| WORDS: MAX TAYLOR

How legitimate is your van’ s payload capacity? Just as importantly, how realistic is it? First, let’ s define the term‘ payload’. Essentially, payload is the gear you pack, including the water you put in your van’ s tanks and the gas in its cylinders, as well as the food in the fridge – everything that wasn’ t on or in the van when it rolled out of the factory door shortly after being weighed. Payload also refers to the weight of all that gear. It is the difference between the van’ s Tare weight and Aggregate Trailer Mass( the total permissible weight of the van, stipulated by the manufacturer). If you’ ve been around the RV scene for a while, you’ d know that for many years a 300kg difference between Tare and ATM for a single-axle van and 400kg for a tandem-axle rig was the industry standard. This was commonly accepted. But is 400kg( or 300kg) enough for modern caravans? Frankly, it’ s almost impossible to give a blanket assessment as we all travel differently. If you pack a generator, or perhaps you’ ve fitted a second battery, solar panels and the like, then it’ s probably not enough. But if you travel fairly light, and your van doesn’ t have more than 100L of onboard water storage, then it’ s probably okay. It’ s equally important that you understand your payload and that you do not exceed it.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

The issue of payload is closely tied to another big question, one that’ s passionately debated in online forums. Are Tare weights accurately reflected on caravans’ compliance plates? The bottom line is, without an accurate Tare figure as a starting point, the payload allowance is impossible to calculate. It is the manufacturer’ s responsibility to accurately describe this figure. And any reputable manufacturer will do so – it’ s not in their interest to obfuscate on this front. The issue becomes a little clouded, though, when talking about dealer-added options, which won’ t be included in the Tare and will have to be counted as payload. Some dealers, however, such as Canterbury Caravans in Bayswater, Vic, will work closely with a manufacturer to have certain optional features added at the factory, where they will be incorporated into the Tare figure. This is the preferred way to have options fitted to a new van, at the factory and factored into the van’ s unladen weight. When buying a van with extra features from a dealer, find out if these features were added by the dealer after the van arrived at its yard, or if they were fitted at the factory, before the van was weighed for Tare. It’ s possible the dealer has added some accessories as part of an overall sales package to make the van more enticing to buyers. Calculating a van’ s useable payload becomes more difficult if the van is secondhand. Who knows how many

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