This all started when I bought a caravan and not wanting to fall foul of the law with any overloading issues.
I took the car and caravan to a weighbridge and had them both weighed
The caravan was 1100kg (MTLP is 1250kg) and the car was 1520kg
The weight of the car was completely empty without me as the driver and with the three rear seats removed and with 50% of the tank full
According to the user manual the kerb weight is 1504kg which would include the three rear seats, plus 90% of a full tank and the weight of the driver
After having it weighed, if I had left in the three rear seats (34kg) and included myself (74kg), the weight would have increased to 1628kg, which is 126kg over what it should be according to the user manual
I understand that the car now has a tow hitch which will add extra weight over the factory kerb weight, but not 126kg more and bearing in mind that when my car was weighed it only had 50% of the tank full not the 90% as specified that is included in the kerb weight figure - the weight of the extra diesel would probably nearly cover the weight of the towbar
So it seems that the factory kerb weight may be specified a bit low than it's actual kerb weight
Just something to think about, if anybody has any intentions of loading their Berlingo to the roof with a weight equivalent to the GVW/MAM of 2065kg minus the kerb weight of 1504kg, leaving 561kg for the load
Mine now has a load of 434kg
Also if anybody is interested, my Berlingo easily pulls the caravan with the 1100kg, plus an extra 79kg of load making 1179kg in total
On the motorway, it will cruise at 60mph without having to change down on long uphill stretches - it maintains the 60mph
The only time where I have to change down a gear is when I'm on twisty A roads, where I'm travelling no more than about 40-45mph and reach a steepish hill
There are two downsides though
Noseweight - my Berlingo has the older 55kg limit (newer models are 75kg), which means I have to carefully position everything slightly rear of the caravan axle to keep within the noseweight limit, but it doesn't cause any stability issues with the caravan
I also cannot store the spare wheel and the two propane bottles in the front locker while driving as then it would be impossible to get the noseweight down
Reversing Uphill - Where I store my caravan, I have to reverse it up a 18 degree slope which is about 5 metres long before it then flattens out. The Berlingo clutch does not like this one little bit. By the time I've got the caravan to it's storage position, the clutch is smelling. I can only think that reverse gear ratio is a bit high and so the Berlingo is struggling to reverse the car and caravan up this incline. Going forwards it has no problem at all even from a standstill on a 40 degree hill.
To save my clutch getting burned out and the expense of changing it, I bought a caravan motor mover which has absolutely no problem in shifting the caravan up to its storage spot.
I have experience this before a few years ago with my old Vectra. My son's university digs was on a side street on an almost 45 degree hill and was a one way street and I would have had to go down the hill and almost round the whole town to get back to the same spot, so I thought I'd back it up so that I wasn't blocking the road. The Vectra struggled to to even get moving backward let alone reversing 10 metres.
Perhaps most modern cars have a fairly high reverse gear which is equivalent to second gear going forward and I'm sure most cars would struggle to pull of forwards in second gear on a hill.
Sorry for the long post, but I haven't had a chance to post on here for a while, so I'm letting it all out in one go
I took the car and caravan to a weighbridge and had them both weighed
The caravan was 1100kg (MTLP is 1250kg) and the car was 1520kg
The weight of the car was completely empty without me as the driver and with the three rear seats removed and with 50% of the tank full
According to the user manual the kerb weight is 1504kg which would include the three rear seats, plus 90% of a full tank and the weight of the driver
After having it weighed, if I had left in the three rear seats (34kg) and included myself (74kg), the weight would have increased to 1628kg, which is 126kg over what it should be according to the user manual
I understand that the car now has a tow hitch which will add extra weight over the factory kerb weight, but not 126kg more and bearing in mind that when my car was weighed it only had 50% of the tank full not the 90% as specified that is included in the kerb weight figure - the weight of the extra diesel would probably nearly cover the weight of the towbar
So it seems that the factory kerb weight may be specified a bit low than it's actual kerb weight
Just something to think about, if anybody has any intentions of loading their Berlingo to the roof with a weight equivalent to the GVW/MAM of 2065kg minus the kerb weight of 1504kg, leaving 561kg for the load
Mine now has a load of 434kg
Also if anybody is interested, my Berlingo easily pulls the caravan with the 1100kg, plus an extra 79kg of load making 1179kg in total
On the motorway, it will cruise at 60mph without having to change down on long uphill stretches - it maintains the 60mph
The only time where I have to change down a gear is when I'm on twisty A roads, where I'm travelling no more than about 40-45mph and reach a steepish hill
There are two downsides though
Noseweight - my Berlingo has the older 55kg limit (newer models are 75kg), which means I have to carefully position everything slightly rear of the caravan axle to keep within the noseweight limit, but it doesn't cause any stability issues with the caravan
I also cannot store the spare wheel and the two propane bottles in the front locker while driving as then it would be impossible to get the noseweight down
Reversing Uphill - Where I store my caravan, I have to reverse it up a 18 degree slope which is about 5 metres long before it then flattens out. The Berlingo clutch does not like this one little bit. By the time I've got the caravan to it's storage position, the clutch is smelling. I can only think that reverse gear ratio is a bit high and so the Berlingo is struggling to reverse the car and caravan up this incline. Going forwards it has no problem at all even from a standstill on a 40 degree hill.
To save my clutch getting burned out and the expense of changing it, I bought a caravan motor mover which has absolutely no problem in shifting the caravan up to its storage spot.
I have experience this before a few years ago with my old Vectra. My son's university digs was on a side street on an almost 45 degree hill and was a one way street and I would have had to go down the hill and almost round the whole town to get back to the same spot, so I thought I'd back it up so that I wasn't blocking the road. The Vectra struggled to to even get moving backward let alone reversing 10 metres.
Perhaps most modern cars have a fairly high reverse gear which is equivalent to second gear going forward and I'm sure most cars would struggle to pull of forwards in second gear on a hill.
Sorry for the long post, but I haven't had a chance to post on here for a while, so I'm letting it all out in one go
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