Van Weight Engineering - Up-plating

[Guzziando]

I just had my Fiat Ducato motorhome (van conversion) MOT'd. They also weighed it, it was 3460kg, leaving me 40kg to play with. This was without water or a passenger! I contacted Van Weight Engineering, and received the following reply:



Can anyone recommend a good value alternative engineering service I could use?

 

[dunnah01]

No you can't as on my light chassis I had to have rear aircand uprated front springs to go up over 3650. Plus limiting factor is rear axle as its likely to be over 2000.

Interesting - I thought there had been quite a few that had done the paper up-plate to go over the artificially reduced 3500kg - What were the original axle limits off your converters VIN plate? The OP has a PVC so there is less back end bias although it would still need some clever loading to not exceed the standard axle limits

 

[MichaelT]

Interesting - I thought there had been quite a few that had done the paper up-plate to go over the artificially reduced 3500kg - What were the original axle limits off your converters VIN plate? The OP has a PVC so there is less back end bias although it would still need some clever loading to not exceed the standard axle limits

3650 maybe that's where VWE were wrong, SV uprated to 4000.

 

[headlight]

When I contacted VWE last year with a view to up plating my 3,400kg coach built motorhome I was told that if I changed my wheels and tyres I would get another 100kgs so 3,500kgs, but it would be on the front axle.
So 4 new wheels, 4 new tyres plus VWE's charge to get another 100kgs on the front axle, the axle I was already 400kgs under weight and had no way of physically carrying any extra weight up front so I didn't bother.
This was bearing in mind that my van was originally plated at 3650kgs before Swift down plated it to 3,400kgs.
Didn't make sense to me at the time that I couldn't get to the original 3,650kgs.?

 

[Minxy]

I thought you could up-plate to sum of axle weights quite easily without using either VWE or SVT. This might be an option if you can load some stuff at the front.

No, once the vehicle has already been registered at whatever weight, the only way to uprate it is to get the certified approval via VWE or SVTech. We bought a Globecar PVC on a heavy chassis which is normally registered by dealers at 3500kg regardless of it being able to go higher without any mods to 4250kg/4500kg, however we asked them to register it at the 4250kg and they did so no need for us to have to pay for it to be approved by a third party.

3960Kg would suit me fine, has anyone done this?

See above.

No you can't as on my light chassis I had to have rear aircand uprated front springs to go up over 3650. Plus limiting factor is rear axle as its likely to be over 2000.

Which is why you have to use a company to provide certified approval for it to go up to a higher weight.