Member Since: 12 Apr 2020
Location: Essex
Posts: 173
When should I worry about weight?
Having decide to fit my D3 out for Green Laning and perhaps a little Off Roading I've been adding quite a bit of kit to the car....
There's the huge steel winch bumper (which I had to use an engine crane to get into position), the winch of course, then there's a full set of D44 underbody protection (mostly 8mm Aly), there's the rock sliders, and the huge tyres of course. And that's just the fixtures and fittings... then there's all the kit I need to carry! I've got tow ropes, ground anchor, air compressor, chain saw, booster pack (just in case) to mention but a few. That lot must weigh a ton... and I'm beginning to think that might not be an exaggeration.
So I'm just wondering, is there's a practical limit to how much extra weight the D3 can handle?
9th Nov 2020 9:08 pm
kajtzu
Member Since: 10 Aug 2017
Location: Helsinki
Posts: 6744
In real life and considering silly people pack the back full of bricks up to the roof regularly... no.
Technically, if you exceed 3500 kg maximum authorized mass (MAM) it isn’t a personal car anymore. In case anyone decided to stop you and weigh the car, I mean.
Remember there are either 5 or 7 seats and some people are man mountains nowadays so, say, 700 kg easily is attributable to people in any weight calculations.
9th Nov 2020 9:16 pm
Kenny57
Member Since: 12 Apr 2020
Location: Essex
Posts: 173
So would it be correct to say: if I load all my gear up and pop down my local weight bridge, so long as I come in under 3500kg then a/ I'm road legal and /b I ain't gonna break the suspension by being too heavy?
9th Nov 2020 9:23 pm
kajtzu
Member Since: 10 Aug 2017
Location: Helsinki
Posts: 6744
That’s how I’d look at it. Might be UK is different and your insurance company has their own ideas like they tend to have but
9th Nov 2020 9:28 pm
galwaygreen
Member Since: 30 Oct 2011
Location: plymouth
Posts: 6525
weights in the manual surely
9th Nov 2020 11:39 pm
Kenny57
Member Since: 12 Apr 2020
Location: Essex
Posts: 173
Yes it is, Max Gross Weight is actually listed as 3230kg (3500kg is the towing limit but I assumed that was just a typo from Kajtzu). My question was really related to using the car on soft ground. I've noticed some of the expensive "high end" protection kit is made of lighter weight materials than the more basic kit. I was just wondering if adding all this extra weight is actually making it less capable off road?
10th Nov 2020 6:20 am
PCT3
Member Since: 13 May 2017
Location: Kent
Posts: 144
Your correct that weight has an adverse effect offroad, but it’s horses for courses, my old D1 would almost go anywhere only protection it had was heavy duty steering bars and have driven that over a rock field in Turkey, that was interesting falling off big boulders thought I was going to roll it a couple of times, in truth if you damage the underneath your going to fast
I now overland more so my fully loaded D3 only has the front guard added, plus of course all the bits to make sleeping and eating more comfortable, a lot more Comfortable and capable vehicle than the D1 but so much heavier and wet slippery slopes are to be feared, I deflate my tyres more now than I ever haveDiscovery 3 HSE 07
Discovery 1, Search & Rescue SE4x4 Responce
Fiat Decato motor home
Mazda MX5
10th Nov 2020 7:58 am
L319
Member Since: 14 Dec 2013
Location: Herefordshire
Posts: 2083
The VIN plate gives both the max total weight and the max individual axles loadings. The two axles actually when added together exceed the total. This is done to allow some differential when loading the vehicle. As I understand it in the UK, if you exceed any of these on the road one can be deemed to be overloading the vehicle and could be prosecuted. and I am sure the insurers would take a dim view. Also the vehicle is designed around these loadings so damage could ensue if exceeded especially off road.
10th Nov 2020 8:53 am
RRSTDV8
Member Since: 07 Apr 2014
Location: Here
Posts: 13538
That's the key thing - there's the load that it will carry before something fails and there's the load that the law allows you to carry in it. The legal maximum is shown on the V5. Exceed that and you're unlikely to defend a prosecution or an insurance claim issue.Visiting from rrsport.co.uk
2012 RRS SDV6
2008 RRS TDV8
"When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die! You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered. How much blood will spill, until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: SIT DOWN AND TALK!"
10th Nov 2020 9:03 am
IanMarsh
Member Since: 21 Jul 2020
Location: Newmarket
Posts: 55
Not sure where you are in Essex but there is a public weighbridge at CB22 4XL that will give you a gross weight and axle weights on a certified ticket for a tenner.... Gives you a good starting point to work from.
I happen to work here and 95% of the vehicles that the police bring in to weigh are sprinters and tranisits coming up from London.
10th Nov 2020 10:45 am
L319
Member Since: 14 Dec 2013
Location: Herefordshire
Posts: 2083
If I remember correctly for type approval each person is deemed to weigh 82Kg with luggage allowance , that's 574kg . I think my HSE weighs nearly 2.6 Tonne unladen which doesn't allow much else before you hit the 3230kg total . If you tow, that's another 70 to 100kg on the hitch which needs to be taken off the payload and axle loading . Not a lot to play with .
10th Nov 2020 12:24 pm
gstuart
Member Since: 21 Oct 2016
Location: kent
Posts: 14116
Apologises for the daft question and Talking of weight , do the armoured versions come under a special classification plse ref the weight ,ie like a LGV etc , many thks
Also assume suspension/ components are different than the standard D3
Curb weight (without a driver):3475 kg / 7661 lbs
Gross vehicle weight rating GVWR: 4050 kg / 8929 lbs
Member Since: 07 Aug 2015
Location: Perth WA
Posts: 264
The armoured version is engineered with different suspension, brakes and wheels to allow for the additional weight of the armouring.MY14 TDV6
10th Nov 2020 1:54 pm
Kenny57
Member Since: 12 Apr 2020
Location: Essex
Posts: 173
Interesting! PCT3, from what you say I may be going way overboard with my underside protection. The primary intention was rock protection, so I have the Devon4x4 8mm thick steering and transmission armour, plus 6mm under the fuel tank. I'm currently also fitting an 8mm rear diff plate and a rear bumper "grounding" slider because the leaving angle is so poor. Probably comes in at around 60kg of aly, I'll have to check but the hole saw may have to come out if its much more!
Probably never be more than me and a mate in the car so that gives me a couple of adults worth of weight to play with but I may well be on the limit. I'll definitely get to a weigh bridge and see where I'm at fully loaded though as I want to stay completely the right side of the law on this. No point in paying all that money for insurance just to invalidate it!
Ian Marsh, I'm in the south of the county but my elderly mother-in-law lives in Stapleford and we visit regularly. It would be rude not to take the Disco with us and drop in on you at some point. Do you have an appointment system or is it just turn up and pay?
11th Nov 2020 6:45 am
lynalldiscovery
Member Since: 22 Dec 2009
Location: Maidstone
Posts: 7274
Do not forget quoted weights may not include a full tank of fuel, derv roughly 1kg per litre, I did say roughly before anyone starts crying!
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