My Defender on the weighbridge

[martinjdover]

This morning before unloading the rig after our latest trip I took it to the local quarry weighbridge.

Empty my Defender 130 weighs in at a not inconsiderable 2300kg with fuel but without passengers. In the past I have loaded the bed with soil and clay so that my gross weight increased to 4650kg - more than doubling the vehicle weight.

The weights this morning were total as I hadn't unloaded anything from the camper and had full tanks to make it totally representative of real life. We weighed in at 3510kg - just over my max gross weight and not including the additional weight of 150kg for me, Jan and the dog!

To do a bit more analysis I also weighed just the front and the rear axles which came in at 1210kg and 2300kg respectively. My max plated rear axle loading is 2200kg so I'm a bit heavy here too.

The Defender carries the camper further forward than many pick ups (which is good) but still the C of G is 600mm behind the rear axle with the front of the lower level of the demountable 500mm in front of the axle.

Bottom line is that a Northstar 700DL weighs in at slightly over 1200kg when loaded with water, battery and all the stuff we take with us on a 1 - 2 week trip - rather more than the under 700kg in the brochure!!

Food for thought!

Martin

[zildjian]

Do you have Northstar's brochure weight empty for that model out of interest?

[derestrictor]

Bet like cars or vans they are weighed with 'nothin' on board but a coat of paint

[willyuk]

Yes, we got pulled over in Spain by the guardacivil, they were checking all commercials and pulled us in too. My 130 with the Bimobil 235, fully loaded with water fuel wine beer etc, came in at 3460 kg, without me. The very kind officer let me go when I promised to drop some water. He knew I wouldn't! So I now have learned to be a bit careful not to carry spare water and fuel cans. Btw, we are updated to 3500, from the std 130 which is I think 3200?

Al.w

[martinjdover]

Just done a few more sums (taking moments about the axles) - rounded to nearest 50kgs.

Empty my truck weighs 2300kg which is distributed 1500kg on the front axle and 800kg on the rear.

When the camper is loaded, and because the centre of its mass is behind the rear axle, my front axle loading decreases from 1500 to 1250kg (that's 1/4 of a tonne or ten bags of cement!)

Conversely the rear axle loading increases from 800kg to 2250kg - nearly by three times.

So the front tyre pressures of 25psi loaded (30psi unloaded) and rear 55psi loaded (30psi unloaded) that I've come up with start to make sense. With the camper loaded this also explains why I sometimes spin the front wheels when I pull out of junctions due to weight transfer from the front onto the back axle!

My 130 is already rated with a GVW of 3.5 Tonnes thank goodness. It looks like all the 1 Tonne pickups must be rather overloaded (certainly if their demountables are as heavy as mine)!

Martin

[martinjdover]

Zildjian

The only weight shown in the Northstar brochure for UK spec campers is "approximately 680kg" which also refers to pop-tops and even 850DL's - it must, therefore, be an average figure.
Due to mine being higher for the Defender it is probably a bit heavier than a standard 700DL but I'm sure even with all our clobber and the full tanks etc it must weigh significantly more than quoted when empty.

Martin

[keeflester]

My experience matches yours. We had the 680kg Northstar and it weighed more than 1200kgs of roadstone. I've had three demountable said now and the only one that was comfortably under my load limit was the Tandy Pony. I never got it weighed but it carried beautifully and did not require any adjustment to rear tyre pressures. I had to put 100psi in my airbags and 50psi in my rear tyres to carry the Northstar. My home built rig feels about the same as a tonne of roadstone and rides happily on 50psi in the airbags and 40psi in the rear tyres. I'm a lot happier driving this one.

[zildjian]

[derestrictor]

that looks a good quiet place where is that please?

[martinjdover]

Umm - I was just playing around with uploading photos and I thought I had deleted the post.

Actually the photo was taken just under Goredale Scar near Malham in the Yorkshire Dales - a lovely spot indeed.

Martin