Demountable camper group

Has anyone here ever weighed their rig ? Especially Apollo owners... (Bookend - do you know if Apollo know the weight of their campers, or could you find out when you next visit?)

We spent a lot of today's lovely weather giving the camper a spring clean and final spruce up, loaded it onto the Amarok and strapped it down ready for it's first test-drive tomorrow.

Adrian borrowed some weighpads from work so we could check the gross vehicle weight and make sure the rear axle wasn't overloaded. And we had a shock. The rear axle is overloaded by 30kg with a virtually empty camper (other than putting the legs in the under-bed storage area), no water, no beer, no bike rack, no dog. It's under the gross vehicle weight (just) at 3000kg so we need to shift some from the back to the front, somehow. Ideas?

Remove the tailgate, it must weigh at least 15Kg & have an even more counter balance weight effect on your rear axle load weight.
I know it's not much, but it's a start

I think I'd call 25kgs plus for the tailgate.
I know my truck is 2100 'wet' and the camper is 650 kgs.
I carry all heavy kit on the back seat area of the truck on a ply extension.
Not measured the axle wrights yet as the weighbridge is in a quarry and every time I've had the camper on its been raining and the quarry turns into the Somme. Next time though..

The Apollo should weigh 650 kg dry.

Thats what we thought it should weigh - 650kg. We're 200kg adrift somewhere then... The camper added 840kg overall.

Can't utilise the back seat as the dog is too big to fit in the front footwell .

Could take the spare wheel off too... and find a decent recovery service

FinAde wrote:Thats what we thought it should weigh - 650kg. We're 200kg adrift somewhere then... The camper added 840kg overall.

840Kg ??? There's something wrong there if it's virtually empty & no water
Have you put the gas bottles in yet ? Which size are you using ?
If they're 6Kg, then you can use Calor Lite which will save you a further few kilo's

http://www.calor.co.uk/calor-lite-propa ... ottle.html

Also, take the rig down to your local public weigh bridge for a second weight just to ensure that your weigh pads are correct.

The weight must be wrong.

Looking at the pic the suspension doesn't look bad unless you have air bags fitted?

Get a second opinion on the weight.

My Northstar was plated at 680 kg but it weighed more than a ton of roadstone. I just figured they weighed the empty shell before fitting it out. Double cab drivers have it the worst because most of the camper is being carried by the rear axle. I like what the bimobils do, taking off the buck and fitting direct to the chassis. If I didn't need my truck for work I would have done something similar.

Ignorance is bliss not sure i want to weigh mine!!
Did notice you have a wind out awning on the roof. I took one off a old motorhome it weighed a lot. Im sure later ones are lighter but it all adds up. Personally I dont know what good they are as if it rains the wet will just come in the sides. Only good is as a sun shade but camping in uk when are you really going to need it!,

Bookend wrote:The weight must be wrong.

Looking at the pic the suspension doesn't look bad unless you have air bags fitted?

Get a second opinion on the weight.

Yes we have the airbags partially inflated, although it didn't look overloaded before inflating them, made a huge difference on stability.

Apolllo unfortunately put a lot of weight down one side and quite far back, and the awning is on that side.... which is wrong as it's supposed to be the opposite side to the fridge and water heater vents so you don't get gassed when you're under it

Weighed it again this morning we think one of the pads is out as it gave 3 different readings - 40kg variation just on one side.

Going to remove the tailgate next time and take a trip to the public weighbridge on our way to camp to put our minds at rest.