Vehicle towing capacities

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Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

The likelihood of an insurer not paying out is extremely remote. That would be the least of my concerns in the scheme of things

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Yes you’d have to be unlucky as first they have to recover the van and all it’s contents and weight it..but there is the case the NSW ATM.

I was chatting to a QLD Transport Compliance Officer yesterday about overweight vans and 4WD. He said he will never see roadside checks across the board as they simply don’t have the resources or budget.

He mentioned they did one last year at burpengary as more of an educational exercise, the thought was each can they weighed and checked over that van owner would than tell other about the experience and learning, he mentioned these days will be few and far between due to budget and resources. He mentioned they did pull one combination off the road as it was excessively exceeding limits in both vehicle and van, but let the other that breeched by smaller margins go.

I was worried when I was told to take our trailers to QLD Transport. Thinking they might weigh them I put our over the weight bridge, one weighted 2060 (2000ATM) and 280 on the ball, second time over the bridge we were 1940kg. To my surprise they didn’t have scales anyways, a quick measure, an exchange of plates and we were in our way. Although the compliance officer wasn’t part of the rego side he was happy to chat and was surprised I checked weights before arriving.

He did defect a Ute that was in for its annual just before we chatted....it was rather comical watching the owner drive over the pits.

My gut feeling is that it's unlikely unless your half a tonne over. Blokes running around with crazy wheel offsets doesn't much seem to phase the insurers. Not to mention the number of cars running around with ridiculous tints that seem to pass inspection again and again. My understanding is that they have to prove that the illegality caused the accident. I doubt it's worth the while of the insurer to go through that from a property point of view.

But in terms of 3rd party personal I'm not so sure. These things go to court and the lawyers might try anything. Definetly It'd increase your chances of being found at fault and losing your licence.

Personally I'd be sticking to the limit because the law is on your side when you obey it.

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Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

The likelihood of an insurer not paying out is extremely remote. That would be the least of my concerns in the scheme of things

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It’s becoming less remote as costs keep climbing.

If there is a crash and the wrecked vehicle is inspected and is clearly overweight by a significant margin then don't be surprised if the assessor decides to impress the insurer by giving it an excuse to reject the claim and save the company some money, particularly if someone is injured or killed. It happens.

I hope it becomes common place to test them.
There are 2 incidents I know were rejected for overloading around Coober Pedy whilst I was up that way.

In both cases they lost control and totalled the combinations. They were recovered along with all belongings and taken to the Pede where they were weighed. Insurance was voided as well as charges laid.

These individuals cost *me* money. I hate paying such high premiums because of incompetent or arrogant individuals.

I've never been struck by lightning nor have I won Tattslotto but I'm not taking any chances. I have witnessed a caravan flip in the last couple of weeks, had a trailer tyre delaminate whilst towing another car, also had a colleague involved in a crash where someone was seriously injured with his vehicle impounded by the police as part of their investigation...for sure the insurance company will walk away if something's not right. It happens all the time.

As to people not getting checked, a few years ago a group of guys towing rally cars on trailers to an event were all pulled over as they crossed the border from Vic into NSW and fined because of the subtle legal differences in both states. Personally its just not worth the risk. I recently had to move a 110 County about 300km, I basically sucked it up and budgeted for a tow truck, sure I could have put it on a trailer and towed it with my other 110 but it isn't worth it.

I just worked out that when we hook up the camper trailer to our Defender and head off, despite being loaded with every thing we need, we still have a margin of about 500kg under the Defender's payload, so I sleep well knowing that.
Incidentally, I read something which pointed out that, even when a vehicle's payload is increased through a GVM upgrade, the GCM (Gross Combined Mass) is unchanged. This means that, if someone was on their vehicle's payload limit before the GVM upgrade, every kilo extra they carry in the upgraded vehicle has to be removed from the caravan, or they will be over their GCM and still be overloaded and illegal.
Interesting.

In some states that’s correct. In others the Train weight can be increased.

This got ugly quickly. Not enough hitch weight? Would have Disco gizmos saved it?

https://twitter.com/7newssydney/stat...52256's=21

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Originally Posted by PerthDisco

This got ugly quickly. Not enough hitch weight? Would have Disco gizmos saved it?

https://twitter.com/7newssydney/stat...52256's=21

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I've seen a few go close to that but I've never seen one go over. Generally the cause is a loose nut behind the wheel.