WEIGHT WATCH
A POLICE BLITZ PROMPTED AN ONLINE RV GROUP TO
HOLD A FREE AND INDEPENDENT WEIGHT-CHECK.
| WORDS: MAX TAYLOR IMAGES: MARTY LEDWICH
When it happens, the
news spreads like wildfire.
The electronic bush telegraph,
the internet, lights up with
warnings of police conducting
caravan ‘weigh-ins’ on a
major thoroughfare en
route to a popular holiday
destination.
And a caravan safety
operation in Victoria earlier
this year prompted one online
caravan group, Everything
Caravan and Camping, to
stage a free RV ‘weigh-in’
of its own.
In January, Victoria Police
conducted an operation in
Newmerella, east Gippsland,
16
gorv.com.au
in which RVers were pulled
over to have their rigs
mandatorily weighed. The
exercise was focused on
education, not enforcement –
no tickets were handed out –
but the results were alarming.
Using portable scales, police
weighed more than 70
caravans for GTM, ball weight
and ATM. More than half
of the van weighed were
overweight, when compared
to their compliance
plates, in at least one of
these categories.
“This was just a very small
cross-section of RVers on
our roads during the popular
summer touring season,
” Matt Sutton of the Facebook
group Everything Caravan
and Camping said. “Imagine
what the real situation would
be Australia wide.”
So he decided to do
something about it. In early
June, he held an independent
‘weigh-in’ in Mt Gambier,
SA, for all types of RVs,
from motorhomes to
caravans to fifth wheelers.
Holidaymakers, whether local
or just passing through, were
invited to line up to have their
rig independently weighed.
“It was a huge day where we
weighed 48 rigs in total,” Matt