If you are unsure where to find the caravan weights for towing, check with your nearest Snowy River dealer.
The gross combination mass is the maximum weight of both the car and caravan combined as set by the vehicle manufacturer.
This includes all people, luggage, gear, fuel, water, accessories, etc. Your gross combined mass counts anything and everything loaded into your car and caravan.
Gross vehicle mass means the maximum allowable weight your tow vehicle can be loaded up to set by vehicle manufacturers. This includes people, luggage, gear, fuel, tow ball mass from your caravan, everything.
Think of the gross vehicle mass as the most your tow vehicle can weigh, including the ball mass of the caravan you are towing.
Tow ball mass, which is often called ball weight or tow ball download, is the weight that the caravan’s coupling puts on the tow vehicle.
You can find an empty tow ball weight on the caravans compliance plate. Sometimes you will need to subtract the gross trailer mass (GTM) from the aggregate trailer mass (ATM) to work out your empty tow ball weight.
The tow ball load on your tow vehicle will change depending on how your caravan is loaded with luggage, whether your water tanks are full or empty, and how full or empty your gas bottles are. The easiest way to check this is with a tow ball weight scale.
The aggregate trailer mass of a caravan means the maximum allowable weight of your caravan when fully loaded and unhitched from a tow vehicle. This includes the weight of the caravan, any modifications made after it’s been built, water in the tanks, gas bottles, luggage, food, clothes, etc.
Caravan manufacturers set the ATM at the time of the build.
Gross trailer mass means the maximum total weight on the axles of the caravan when it is connected to a car. This is different from the aggregate trailer mass because when the caravan is hitched to a tow vehicle, the tow ball weight is being carried by the car and not on the caravan’s jockey wheel.
You can also work this out by taking the ATM of your caravan minus the tow ball weight.
To find your caravan’s payload, or how much you can load into it, simply minus the caravan tare weight from the ATM.
Remember that modifications after the build, caravan accessories, luggage, gas in the bottles, water in the tanks, any extra weight counted in the tare weight of the caravan comes out of your payload.
Now you know the essential weights to take note of and what they mean.
Once you understand these, you will know what you can and can’t safely and legally tow. Start by creating a list of your vehicle weights. Here are a few examples of what your list could look like;
Kerb weight: 2,330kg
Gross vehicle mass: 2,900kg
Maximum payload: 570kg
Maximum ball weight: 250kg
Maximum towing capacity: 2,500kg
Gross combination mass: 5,290kg
Towing a caravan at your maximum towing capacity of 2,500kg leaves you with 2,790kg of your gross combination mass (GCM).
If your caravans ball weight is at the maximum 250kg, that leaves 320kg of your GVM or maximum payload for everybody in your car and luggage etc.
Tow vehicles of this size would be best suited to towing our range of small caravans.
Here’s another example;
Kerb weight: 2,230kg
Gross vehicle mass: 2,990kg
Maximum payload: 760kg
Maximum ball weight: 300kg
Maximum towing capacity: 3,000kg
Gross combination mass: 5,990kg
Towing a caravan at your maximum towing capacity of 3,000kg leaves you with 2,990kg of your gross combination mass (GCM).
If your caravans ball weight is at the maximum 250kg, that leaves 320kg of your GVM or maximum payload for everybody in your car and luggage etc.
Tow vehicles of this size are suited to towing larger couples caravans without a slide-out, or our range of family caravans.
And one last example;
Kerb weight: 2,635kg
Gross vehicle mass: 3,350kg
Maximum payload: 715kg
Maximum ball weight: 350kg
Maximum towing capacity: 3,500kg
Gross combination mass: 6,730kg
Towing a caravan at your maximum towing capacity of 3,500kg leaves you with 3,230kg of your gross combination mass (GCM).
If your caravans ball weight is at the maximum 350kg that leaves 365kg of your GVM or maximum payload for everybody in your car and luggage etc.
Similar tow vehicles to this are capable of towing our range of slide-out caravans.
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