A WEIGHTY MATTER - IT'S ALL ABOUT COMPLIANCE (APRIL- MAY 2017)

Tare mass, gross trailer mass (GTM), aggregate trailer mass (ATM), combined vehicle mass (CVM), group axle loading limit, ball weight, maximum tow ball and tow hitch limits, maximum vehicle towing capacity.....!!!!  

Are we having fun yet?

Believe it or not these are all weights and/or limits which are not only relevant to safe towing, but can land those who are non-compliant in legal hot water......increasingly so if the rumours are to be believed. They apply to both the towing vehicle and the van. 

A very quick explanation for those who might be interested. Every caravan leaves the manufacturer with a compliance plate which details these weights and limits. Similarly, every vehicle manufacturer sets limits on what that vehicle can tow. Adherence to these limits is legally mandated. General compliance throughout the caravanning world is another matter altogether. 

Responsibility for ensuring these laws are obeyed rests with inspection staff of the Departments of Transport in the various States, lovingly known universally as 'scalies'. The battles between them and the 'truckies' over loading weights and driving hours is a thing of highway legend and even a hit song or two.

Throughout the past year or so we have been hearing increasing numbers of camp fire stories about grey nomads being pulled over at highway transport checking stations where their rigs are put over the weighbridges, with some interesting results. Offloading tales are common, and in a worst case scenario we have heard of one driver who was ordered to unhitch and leave his van at the check point until he returned with a towing vehicle of a higher rating.

Despite the fact that we have yet to hear first hand from anyone affected thus, the rumours persist, with particular focus on increasing activity in the eastern states. I decided it was high time that we ensured that we would not fall foul of some over zealous transport official and could drive towards an open checking station without a rapidly accelerating heart rate.

In truth, we have suspected for some time that whilst we have never exceeded the legal towing capacity of the Cruiser (3,500 kgs) and all our towing components are appropriately rated, we may have been stretching a friendship on occasions in relation to the load in the van, particularly when our water tanks are full.

So what to do about it became the question. We knew that some re-engineering could be possible to allow for an increased load capacity, and finally ran down the name of a chap in Gympie who does this work. Unfortunately when I contacted him I discovered that the powers that be within the Qld Department of Transport had revoked his certifications (a long and stultifying stupid bureaucratic story!). Even more irritating was the news that had we been a week earlier he was still 'legal'. 

To compound our woes, this most obliging chap also informed us that the Department in its infinite wisdom had not developed a list of those who were now accredited, merely one of those who were not.  Bugger...plan B!

Let me cut to the chase. Further enquiries identified a firm in Currumbin Waters which does this sort of work. E-mail correspondence confirmed this. And so it was that we came down over the range and found ourselves at Kirra rather than further up the coast.

But, as I had suspected, this was not to be a quick process. Before we arrived at the Kirra park, we had detoured into the (crowded and busy) industrial section of nearby Currumbin Waters where the redoubtable Robbie from A to Z Imports made a preliminary inspection of the van and declared that a modification was possible. Step one completed.

The most critical components in this whole business are the axles and their group load rating. Robbie suspected we may need to upgrade them, but unfortunately A to Z do not do not do this work.

Step two.....take the van to another nearby firm which specialises in trailer axles. Here we discovered that Rod, the man to see, was at the Coolangatta Airport, about to  board a flight to Melbourne. In a quick phone chat he told me to ring him Monday (despite the fact that this was a public holiday in Queensland).

Step three...extend our stay at the park until at least Tuesday.

Step four.....rang Rod as arranged. What a champion man he turned out to be. "Pete, if you can take a wheel off I'll come round to your park just after lunch and have a look at what needs doing." "Done."

Step five.....remove a wheel, a task made much easier with the use of our park neighbour's massive wheel nut wrench. I had almost completed this job when The Matron launched....."why are you wearing a white top?" Good question....no rational answer.  

Step six....change shirts.

Step seven......lift all the van stabiliser legs, loosen the awning guy ropes and the shade cloth pegs, remove the two stay jacks under the A frame and hitch the van to the Cruiser to free up the jack.

Step eight......jack up the van.

Step nine....remove  a wheel.

Step ten.....await Rod's arrival to inspect the axles, hubs, brake capacity, springs, U bolts, chassis, rims and tyres.

These were anxious moments for The Treasurer.  We already knew that the cost to replace our axles with those of a higher rating would set us back something in the order of $2,500. Another potential snag lay in the fact that Rod would have to order these in from Brisbane or make them himself....another potential delay. This was all becoming bigger than Ben Hur, but we were agreed it had to be done.

Step eleven....on cue Rod arrived at the park with his trusty assistant John. They were soon on hands and knees peering and prodding under the van. Liz and I waited with feigned patience. 

And then we received the best bit of news we have had for ages. Rod was at a loss to understand why our van compliance plate displayed a group axle rating of 2,900 kgs. "Pete, your axles are rated to 3,300 kgs. There is no need to replace anything to achieve the extra load capacity you are after."  Not only that, but he assured us that all the other relevant components and systems were capable of taking an increased load.  The only sight quibble related to the U bolts which should have been 1/8 inch larger in diameter. "We won't say anything if you don't!"  Done deal!

As if this news was not good enough in itself, Rod adamantly refused payment of any kind for his time, but did happily accept a carton of his favourite brew which we delivered to his workshop the following day. It transpired that he has been a regular visitor to our winter haunt of Kurrimine Beach... we parted good mates for more than one reason.

Whilst we were delighted with the news about our axles, I was confused as to why our compliance plate was so wrong.  

Then I made an infuriating discovery.  Roma caravans fit the heavier axles as a matter of course to vans over a certain length. We already knew that ours was a foot longer than the spec, but what we did not know until now was that we had the heavier axles and that all the weights limits listed on our compliance plate were understated. Left and and right hand???

Step eleven......replace the wheel and reset the van and all that was hanging off it. 

Step twelve.......pop the cork on one of our best bottles of bubbly!

Step thirteen.....ring Robbie and arrange for the second inspection of the van as the pre-requisite to the compliance report which would upgrade all our weight details. Murphy's law.....this could not be done until the following Friday.

Step fourteen....extend our booking in the park again.

And finally, after a planned stay of three days had morphed out into eight, it was a return to the back streets of Currumbin Waters where....

Step fifteen.....the final inspection including chassis and wheel spacing measurements

and photographs of every conceivable component which may have anything to do with the final report were completed.

Step sixteen.....back to the A to Z office where I parted with $350 and left with the assurance that Robbie (who was in Toowoomba at the time) would e-mail the full compliance report in a few days. Reluctant as we are to pre-pay for anything, we took the punt, handed over the required fee and finally left the Gold Coast rejoicing.

Then of course, there was the increasingly anxious wait as the promised deadline came and went. By the time I was getting ready to bark down the phone, our electronic screen lit up with pages of text......our report had arrived. 

Step seventeen......print off a hard copy for our files. 

Was it all worth it remains the burning question. Indeed it was. We can now legally and safely increase our GTM by just under 400 kgs, a massive increase (I won't bore or confuse you with all the other figures.......but they all work).

And finally, step eighteen.........out of curiosity and to be even more certain of our status, some two weeks later, as we made our way into Gladstone, we detoured via a scrap metal dealership on the outskirts of town.

Here I edged the rig over the weighbridge as instructed, did a U turn in the yard beyond

and came back to firstly position the entire rig and then the van itself (initially hitched and then disconnected) on the weighing platform.

From her window overlooking the weighbridge, the most obliging Ann-Marie called out the various weights for Liz to record and because we did not need a formal certificate, this service was free of charge. 

More good news. These results confirmed that all the critical weights (CVM, GTM, ATM and ball weight...the mass bearing directly on the tow ball) were within our new legal limits and we still had over 250 kgs load up our sleeves.  Yippee!!!!  Safe and legal.....the scalies now hold no terror for the Mobile Marshies in the eastern states or elsewhere.  But it had been a long haul!