Keith Gooden
Welcome back to another episode of the Motorhome Matt Podcast sponsored by www.thatleisureshop.com. I’m Keith Gooden and here’s our expert – It’s motorhome Matt Sims.
Matt Sims
Hiya, Keith, how are you?
Keith Gooden
Fine thanks, Matt. Thanks for asking. You ask it every time and luckily, I’m fine.
Matt Sims
I don’t really care anyway.
Keith Gooden
He doesn’t. Plenty to talk about today. And we’re going to be talking about payload – what you put in your motorhome or your caravan, how much it weighs, and where you put it in your motorhome or caravan.
The Motorhome and Caravan Show 2022
Keith Gooden
I’ll be asking the stupid questions, as I say, as normal and Matt will be giving us the expert answers. But before we do that, let’s talk about the NEC Show, the big show of the year for motorhomers and caravanners.
Matt Sims
It is.
Keith Gooden
And the fact that www.thatleisureshop.com and the Motorhome Matt Podcast are going to be there. What are you going to be doing?
Matt Sims
So we’ve got a stand at the show, which is very exciting. It’s the first time a podcast has been to the NEC show. It’s the Motorhome and Caravan Show if you’ve not heard of it. It’s at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in October. Gosh, 150,000 people, probably, over six days. It’s a big event. And it’s one of the biggest consumer events in the UK.
And we have our own little stand which we will be building as a recording studio. We will be recording some episodes from the show. Recording some guests, recording some visitors to the show, we hope. So lots going on.
And this year at the October show there’s no Campervan Advice Theatre, which I was on in the February show. So we’ve created a resource for people to visit. So if you’ve got a question or you need a tip or advice on how to or why then come on to the stand in Hall Nine and come and say hi and if we can help you we would love to try.
Keith Gooden
And you’ll see Motorhome Matt’s face all around the NEC show this year. As Matt says, it’s the first time a podcast has been at the show and broadcasting from the show. So I think you’re underselling it a bit there, Matt. If you look at the studio we’re sitting in right now recording this podcast, and if you’re watching on YouTube, you can see it here, it’s going to look very much like this.
But the key is that at the show, yes, you’ll be talking to your friends. But we want to make more friends, don’t we? We’ve been opening up the podcast to you to ask questions, either by recording your voice online for us to play out or on emails, but we want you to come to the show. We want you to ask Matt questions, so he can give expert advice for free on anything you want to know about. I’m right there, aren’t I?
Matt Sims
Well, as long as it’s something to do with motorhomes. That’d be good.
Keith Gooden
Don’t ask him about trousers, you can’t see him.
Matt Sims
‘I’ve got this terrible rash!’ I’ve no clue.
Keith Gooden
So make sure when you come along that you come and visit Motorhome Matt. You can’t miss him. He’ll be all over posters everywhere around Birmingham. I would say now get your tickets. But my guess is that it’s going to get harder and harder if not impossible to get tickets. The February show sold out very quickly.
Matt Sims
It did.
Keith Gooden
This one is anticipated to be sold out. Now, we pre-record these podcasts. So I can’t tell you exactly right now what the situation is. But do try and get tickets. And if you can, if you’re in luck, that’s good. If you can’t, I’m sorry. But you should have started listening earlier.
Matt Sims
You should. End of June, they went on sale. So it’ll be interesting to see how quickly they sell out. The show selling out is a new thing, really. For years, all of us have been able to just go to the show and walk in, buy a ticket and away you go. But in February that wasn’t the case at all. It was remarkable.
What is payload?
Keith Gooden
So, on the Motorhome Matt Podcast brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com this week – payload. Now, this is a complicated subject and we have been discussing this before we started recording. It’s difficult to make simple, but here’s the man that can make anything simple. It’s Matt Sims.
Matt Sims
Here we go.
Keith Gooden
How do we make payload simple for motorhomers and caravanners?
Matt Sims
The first thing to understand is the maximum weight that your vehicle is allowed to be, okay, with all your stuff in – your clothes, shoes, bake beer tins, beer cans, gin, all of that stuff, the wife. There’s a maximum weight that the vehicle can weigh. Now, that will be on the slam panel under the bonnet.
Okay, so there’s a number there, which is typically 3,500, so three and a half tonnes. That’s the maximum weight. If you take all that stuff out, okay, you’ve still got stuff left in the motorhome. You’ve got its carpets, all its furniture, the motorhome itself. The difference between the two is your payload. Okay?
Now, where this goes wrong is when people start adding a TV aerial, a satellite dish, a big awning to the side of it, the sun canopy down the side, and a bike rack. And all this stuff is the inherent weight that you can’t take off. So that is all going to impact the net weight of the vehicle. And that’s therefore going to reduce your payload. You’re getting it closer to the maximum vehicle weight. Now, that means you can’t take as much beer. You possibly have to leave the wife behind. There’s a thought.
Keith Gooden
If I called her, ‘The wife,’ I’d be the one left behind.
Matt Sims
Yes, that’s right. I wouldn’t blame her.
How do you find out your payload?
Matt Sims
And this is the key – how much payload do people have? How do you find it out? Well, this is a really good question. You can read the brochures, and they will give you a payload. Now, that payload can be questioned and challenged a bit. Because does it include one or two gas bottles? How much water did they account for when they gave you that figure? Was it full of diesel? Did it include an allocation for the driver? There are lots of questions.
And then of course, when you buy it, you’ve gone and added all these accessories to it. You’ve increased that kerbweight of the vehicle. The only surefire way to know is to go and get it weighed. Now, before you’ve bought it, that’s difficult. So you have to trust the brochure. But there are questions that you would be within your rights to ask about that weight in the brochure. What does it include? Even an extra coat of paint has an impact on weight. So if you’ve gone for a colour-coded van, that’s going to have several kilos of impact on the weight of the vehicle.
So the payload is the difference between that kerbweight and the maximum weight the vehicle can carry. If you lift the bonnet and look at the plate under the bonnet, there’s a silver plate usually riveted on. And it will say axle one. That’s how much weight that axle can carry, the front axle. Axle two, normally the rear axle, how much weight that can carry. Add the two together and that’s the gross vehicle weight. It’s referred to as lots of things, the MTPLM, the maximum technically permissible laden mass. That’s what that means. Did you know that?
Keith Gooden
I didn’t know that.
Matt Sims
There we are. It’s a very good pub quiz question.
Keith Gooden
It is. Very good.
Matt Sims
Not for the pubs you go to. So that’s the maximum weight that you can carry. And it’s normally three and a half tonnes. There’s a driving licence thing here. So without going into deep detail on that, if you passed your test after 1997, January ’97, you can’t drive more than three and a half tonnes. And the problem with payloads at the moment is they’re getting squeezed. They’re getting smaller and smaller.
And it’s possible to buy a brand new motorhome which has a completely unrealistic payload. You get in as the driver and you put your partner in it, and you put some luggage in it and that’s it, you’ve hit the payload, you’ve hit the maximum weight. That’s very, very possible. And the reason that’s happening is motorhome chassis are getting heavier. So there’s more and more technology on them. The engines are getting bigger or heavier. There are more airbags, power steering, and sat nav.
All these things carry weight and then you add an aircon unit to the roof or television to it – maybe a television in the bedroom as well. Put an awning on the side, as I say. This all increases the base weight of the vehicle. So it’s understanding what my payload is and then making sure the weight of that stuff doesn’t exceed the maximum weight. It is really important.
How to weigh your leisure vehicle
Keith Gooden
So how do I weigh my motorhome or caravan?
Matt Sims
The only real way to do that is to go and take it to a weighbridge. Now, we have an animal feed place not far from here. And they have a weighbridge. They weigh all their lorries on the way out to make sure they’re not overweight and they’ve not exceeded their payloads. And it’s a fiver. £5 and they’ll weigh you and write it on a receipt for you.
So we take our motorhomes, and we sell horse boxes as well, we take them there when they arrive, and we weigh them with a quarter of a tank of fuel. And we choose to weigh them with no driver. So we know what the net weight of the vehicle is. And they’ve got half a tank of water. And then there’s a list of things we put in. We make sure the gas is in there. All the stuff you have to have is in there.
We weigh them, and then we know the maximum weight of the vehicle. And that’s the payload. So we can advise people, ‘You’ve got this much weight.’ It could be 300 kilos, it could be 500 or 600 kilogrammes. And that’s how much weight you can take with you.
Keith Gooden
So what do I do? So I weigh it for the first time with nothing in it. I take it home, I put all the stuff in it. Do I take it back and weigh it again? Is that the way it works?
Matt Sims
You could, yes. And that would be a very informed way of knowing if you are within the boundary.
Why it’s crucial to know your payload
Matt Sims
‘Have I got to leave some shoes and some beer at home?’ And being overweight has implications. You are potentially uninsured because your insurer has insured it. If it’s a three-and-a-half tonne vehicle, that’s what they’ve insured it for.
There are other issues as well. Is the motorhome chassis actually capable of stopping if it’s overweight? Bear in mind, that it is possible to put 300 to 400 kilos too much in a motorhome. If you’re a family of six – six people, if you’re six adults, you’re going to very, very easily and quickly potentially overload a motorhome.
So the braking distance can be increased, and the handling on corners will be impacted. And you’re technically uninsured and driving illegally. So it’s really important that you are aware of your payload.
Keith Gooden
But listen, I’ve got my motorhome. I’ve bunged, let’s just say, the two kids in the back. The missus is with me, and I’m in there. We’ve packed everything we need. And I’m going to drive down the road. Nobody’s going to stop me, are they?
Matt Sims
Well, I’ve been motorhoming for 27 years or something like that. And I’ve never been stopped. I’ve read stories of people being stopped and weighed. But I’ve never met anyone who’s actually been stopped to be weighed. And it’s a moot point really. It’s more about your safety than it is about being stopped. Being caught is one thing, but the risk is the safety of you and your family.
Keith Gooden
Because as you say, the chassis might not be capable of behaving in the way it’s been advertised. The tyre pressures might need adjusting.
Matt Sims
Exactly. Yes, exactly. And braking distances will increase, obviously, the heavier you are. Yes, not being caught is one thing. It’s possible you could be stopped and be weighed and the police do pull motorhomes over and caravans over and they check their loading and check their safety.
Keith Gooden
There’s a weighbridge at the Bath junction on the M4.
Matt Sims
There is, yes.
Keith Gooden
It’s very close. And they are always pulling people over there.
Matt Sims
Yes. It’s normally lorries that are targeted and vans. And obviously, if you look overweight, you’re asking for trouble then, aren’t you? I mean, if you’re driving down with the rear axle up underneath the wings, under the wheel arches, then obviously you’re overweight. And that will attract the attention of any highways officer or police officer.
But as I said, it’s not about getting caught. It’s about safety and being aware, and just being very mindful of the fact that you are roadworthy.
Keith Gooden
Yes. And www.thatleisureshop.com is sponsoring this Motorhome Matt Podcast. And I suppose that’s why when you look around the shop, or you look online, why you sell so many light items, why they’re purposely designed to weigh much less than something that you might buy in the supermarket which does the same job. It’s all about making sure that the payload isn’t exceeded so your vehicle performs in the way that you expected.
Matt Sims
Yes, absolutely. And that’s really important. I mean, taking the wooden furniture from the patio is probably not the best idea. But rather choosing lightweight furniture that’s designed to be used in this way is really important.
Weight-in motion cameras
Matt Sims
One of the things that are really scary is there’s a new technology called weight-in motion cameras. This is amazing.
So these cameras will actually know how heavy you are whilst you’re travelling. And there are said to be around 50 of them on the motorway networks. And they have been used outside – this is worrying – outside of motorhome shows. So the outdoor shows will feature hundreds if not thousands of motorhomes and campervans all leaving the show. And the authority will rig up one of these cameras, which has the capability of having an idea of how heavy that vehicle is whilst it’s moving, and then the police will pull you over.
So the authorities are on to this and they know that motorhomes are often overweight. It’s a sad reality. And there’s an on-the-spot fine of £300 if you fall foul of the rules.
Keith Gooden
And they’ll expect you to bring it down to weight by the side of the road.
Matt Sims
Well, they’ll force you to stop your journey and yes, tip the beer in the drain. Or leave the missus in the layby.
Keith Gooden
See, what gets me about this is that, we’ve got our motorhome and we’ve loaded it up. And we think that we have got the right weight in there. It’s not too heavy. But it’s that calculation, it’s actually getting the accurate figure, which is bamboozling me. As you say, you go to the weighbridge and then you work out the payload. It’s quite complicated, isn’t it? It’s not just me being stupid, is it?
Matt Sims
It can seem complicated. It is easier with a sticker in front of us. The sticker says axle one, axle two, and then some other numbers. You add those numbers together, basically. And that will give you the maximum weight the vehicle can be.
Trailers and train weight
Matt Sims
The other number that’s on there is how much it can be when it’s towing something. So say you’ve got loads of weight you have to carry, then you could consider putting it in a trailer, because there’s a train weight that a vehicle can be. So a motorhome might be able to carry an extra 2,000 kilogrammes and be a train weight of five and a half tonnes. But 2,000 of that, or two tonnes of that, is behind it being towed.
So there are lots of numbers and you can easily Google the plate and get the explanation as to what your numbers mean. Or if not, just go and ask a garage to tell you. Or send us a picture of it and I’ll explain it for you.
So how do you fix your payload? Well, if you’re overweight, then as I say, consider a trailer. That’s an option. Certainly I’ve got friends who tow motorbikes, and they don’t put them on the back, obviously. They tow them in a trailer. Lots of people tow a car. And that’s either being towed on the ground or they put it on a trailer, which is far more legal on the continent.
And if you’ve got a box trailer, you can fill that with all sorts of stuff. But bear in mind the total maximum train weight that the vehicle can be. But that’s a great way of moving stuff out of the motorhome and into a trailer and taking it with you. Have a clear out as well. Bear in mind, that if you’re going to take a full tank of water, that could be 100 litres. That’s 100 kilos.
Keith Gooden
Your water does weigh an extraordinary amount.
Matt Sims
It does. A kilo per litre, so if you’ve got a 120 litre tank, it is 120 kilos if it’s full.
Keith Gooden
Is there a recommendation to bring just a small amount of water with you and then fill it when you get there?
Matt Sims
Fill in when you get there if you can. Fill it at the campsite. Same with wastewater. Why would you carry that down the road? It is a total waste of payload, so empty at the campsite before you leave. If there’s a waste drain opportunity there then empty into that drain. And immediately, potentially, that’s 90 kilogrammes. It depends on the size of the waste tank, but there’s a huge amount of weight there gone.
Keith Gooden
And you mentioned before about how you weigh for your business, for That Leisure Shop and the motorhome business that you run. You said that you go to the weighbridge with a quarter of a tank of fuel. Is that something you recommend, that people don’t fill up completely when they’re leaving home and maybe stop on the way?
Matt Sims
Well, the reason we do a quarter of a tank of fuel – we do that with the horse boxes because most people driving a horse box never have a full tank of fuel. They can’t afford it. The horse has taken all the money. And in my experience, most of them are a quarter full.
With a motorhome, our hire fleet- they go out with a full tank of fuel so they get weighed with a full tank of fuel. I should correct that. So that’s really important to know. It’s down to you – how you fill your tank is up to you and be mindful of that when you get it weighed.
Keith Gooden
Yes, so look it up online. You can ask Motorhome Matt Sims, whether you’re coming to the NEC, or you can get in touch with us. And we’ll give you some more details about that in a few minutes’ time.
Up-plating your motorhome
Keith Gooden
Is there anything else we need to know?
Matt Sims
Well, you can increase the payload. So say you’ve got all this stuff you want to carry and take you think, ‘Oh, I’m 100 kilos over. I can’t get rid of anything.’ You can up-plate the motorhome. This is a process called up-plating. Now, that will depend on the vehicle chassis and what it’s capable of going to. Often a chassis that’s rated at three and a half tonnes – that’s done because of the driving licence restriction. It will often be able to go up to 3,650, giving you an extra 150 kilogrammes of payload.
Now, to be able to drive it, you have to have a C1 licence. That’s the key. And its capability to be up-plated is led by a number of things – tyre size. So the type of tyres. They can be changed of course. Wheel size is a factor too. Suspension and brakes, and then of course the capability of the chassis. Peugeot and Citroen make it very easy to know whether it can be up-plated. The VIN number, so that’s the little number at the bottom of the windscreen where the tax disc used to go-,
Keith Gooden
The vehicle identification number.
Matt Sims
That’s the one. So on a Peugeot and Citroen, you can tell what it will go to from the coding in there. Fiat makes it much harder. You actually have to get the vehicle inspected. And there are a number of companies that will do this for you. SvTech is one, and you give them the VIN number and they will be able to tell you what you can up-plate it to.
Or you can get it inspected in a VOSA inspection place, and they will tell you what it can be up-plated to. Now, it might involve changing the tyres. It certainly might involve adding airbags to the rear suspension, because the rear suspension will get squashed. So the airbags should help keep the body up. And they will advise you on what weight you can go to. And then you get a new plate, which you buy from a specialist supplier. And that will be stuck on what’s called the slam panel under the bonnet above the grill.
You must keep the old one there because you need to be able to show the history. But that new plate will be the new weight loading of the vehicle. Now, if you up-plate the vehicle, you need to check your driving licence so that you can drive it. Your road tax, oddly, is going to get cheaper, because there’s a different band for higher vehicles. But tolls on the continent will go up because higher plated vehicles carry a higher fee.
So all this stuff is worth considering. And it’s definitely worth spending some time deep diving into this on Google to get all the facts and all the information before you do it.
Keith Gooden
Yes, get informed. That’s the key. It is a complicated subject. We’ve tried to simplify it for you. If you are in any doubt, as Matt says, deep dive, Google it – or you can ask Matt himself.
Matt Sims
Yes.
Keith Gooden
How do people go about doing that?
Ask Motorhome Matt your questions
Matt Sims
So you can message us directly. Go to our website – www.motorhomematt.co.uk/askmatt. You can record your question there, which we would love because we can include that in the podcast. It’s great fun to be asked if you are able to do that. Or there’s a form. You just put your name, tell us where you’re from and put the question in and it will email it to us and we’ll come back to you directly or in the podcast.
Keith Gooden
So that is the Motorhome Matt Podcast. We’ve been talking today about your payload. Like we say, get informed. That’s the key. But don’t be frightened. And if you want to ask Matt any questions about it, he’s just given you the details. Where else can people catch up with Motorhome Matt, the podcast and That Leisure Shop?
Matt Sims
You’ll find us on social media – on Facebook, Motorhome Matt. On Instagram, @motorhomematt.co.uk. And on YouTube. If you’re watching us on YouTube, welcome. But make sure if you’re on YouTube you hit subscribe and hit that little bell. And then the gods of YouTube can tell you when we release a new episode.
Keith Gooden
Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt Podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com.
