RV FEATURE
An overloaded caravan is an illegal caravan.
Full stop. If you are wondering why I would
bet a 12-year-old that I could guess the
payload (see page 12), this is why. It was a
fun way to undertake a serious exercise.
Twenty dollars is a cheap price for such
crucial data, in my view.
Every trailer has a Tare weight – the weight of
the trailer as it leaves the factory, before it is
loaded with anything. This weight includes
the weight on the jockey wheel (or towball).
It will also have an Aggregate Trailer Mass
(ATM) – a rating that species the maximum
permissible weight of the trailer after it is
loaded. This also includes the weight on the
jockey wheel/towball. The payload capacity is
the difference between ATM and Tare.
My Coromal Appeal had a Tare weight of
2000kg and an ATM of 2500kg. Therefore, it
had a 500kg payload capacity.
As revealed on page 18, my payload had a
combined weight of 290.14kg – well within
the 500kg limit of the caravan. This meant the
loaded weight of the van was, theoretically,
2290.14kg. I was golden. Or was I?
As always with caravanning, there is more to
the story. Gross Combined Mass (GCM).
You’ve heard about this before, no? We’ve
covered the ins and outs of GCM extensively
in previous issues of GoRV. It is a rating set by
the tow vehicle’s manufacturer that specifies
the maximum permissible combined weight of
the tow vehicle and trailer.
And so, when loading up both Coromal and
MU-X for a family trip, I had to take this crucial
rating into account, too.
Even the roof rack and solar panel had to be accounted for.
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