

So on average you will have 750 kg of payload, minus fuel, passengers and any luggage then minus whatever tow ball weight you have for your van.

Worse case 320kg tow ball weight leaves you with 430kg. minus fuel 140kg and 2 passengers 150kg leaves you with 140kg for luggage and personal stuff.

Oh yes.. If you have a bull bar, winch, roof racks etc.... that also needs to be taken into account as well...

As someone who owns a weighbridge and has weighed heaps of vans ect it is frightening to see what people tow around. What we do is to place vehicle front wheels only on the bridge with the van attached, this will tell you how much weight on the front wheels. Note the weight. Then place the whole vehicle on the bridge with the van attached to it (but with the van off the bridge) and note the weight.
Unhitch the van and lift it clear of the tow bar WDH removed with the jockey wheel. Make sure the jockey wheel is off the bridge. Note the weight and deduct this from the first weight and the difference will be the weight on the towball. Then recouple and weigh again without the WDH attached, this weight will tell how much weight the WDH is taking off the tow bar. Drive all on bridge and it will give you the Gross combination mass. You can then drive the car off and leave the van on and it will give you the weight on the van wheels. Some simple maths can tell you all that you will need to know.
Bit of a mouthful but quite simple. We have peolpe then playing around with their loading to get it right.

Because of our weighbridge is a private bridge and not a public one we can only legally use it to weight product that we sell and not to weigh for a fee. We can't and don't charge on weighings. You would need a weighbridge that is fairly quiet to do what we do as it would take about half an hour and a public bridge would not like to have others waiting. If you lived near Bendigo Vic I would do it for you.
Lindsay.