You are about to go on an adventure up and down the coast, into the bush, or the red heart, it doesn’t matter where. It will be you behind the wheel, and the caravan behind you. But something’s wrong. Do you know how much your caravan weighs?
Caravan weights (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-12/queensland-caravan-owners-weight-regulations-towing-skills/102932800) can dictate how smooth your trip is going to be, and many people are unaware of the consequences, or even the fact that you should be weighing at all.
First and most notable is that towing over the legal weight is against the law. Fines apply to people found towing over capacity, and if an accident occurs then caravan-towers found over the limit aren’t covered by their insurance.
There’s also general road safety. If your tow vehicle is hauling along something that exceeds the capacity of either it or its tow ball, you can seriously damage the running gear. The motor can give out, your tow bar can break, your transmission can die, and you can completely lose control of your vehicle. Needless to say, these incidents cause messy situations. And there are many other ways things can go wrong for caravan-towers on the road.
The process of weighing a caravan should be easy, but many holiday-goers don’t factor in the weight of their belongings when checking if their car and tow ball can tow an empty caravan. Caravan weights fluctuate depending on the berth, length, width, and height, but they should all have their total weight when carrying no additional belongings on the VIN plate or elsewhere in the caravan body. This weight is called the TARE weight, the solo weight of the caravan - www.xtendoutdoors.com.au/blogs/general/understanding-the-size-and-weight-of-your-caravan.
However, the weighing doesn’t end there. The weight of the caravan once loaded is called the Gross Trailer Mass or Aggregate Trailer Mass (GTM/ATM), and doesn’t include the weight of the car. This GTM and the overall weight of your car (the Gross Vehicle Mass) will help determine the ultimate weight of your caravan and car, passengers and belongings included. This is then the combined weight of the full caravan AND full towing vehicle. This is called the Gross Combination Mass (GCM), and this weight is what you do NOT want to go over.
If you’re keen to do the math yourself, Paramount has a Caravan Weight Breakdown article that will give you all the formulas - www.paramountcaravans.com.au/caravan-weight-breakdown/.
However, there are places where eager caravaners can get their set-up weighed. Purple Truck itself is registered with Queensland Transport and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulators (NHVR) to weigh your caravans, so we can do it for you!
Comments