On Wednesday we were advised our trailer was overweight by 14kg, giving our new Cub Spacevan a net weight of 1464kg. We knew we were close to the limit but thought we were under by approximately 30kg by guesstimates. This has sent Lil into one of her OCD spins and every single item in the trailer (except for the small and light, already screwed on 12V bits) has been weighed and accounted for (rounded UP to the nearest 0.5kg). The camper has a Tare of 1074kg and ATM of 1450kg (with a suspension rating on the leaf springs of 1500kg), giving us a maximum allowable payload of 376kg.
We thought we’d share our payload information with others, as this is a matter with safety, warranty, insurance and general towing cost ramifications that many may not have thought about. We’re a family of five on the road long-term and know that we are light travellers compared to many others on the road full-time. We have learned that, although we have a lovely big fridge-box on our drawbar which holds our 60L Engel perfectly, the fully-loaded weight of close to 100kg for that fridge plus a full load of 100kg of water (80kg water tank plus a 20L jerrycan) would take more than half of our payload.
We carry our solar panels in the back of the car, along with the 60L Engel, and now travel with just 20L of water. If we need more water, we either have to trip out with our jerrycan to pickup more or (as we have been doing so far), use our Lifestraw Mission to filter creek/waterhole/bore water and fill the tank that way and drain the tank before leaving the site. Our storage is nowhere near jam-packed and, while we do have some ‘luxury’ items, these are well used and well worth their weight.
We will be upgrading our suspension very soon to give more than 50kg leeway. To say we’re disappointed that our ‘off-road’ camper’s suspension almost certainly won’t handle much more than potholed bitumen, let alone the 350km of rough Burke Developmental Road between Dunbar and Petford to get back to work in April, without flattening our springs is an understatement. We blame no-one but ourselves, though still think we did the best job we could with research from a huge distance using photos, questions and forums to gather information. Obviously we’ve learned that very specific questions need to be asked about some pretty key components fitted to any home on wheels.
For anyone who is about to hit the road (holiday makers, short or long term travellers), please consider our information and think long and hard about what you really need and what is really luxury. Bear in mind we have no boat, bikes, generator, BBQ or washing machine which are common accessories for others. We are also very conscious of the Landcruiser’s payload. Since the loss of Boo, we haven’t filled her space with anything else (as tempting as that is), so we aren’t just moving the problem from one area to another. A lucky camper near us scored our Oztent bi-fold table (7.5kg) and 55L tub (3.5kg) and we donated 13kg of toys, books, clothes and shoes. We will be looking to purchase a CGear annexe floor (7.5kg) which weighs half our current Jayco annexe floor (15kg), eat down our food stores and not replace as much as possible.
I hope the attachment is viewable!! This is a current list of items on board...
