The number of caravan accidents on Australian roads is continuing to cause serious concern.
While every accident is different and has its own set of unique circumstances there are recurring themes in many, which prompts repeated warnings to grey nomads and other travellers.
The motoring organisation, the RACQ, says it is estimated that up to 70% of caravans on Queensland’s roads are overweight, with only four 4% of caravan owners actually aware of how much their vehicle weighs.
“An overweight caravan is not only unroadworthy, but also at an increased risk of a crash as both the caravan and towing vehicle become increasingly unstable and the brakes become overloaded,” the group said. “It’s important to remember, while it might be your home away from home, there’s no need to take everything and the kitchen sink.”
And it says they are some simple ways to keep the caravan weight down. According to Caravanning Queensland, the easiest weight to lose the extra kilograms is to not fill up both water tanks.
Figures from last year showed Queensland was the caravan capital of Australia, with 26% of the nation’s 600,000 camper vans registered here.
No I dont but when I first got the van I loaded it and my car and went to a Hayman Reece agent and they did their thing and set my weight distribution bars accordingly….. so Im sure that if i keep things about the same then I should be OK….I stay in Van Parks and my water tanks are empty. I have a storage shed on the Sunshine Coast and when I switch from summer to winter I leave un-necessary items in the shed. I do see many set-up ‘camp’ in van parks with massive BBQ’s, 12v fridge/freezers, boats, bikes, tables, chairs etc and you have to wonder why they even leave home …. i’d imagine free campers or National Parkers take even more as they dont have facilities of van parks available.
Id also like to add that I see more and more loading up the tail with massive bike racks hiding their vans number plate….In NSW thats a $415 fine and 3 demerit points (double in school holidays) and i personally hope the cops come down harder on it as the caravaner who runs that red light is usually the one with the number plate hidden….so dangerous
Just because your Hayman Reese agent set your weight distribution bars doesn’t mean you are not overweight. It also doesn’t mean your vehicle has the legal capacity to tow your van. You need to get your loaded van weighed and ensure that weight is within the legal towing limits of your vehicle.
Unfortunatly most people take the same attitude as my wife, that is over weight is not a problem until you cop a fine, fix it then after you cop a fine higher than the cost of the purchase of a caravan portable scale.
To big for tow vihicle tail wagging the dog when something goes wrong
Not filling water tanks is alright if you only use caravan parks but pretty unrealistic if you want to ‘freedom camp’.
I have seen a Pajero towing a 20′ van atm 2700 with a pensioner gopher on the A frame, tinny on the roof with loader and vehicle loaded to the gunnels and no WDH. How they thought they were within the Pajero specs of 180kg TBW for over 2500kg I do not know. Front of vehicle pointing to the sky and down so far at the back, very dangerous and overloaded.
Why? Because scalies (compliance officers) don’t have the time or manpower to weigh caravans with all the trucks as well.
Ignorance is not an excuse. Weigh your rig and do some research, it doesn’t take much time to take a trip to your nearest tip or public weighbridge.
Scalies do not have the regulatory and legislative powers they need to hammer light vehicles. That is the real problem.
Maybe the caravan/motor industry should look at the weights the tow vehicles are allowed to tow. I am continually surprised at how many relatively small tugs tow such large vans. A van gets a wobble and pulls the tug over in no time.
Bring in the scalies,random checks and large fines.I certainly dont want someone hurtling towards me with an over weight out of control rig.they may as well be coming at you with a loaded rifle.Spoke to quite a few that were obivously over weight and they all seem to think of it as a bit of a joke.Do something about it now before more innocent people are hurt or worse.Stevo
I agree Steve. My tug has a 3 ton tow rating. I loaded all gear, filled both tanks and weighed van. 2.025 ton total weight. Checked towball rating. 300 kg specified. Towball weight achieved of 200 kg. Very satisfied with out come. I now carry the weighbridge docket. Roger
Advising people to not fill their water tanks is not accurate for all rigs. Many vans are designed to travel with the tanks full, they are designed to help the stability of the van as ours is. We have had our car, towball weight, tare and ATM checked at a weigh bridge and had an RMS upgrade and change of plate. Many have no idea, but the industry is at fault as many plates are wrong, we’ve seen tares larger than ATM, ATM larger than axle weight, differences below 100kg. There are too many problems with the industry and owners.
Spot on Lynne. Our ‘van’s plate states a Tare of 1723kg and ATM of 2000kg. with 190 litre tanks and 13l toilet for starters. Had it weighed twice in the last two days and guess what? Tare is actually 1865kg.
Where does that leave us now with a whopping 135kg. for EVERY THING?
Went to a caravan expo last week and one of the distributors was telling us never to travel with water tanks half full.
Either full or empty because the water tanks are not baffled and the side ways motion of the water on uneven road surfaces created enough inertia to put he van into a yaw.
We have attended the roll over of a friend of ours who was a very experienced driver who lost control of his rig and rolled it over. Neither of us could understand the reason because the van was not overloaded and loaded correctly.
I now believe it was the water tanks that was the cause.
Open up weigh bridges and instead of stopping trucks, how about stopping caravans for a while and checking some weights. I know I’m legal; because I’ve had my van and car (loaded and unloaded ) over a weigh bridge quite a few times…but I’d believe that may folk are overloaded. Also, try and get an idea of tare weights on new vans from caravan builders…and when they do give you a tare weight its just a guess because there are so many variations and options.
Up to 70% of caravans estimated to be overweight! Does this mean we have a caravan obesity epidemic or should vanners just try being light and easy? 😉
Lots have been said, nothing has been done.Until somebody takes responsibility and starts dOING something, Seriously. Nothing will change.
We lucky Live in Yeppoon. ONLY road out of town goes past the local dump.
Drive on. He’ll TELL you your weight.
Ticket costs around $25\30.
I always know what my STARTING weight is. Car,van and rooftopper.
Patrol 3ltr.
Tandem offroad Roadstar. You Know they balanced and well built (safe)
I always travel empty tanks. 270kg..
Just run a 20 ltr in rear of car.
70% overweight..?. maybe 30%. Checked several with family and friends. Found two with less than 5% ball weight and one close to max ball weight (mine). All well within cgvm. The two with low ball weights had stability problems. Simple fix on one by moving tank from rear to forward of axle and some internal item like bottled water and tinned food to under bed at front. The other is simply poor design by manufacturer and really needs the axles moved back, not an easy fix. ATM of 2700 and 104 on ball.!
70% comes from police & DOT weigh ins. Many a time.
In Victoria there are two weighbridges that I know of that are unmanned and give a free digital display of mass for anyone that drives on to the platen. They are just south of Seymour and just east of Ballarat. I checked my rig and was pleased to note that fully loaded it complied with all requirements.
Hey peeps. We are virgin caravaners. We’re wondering what vehicle do you recommend is best for towing and why. We have a 24 ft van. We’ve been told, a BT50, Ford Ranger or a Nissan Patrol. Stuffed if we know what to get now.
In all honesty, find the car you love and then talk to an expert about what you will need to do to it to make it compliant for teh van you want to tow. You will need to modify pretty much any car you buy so just get the car of your dreams and mod it by a pro so it works.
Or buy a Land Rover?
Izuzu towing a 2000kg caravan with wdh air bagssuspension up grade heavy duty springs front and rear wides well
We know our weights on both car and van and made considerable compromises to get the 730kg payload we were after, to enable us to carry water off grid. I get a bit annoyed over people blaming car manufacturers and van manufacturers for their weight issues. They need to step up and take responsibility for their choices.
We are fairly new to caravanning but have really explored this weight thing before we bought van and tow vehicle. We weigh at local tip weighbridge before and after every trip so we have a good idea of where we are pretty much all the time. Can anyone tell us where we can have weights accurately checked and receive advice in NSW or Victoria?
The main problem as I see it is people are no longer “camping” when caravanning. They want the washing machine, the big Tv and so on. If you want a palace you will be overweight.
Get back to basics. Use a hand spinning washer, small TV, remove the microwave.