Overloading your touring caravan can be done very easily, without you even realising it! It can put your safety at serious risk while also making you liable to prosecution.
If you do not do this correctly you could end up with a fine or points on your driving licence, or worse still even have an accident. An overloaded vehicle will have impaired handling and will impose great strain on tyres, with increased risk of a dangerous tyre failure.
There is lots of useful advice in The Caravan Towing Guide but when loading a caravan the main rules are:
Load heavy items over the caravan's axle - if you load heavy items in the front locker you could exceed the caravan's noseweight, thus potentially invalidating your insurance and making your caravan extremely unstable. Similarly, loading items at the back of your caravan could make it sway, resulting in a loss of control.
Load heavy items directly on to the floor - not in top cupboards or lockers.
Only place light items in top cupboards and lockers - any medium weight items should be stored on the floor and distributed evenly across the front and back of the caravan.
Ensure that items are secured - if they come loose while you are travelling this could cause damage to your caravan or make it unstable.
4 rules - keep it light, keep it low, keep it even, place it over the axle
For more information on loading, calculating payloads and actual laden weight of a caravan, see The Caravan Towing Guide
Motorhome loading
Overloading your motorhome can be done very easily, without you even realising it! If you do not load it correctly, you could end up with a fine or points on your driving licence, or worse still even have an accident.
An overloaded vehicle will have impaired handling (not to mention an adverse effect on your fuel consumption) and will impose great strain on tyres, with increased risk of a dangerous tyre failure.
When loading a motorhome the first rule is:
Do not exceed the payload
The payload of any motorhome is the difference between the MTPLM and the MRO (Mass in Running Order - the unladen weight of the motorhome before any water, gas, cooking equipment etc are loaded into the motorhome, but it does include an allowance for the driver.
The MTPLM is the Maximum Technically Permitted Laden Mass and means the maximum weight that the motorhome can be loaded to. This is found on a plate on the motorhome, typically under the bonnet or on the door pillar. This gives you the MTPLM and individual axle weights.
Then:
Load heavy items directly on to the floor - not in top cupboards or lockers and spread distributed evenly across the axles.
