SURPRISING INCREASE
This van had two 100L water tanks
positioned right where I wanted them. To
ensure both tanks were absolutely empty,
we jacked up the nearside of the van – it
was surprising how much extra water
gushed out of the offside tap.
The scale revealed a ball weight of 155kg.
On the face of it, for a tandem-axle van,
that seemed reasonable. Time to fill the two
water tanks.
When we sure both tanks were completely
full, we remeasured the ball weight, using
the same digital scale. The result was
illuminating – the scale showed 233kg. By
adding 200kg worth of water to the van,
as the manufacturer intended, we had
increased the ball weight by 78kg.
The van's unladen ball weight.
Ball weight with only water added to the van.
JERRY CANS
The picture, though, gets potentially worse.
Our test van was fitted with holders to keep
two 20L jerry cans on the A-frame. You
probably wouldn’t think twice about filling
your jerries, hitching up and hitting the road.
But perhaps you should.
Yes, even full jerry cans will
impact a van's ball weight.
With a full jerry can in place, we took a
reading of the ball weight and saw an
increase of 12kg. So we can safely assume
two full jerry cans, in this instance, would add
24kg to the ball weight. Add that to the 78kg
and, in fluids alone, we had increased the
caravan’s ball weight by 102kg.
"IN FLUIDS ALONE, WE HAD
INCREASED THE CARAVAN'S
BALL WEIGHT BY 102KG."
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