One of the most impractical things about motorhomes is that you can't pack much into them. Our motorhome was originally equipped with a huge cargo area, where you can fit a motorbike (or two). However, the motorcycles have to be made of polystyrene. The weight limits mean that in many motorhomes you can hardly pack anything...
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ShareService weight and total weight
The two concepts of kerb weight and total weight can be described as follows:
- Service weight = Vehicle weight including full fresh water tank, empty waste water tank, diesel and driver
- Total weight = What the car can weigh including everything (people, animals, liquids, cargo).
The difference between these two is what you can load into the car. In our case, we have an operating weight of 3160 kg and a total weight of 3500 kg. This means we can load 340kg. This includes people, animals, food, drinks, mattresses, bedding, clothes, kitchen equipment, books and tools, but also accessories installed after the purchase, such as an awning, AC, solar panels, music system, electrical system, microwave oven or whatever.
It goes without saying that it's almost hopeless... In order to reduce the excess weight somewhat, we're thinking of leaving the following at home this summer: the generator and its petrol canister + the towbar. How do you do it?
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Maggan says:
How right you are....I don't think there are many people with a load weight of 3500 kg who travel legally. And you can wonder why it should be such a low load weight, you actually have to carry some luggage, even if you were to eat out every day. That was one of the reasons we changed our car. Now we can load 540kg and that's enough for us.
13 April 2010 - 8:41
peter olofsson says:
My God what worries! (smiles) As a Viking, we don't give a damn about such things, at least 500 kilos overweight we drive with all the time!
Not much to do about it, my wife and daughter do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to luggage!
A few thousand pounds in fines sometimes! Not much to do about it! I tell the whole family to go to the loo before we leave, and we always drill little holes in our toothbrushes, just like on the space shuttles!
No, I was stupid!
It's an important problem you highlight, but internationally, what I saw on some foreign motorhome sites shows that "checkpoints" in Europe have decreased, everyone knows that basically all "normal type" motorhomes like yours and ours that are 3.5 tonnes are a bit overweight!
But it does feel a little insecure to have to pay a fine, and to try to get rid of what is "overweight"!
My mother-in-law who is Danish and sometimes goes there, you can always "throw off" so she gets to take the train instead, the aunt plus packing harms on a round of 150 kilos, so there we always have some weight savings! (smiles)
I've actually just done a little "motorhome post" myself today!
Have a nice day!
Hugs from Peter!
13 April 2010 - 9:05
Ninny says:
Yes, that's a problem! We also have to load too little!!! That is a big disadvantage! But at some point we will get a newer car - is the idea, but surely Rulla-Bärra if his heart can only cope 😉 will have to hang on for another year ... they cost a little money these cars!
13 April 2010 - 10:52
The camper van says:
Last year we weighted our motorhome to a total weight of 3,800 kg, but it was complicated and would probably have been expensive too if we didn't have a son who works as a lorry driver and who also has a penchant for car scrapyards. We were forced to change the front axle, but it was found at a scrapyard, the change was made by a Mercedes workshop and the certificate was written by the Mercedes general agent in Malmö. Then only a re-inspection was needed. A little more expensive tax and insurance, too.
The reason we made sure that the total weight was higher was because when we weighed our car with a full load, we realised that with the C licence that my husband has, the fine would have been around SEK 20,000 and you can have a lot of fun for this money.
I've tried to slim down our equipment as much as possible and sometimes some of it is missing, but what you don't do to get some good sovernirs.
13 April 2010 - 11:29
Catherine says:
Had to check ours, we have a service weight of 3310 and total weight of 4000 so then we should perhaps be able to bring everything we need to Croatia this summer...? 🙂 (I hope, who is afraid of cops ;D )What is the reason for the difference, you might think that our motorhomes weigh about the same...? Or does ours belong to a different weight class?
13 April 2010 - 12:29
admin says:
We understand that we are not alone in this problem!
Motorhome, interesting that you managed to get your total weight up! We tried the same thing last year, but it seemed like we had the wrong chassis for it to be possible....
Katarina, it sounds like you can load a lot! Be happy about that! We're not experts, but yes, there are different weight classes. There are also motorhomes with a higher total weight than 4000. Some motorhomes can be "remodelled" to a new weight class, but as I said, they have to be built for it and have the right chassis...
Now, in retrospect, this is one piece of advice we would definitely give to anyone buying a motorhome: check that the load weight is not too low! When we bought a motorhome, this was not something we thought about at all....
13 April 2010 - 19:14
Vicky (the expat mum) says:
Wow, 340 kg is nothing. Fortunately, at least the water and sewage tank is included in the service weight. We rented a motorhome for two years and we had no control over this then! Now we didn't have big things like a microphone because it was a rental car - but 3 bicycles. One can wonder why you market that motorhomes have a motorcycle "garage" (you see it a lot in the advertising here in Italy anyway) if it is hardly possible to load a motorcycle under the weight limit ... Important to consider if we repeat our adventure 🙂.
14 April 2010 - 9:31
admin says:
Vicky, no, you don't know the weight of the load in the beginning! And sellers and renters have no desire to tell you either ...
It is absolutely crazy that many motorhomes are marketed with their garages. It is certainly possible to load motorbikes in some larger motorhomes with greater load weights, but it is obvious that this limits what you can otherwise pack...
14 April 2010 - 18:27
roberth says:
There is a company in Kolbäck called Probe that builds motorhomes with garages if you are involved in motorsport, dogs or just need a motorhome with a good load weight and a garage.
You can contact
12 August 2014 - 13:21