Newbie Alert

edson_bsx

New Member
Hey guys, I've been scouting the forum for a couple of days for interesting ideas and tips. Tomorrow morning I'll be picking up my first van - a spankers new Transporter T28 LWB 150 Highline in Indium Grey. Photos to follow tomorrow, but it's fairly stock - just swivel seats and the bulkhead removed.

Just today I decided it'd be a good time to start panicing that I'd made the wrong choice going for the T28 and that I'd likely be crashing in to weight limit issues - but in hindsight, I think I'm just worrying for the sake of it.

I'm going to be doing a semi-self conversion, doing as much as I can and dragging in a pro once I don't know what I'm doing. It'll be a minimalist conversion as the van will be my daily driver and primarily used for carting around mountain bikes and my 3 Siberian Huskies. So based on that, I don't think the weight should be too much of an issue after all.

I'll post this query in another thread if it doesn't get any response here, but may as well ask now rather than creating many threads. Can anyone confirm for me how specific speed limits work in regards to a commercial van? I understand that in a National Speed Limit area, on a single highway it's limited to 50, and on a dual carriageway it's limited to 60. But, for example, there are single carriageways in Scotland which denote 60 explicity. Do these class as National, and therefore I must do 50? Or is this explicitly open to any vehicle capable of the speed?

Cheers!
 
Morning and welcome!!

With what you describe as a "minimalist conversion" I don't think you will have anything to worry about with the weight - lots of people do full on camper conversions with no problem and still have plenty of payload left with a T28 - only time you may hit problems is when, as well as the full on camper, you also start to add large capacity water tanks, carry gear to cover all eventualities, add a towbar and trailer, carry 4 bikes off the back, etc..

Depending on what you do with the conversion and how/where you carry your bikes, etc., you may need to do something with the rear suspension, i.e. in most camper conversions a lot of the added weight sits towards/over the rear axle, but I'd just suck it and see (there are a few, including myself, that have or are looking at uprating rear springs as a result of this "saggy arse" syndrome!!).

Sorry, can't help with the Scottish speed limits.
 
Cheers @Davenjo - yeah I've been doing loads of reading on weight limits and axle loading. Absolutely don't want to fall fowl of any VOSA individuals (speaking of, GOV website suggests only commercial users get stopped and checked thoroughly - is that true?)

I'll be placing the dogs and majority of luggage between the drivers seat and the rear axle - only expecting a bike or two and maybe some smaller water carries behind the rear axle - say tops...70kg? I'm assuming that'll be okay? If not, it'll be time to uprate the springs.
 
@edson_bsx I don't know what criteria VOSA use for pulling people over and checking but, having never previously been aware of their presence on the road, its surprising how many times I've seen them and the vehicle inspection stations since being worried I might of had a problem with my van's loading lol. On a recent trip to Ullswater with everything in/on the van I had a VOSA van pull level with me and have a good look at my van/trailer combination - he then accelerated away and put his "follow me" light on for the truck towing a couple of cars that had overtaken me earlier - he may of just been admiring my van/boat but suspect that if the other truck wasn't there and with proximity of the the vehicle test station he might of pulled me for a look (fortunately I know I'm now legal and safe so wouldn't of been an issue but had this happened before I uprated my springs I think it may of been viewed differently).
 
@edson_bsx fortunately I know I'm now legal and safe so wouldn't of been an issue but had this happened before I uprated my springs I think it may of been viewed differently.

Which raises an interesting question in itself - what would VOSA do at the roadside?

Presumably, they would weigh the vehicle and trailer, check the Gross Vehicle Rating and towing capacity based on the details in the V5 and if all matched they would let you go. I can't imagine that they'd start checking the weight limit of springs would they?
 
Which raises an interesting question in itself - what would VOSA do at the roadside?

Presumably, they would weigh the vehicle and trailer, check the Gross Vehicle Rating and towing capacity based on the details in the V5 and if all matched they would let you go. I can't imagine that they'd start checking the weight limit of springs would they?
My understanding is that they would check the weight on each axle as well?? Even though I was within the limit on both the van and trailer's plate, visually it didn't look right, and I suspect they may of had something to get me on around carry/towing an unsafe load??
 
I have heard of them pulling over T5's with 20" alloys and checking wheel/tyre load ratings.
 
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