How we went about uplating our Rapido A Class

Lorryman100

Lorryman100

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Rapido A class
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27/11/2015
Thought I would do a post on how easy it was to up plate our new Rapido A Class for anyone else thinking of going through the process. Firstly when we were looking to purchase our first motorhome I was concious to keep the weight at 3500kg as I knew there was scope to up plate them. Our thinking at the time was that as we are still in our 40's this won't be our last motorhome so when it came time to sell I wanted the option of returning it to 3500Kg to help with the sale as not everyone has a C1 licence or is under 70 should the need arise.

So to start the ball rolling I knew there were a couple of options in who I used but in the end went with SVTech as it was hassle free, I gave them a call and spoke to a gent called Steve. Steve asked a few questions about the MoHo and said that I could up plate it to 3850kg's. I thought great and said I would like to go ahead with the uprated weight. Steve then explained that I need to fill in and email to him the conversion form 4x2 located on the SVTech website, attach a picture of the fitted weight plates, attach a scanned copy of the second page of the V5 document and as I had VB air assist suspension fitted to include a copy of the fitting receipt. This took about 30 minutes to compile and I emailed this off to him. 2 days later I received an invoice for £312 which I paid through BACS and the next day I received the converters certificate, new weight plate and a form V70 to change the vehicle tax rate and complete instructions on what to fill out on the V5 and V70 document prior to sending of to the DVLA. The DVLA also require a copy of the vehicle insurance certificate.

I was further informed that as I had VB air assist fitted that if I changed the rear tyres to 225/70R15 with a load rating of 112 SVTech would uprate the rear axle to 2240kg for free if I got it done within a year from the original invoice date.

Original Fiat plate showing 3850kg, front axle 1850kg and rear 2000kg.

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New weight plate fitted

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Still not received the V5 back from DVLA yet but did check the MoHo on the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry website and it shows the new revenue weight of 3850kg. https://www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/

Weight%20snip.jpg



All in took about an hour of my time to complete all the paperwork for SVTech and DVLA with the result of an extra 350kgs of load with the option to increase the rear axle by a further 240kgs. For what it is worth the experience and out come was well worth the £312 plus the price of postage to send the paperwork to the DVLA, well happy now as I was running at 3450kg fully packed and loaded with 50 litres of water, Elaine and Daisy the cocker and a full fuel tank without me in the driving seat at the weighbridge. P.S. I weigh a lot more than 50kgs!!!!
 
I used SVtech as well and had a similarly good service.

I know it's possible to get it done cheaper but needs a lot more input and effort on your part.

Personally it's worth £300 to me for someone else to do it so if I ever need to do it again in the future I'll be straight back to SVTech without a second thought. (y)
 
Got it Vic, only 6 weeks to go. :Grin::sun::Grin::pop:

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NickNic said:
I used SVtech as well and had a similarly good service.

I know it's possible to get it done cheaper but needs a lot more input and effort on your part.

Personally it's worth £300 to me for someone else to do it so if I ever need to do it again in the future I'll be straight back to SVTech without a second thought. (y)
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I doesn't need a lot more input/effort Nick to use the chap I did - I had spent a fair bit of time researching WHO could do it, rather than just go via the SVTech route, and it was this research that took the time.

Once I had the details of the chap I was told I could use instead, I just rang him to check it out and see what he needed, the it was a very simple matter of supplying him with the photos of the weight plate, number plate/van, and scanned copies of our existing paperwork, which he needed (same as SVTech) ... didn't take long at all to do this.

It only cost me £76, so a good saving!
 
Minxy Girl said:
Once I had the details of the chap I was told I could use instead, I just rang him to check it out and see what he needed, the it was a very simple matter of supplying him with the photos of the weight plate, number plate/van, and scanned copies of our existing paperwork, which he needed (same as SVTech) ... didn't take long at all to do this.
Click to expand...

I didn't have to faff around with any of that. All SV needed was the one page A4 form filling in from their website. Took all of a minute and a half. They didn't want or need anything else. The saving (£234?) isn't worth the time for me (y)
 
Minxy Girl said:
Once I had the details of the chap I was told I could use instead, I just rang him to check it out and see what he needed, the it was a very simple matter of supplying him with the photos of the weight plate, number plate/van, and scanned copies of our existing paperwork, which he needed (same as SVTech) ... didn't take long at all to do this.

It only cost me £76, so a good saving!
Click to expand...

care to share the contact details of this chap Mel ?

.. not for me personally, but others may be interested..

I may be interested in down plating when I reach 70 :LOL:
 
NickNic said:
I didn't have to faff around with any of that. All SV needed was the one page A4 form filling in from their website. Took all of a minute and a half. They didn't want or need anything else. The saving (£234?) isn't worth the time for me (y)[/QUOTE

Looks like Lorryman process was similar to Minxy Girl, he also need photos of the weight plate and a copy of the V5. So maybe the process if different depending on the vehicle.
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I'm still surprised that you only get a self adhesive label for all that money

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Minxy Girl said:
I doesn't need a lot more input/effort Nick to use the chap I did - I had spent a fair bit of time researching WHO could do it, rather than just go via the SVTech route, and it was this research that took the time.

Once I had the details of the chap I was told I could use instead, I just rang him to check it out and see what he needed, the it was a very simple matter of supplying him with the photos of the weight plate, number plate/van, and scanned copies of our existing paperwork, which he needed (same as SVTech) ... didn't take long at all to do this.

It only cost me £76, so a good saving!
Click to expand...

I would also be interested in the details of the chap you used,I can up mine to 5.3t. Not sure where I stand at present as the vehicle is plated at 5t but when I registered it at DVLA Glasgow after importing it,they have put the weight at 5.3t on the V5.
 
If you can post up the details again Minxy, I could recheck the E-Mail address. I e-mailed your guy last weekend but up to 10 min ago have no response?

Thanks

Pete
 
PeteH said:
If you can post up the details again Minxy, I could recheck the E-Mail address. I e-mailed your guy last weekend but up to 10 min ago have no response?

Thanks

Pete
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He's got a new email address (his old one was hacked): truckcon@outlook.com

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@Lorryman100 I'm a bit lost as you said at the start that it was 3500kgs, yet the original Fiat plate is 3650Kgs ? & it has been uprated to 3850kgs.
 
gus-lopez said:
@Lorryman100 I'm a bit lost as you said at the start that it was 3500kgs, yet the original Fiat plate is 3650Kgs ? & it has been uprated to 3850kgs.
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Hi.

I may have the answer (partly) to that. If you go to.

http://www.al-ko.co.uk/edit/files/downloads/al-ko-amc-commercial-brochure-2010.pdf (page 12)

And look down the list Under Model you see the Typ as on the ALKO sticker. (say) 37L. which is 3700kg Permissible weight.

Likewise for 38L it is 3850kg. The 35L is 3500kg. therefore it would be OK to take a 3500kg chassis to 3850kg providing the ALKO sticker was 38L.

Pete
 
gus-lopez said:
@Lorryman100 I'm a bit lost as you said at the start that it was 3500kgs, yet the original Fiat plate is 3650Kgs ? & it has been uprated to 3850kgs.
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The revenue weight was 3500kg meaning anyone with a car licence can drive it, which is why it was plated at 3500kgs when first registered as I wanted it plated at that weight, read my explanation at the start of the thread for the reason. The Fiat chassis plate shows a GVM as 3850kg as this is the designed maximum weight, the MoHo was registered new with DVLA at 3500kgs and I uprated the revenue weight to the design weight of 3850kg which is a paper exercise as no modifications need to be carried out as that is the manufacturers plated maximum weight. Don't confuse revenue weight ( shown on V5, road tax rate ) with the actual design weight displayed on a MoHo weight plate. The next upgrade is to add another 240kg by up plating the rear axle which requires modifications for the converter to issue a certificate of conformity which is required by DVLA. I already have VB air assist fitted so for the uprated rear axle weight of 2240kg. I still require to fit the higher load rating tyres to the rear axle which will require a new weight plate as this new weight exceeds the manufacturers designed maximum weight. HTH

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Techno said:
I'm still surprised that you only get a self adhesive label for all that money
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Not strictly required I would think as the original plate shows the maximum design weight of 3850kgs, maybe they felt bad for taking my money and thought they had better send me something,lol. No matter saved me the hassle and the cost was negligible.
 
Techno said:
@emmitdb
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Thanks for the 'heads up' on this thread Andy.
However, Lorryman already has the Air Assist (which I don't) and I won't be going down that route to get more weight onto the back axle. I'll just put on the extra wide tyres to get the 112 rating.
Thanks once again.
 
emmitdb said:
Thanks for the 'heads up' on this thread Andy.
However, Lorryman already has the Air Assist (which I don't) and I won't be going down that route to get more weight onto the back axle. I'll just put on the extra wide tyres to get the 112 rating.
Thanks once again.
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Yes I was just pointing out there was no mention of changing to wider rims
 
Lorryman100 said:
I was running at 3450kg fully packed and loaded with 50 litres of water, Elaine and Daisy the cocker and a full fuel tank without me in the driving seat at the weighbridge. P.S. I weigh a lot more than 50kgs!!!!
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Lorryman did you have any extras on the van when you went to the weighbridge? Awning, bike rack. Cheers

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Fiat wheel trims so can only be F or Double floor Fiat DF
 
It's a Fiat chassis as Techno says and NOT the DF
 
vicwo said:
Lorryman did you have any extras on the van when you went to the weighbridge? Awning, bike rack. Cheers
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Vic, the van empty has the additional weight of the Fiamma awning, Cytrax satellite dish, 2 x solar panels with associated wiring and regulator and an extra habitation battery. I also carry 2 x 6kg gas bottles which will be gone in a weeks time (off to vanbitz to get gaslow fitted which will add more weight as it will be 2 x 11kg bottles).Then we added clothes and food for a weekend including the dogs food and other bits and bobs, laptop, ipad etc etc. All in the weight was a lot more than expected and if I never up plated then a break of any longer than a weekend would add more weight. We are away on Friday for a fortnight so will load the van (chairs, table, BBQ, electric frying pan, ramoska etc etc) and weigh it with the Reich portable weighing pad I have and then go via the weighbridge to get the ticketed weight for the front and rear axles. I am going to go ahead and fit the higher load rated tyres for the additional 240kgs on the rear axle via SVTech as at least the up plating will be free this time.

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