Am I the only person that thinks that this is wrong?

[Grumpy John]

I am in a Facebook camper trailer group and one of the members has posted photos of mods he has done to his camper. The camper in question has a payload of 500Kg's, he says that the boat, motor, trailer weigh 290Kg. Given that the water tank holds 150 litres, he could technically be legal with this setup and a full tank of water. He wouldn't be able to add much more like a full Engel and a couple of slabs. My thoughts are that even if he is under weight, he would be so top heavy as to be dangerous.
What do others think.

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[chambezio]

I agree John, to me its way too high to be safe. Also too, the boat and trailer is a "floppy" load as well. The trailer has leaf springs so it will be "jiggling about independent of the camper under it.
In an off road situation....I think you may find the camper on its side.

The rule of thumb with regards to loading 4 X 4s is ti keep any load down low and only put light things on a roof rack! I shudder to see what people put on their roof racks. Full gerry cans, gas bottles, tyres and rims and so the list goes on.

Regarding the boat I think I would be looking at one of those set-ups that have "clip-on" wheels that come off when you get on the water. Leave the trailer at home and tie the boat upside down on a rack on the camper

[BobL]

OTOH weight might not be as much of a problem as we think because the boat is not directly behind a vehicle so would act like a huge foil and provide lift.
This could add its own problems especially at speed not to mention the extra fuel needed.

[old1955]

I can see him getting pulled up frequently.

Ross

[Gabriel]

I know nothing about such things, but I woukdnt wanna be caught in a cross wind or drive it over the westgate

[ian]

Hi John

by "payload of 500 kg" do you mean that the camping trailer by itself weighs 250 Kg? Which would mean that when fully loaded the camping trailer is under 750 kg and hence doesn't require brakes?

If so, his 250 kg trailer (bare), plus 290 kg boat & trailer, will weigh 540 kg.
Add in 150 litres of water and he's pushing 700 kg before he puts any gear -- cooker, fridge, food, etc in the trailer.

But weight aside, I'm pretty sure that something like that is not legal, because the camper is designed as a camping trailer not as a load carrying trailer.
Your "mate" has effectively modified a camping trailer into a vehicle carrying trailer.

The regs for trailers are on line https://infrastructure.gov.au/roads/..._b.aspx#anc_11 if you want to read up on it.

[rustynail]

The visual is probably worse than the actual. A couple of things are of concern; the outboard over hanging the rear of the trailer may cause fishtailing. The suspension of the boat trailer creates a springy load and hard to tie down to avoid side shift. Blocked suspension would overcome the problem.
The existing set up is no higher than a caravan. So, provided the camper has suitable suspension and an as wide as possible axle, stability shouldnt be a major issue.
Let's face it, a caravan is a lot less streamline than this wacky set up.

[rrich]

I am not an aeronautical engineer. However, if the boat acts as an airfoil, wouldn't the action try to lift the carrying trailer and make it more unstable over rough roads?

DUNNO

Just thinking too hard after some flavored ice cubes.

[Grumpy John]

Hi John

by "payload of 500 kg" do you mean that the camping trailer by itself weighs 250 Kg? Which would mean that when fully loaded the camping trailer is under 750 kg and hence doesn't require brakes?

If so, his 250 kg trailer (bare), plus 290 kg boat & trailer, will weigh 540 kg.
Add in 150 litres of water and he's pushing 700 kg before he puts any gear -- cooker, fridge, food, etc in the trailer.

But weight aside, I'm pretty sure that something like that is not legal, because the camper is designed as a camping trailer not as a load carrying trailer.
Your "mate" has effectively modified a camping trailer into a vehicle carrying trailer.

The regs for trailers are on line https://infrastructure.gov.au/roads/..._b.aspx#anc_11 if you want to read up on it.

Tare weight of camper is 1400Kg.
GVM of camper 1900Kg.
Payload of camper is 500Kg.
If the the boat, trailer, and motor weigh 290Kg (which I doubt) that leaves him another 210Kg of load carrying. 150 Litres (150Kg) water and he's got very little left for a fridge and supplies.
The camper also has provision for 2 x 9Kg gas bottles and 2 x 20Ltr jerry cans.

Edit: He's not a mate of mine .

[Burnsy]

Majority of the boat trailer weight is on it's wheels, only about 10% on the jockey wheel so at least 250kg on the boat trailer wheels which are behind the camper axle. That is going to make a big difference to the campers ball weight making it dangerous to tow. I am surprised the camper is still sitting on it's jockey wheel and not standing up on it's . Guessing the camper ball weight would be less than 50kg - illegal and dangerous.

[Grumpy John]

Majority of the boat trailer weight is on it's wheels, only about 10% on the jockey wheel so at least 250kg on the boat trailer wheels which are behind the camper axle. That is going to make a big difference to the campers ball weight making it dangerous to tow. I am surprised the camper is still sitting on it's jockey wheel and not standing up on it's . Guessing the camper ball weight would be less than 50kg - illegal and dangerous.

If you look closely you'll see that he has the stabiliser legs down.

[graham.murfett]

Regarding weight behind camper axle...
What if he put the boat on backwards?
Irrespective of other considerations.

[Cal]

And take the motor off and put it in or on the car!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ian]

Edit: He's not a mate of mine .

I knew that, but I wasn't sure that I could correctly spell "protagonist"

[Pearo]

Probably on par with my trailer sailer which tows ok. I weigh in at something like 1.8t, but the weight is nothing compared to the windage.