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Ons en die WetOok in die Desember 2003 uitgawe van die Homestead News het die President van Karavaanklub van Suidelike Afrika, Mnr. Jan Heyneke, 'n baie interessante artikel gepubliseer. You and the Law Over the past few
months it has come to our notice that the Traffic Authorities were pulling of
caravaners, and their tow vehicles and caravans weighed.
From what we can gather in some instances caravaners who were found to be
overloaded were duly fined and they were also required to redistribute or
dispose of the excessive or surplus weight.
This obviously is a major cause of concern, and we took time out to visit
the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan traffic authorities in order to determine the exact
state of affairs. Senior Inspector
Potgieter was most helpful, and we spent several hours in discussion, as well as
the actual weighing of my own vehicle and caravan for illustration purposes.
I would like to thank Inspector Potgieter for his valuable assistance and
time, and for clarifying the various issues for us. Mr. Potgieter is of the
opinion that the incidents, which took place, were probably in line with the new
weighbridge installations and enforcement of the laws surrounding the
overloading of vehicles. The
overloading of vehicles poses a major problem in terms of damage to our roads,
but in our particular case the emphasis must be placed on our safety. There is
no doubt that an overloaded caravan has some peculiar behavioural aspects and the
safety aspect cannot be stressed enough! So
where do we stand, and how is the law applied.
There are basically four main laws applied and we will address each one
individually with the aid of a picture for simplicity. The
first point is the weight or mass measured on the caravan wheels and axle.
The mass when weighed may not exceed the rated mass loading of the axle,
but more importantly the mass is directly controlled by the permissible tyre
loading, irrespective of the allowed axle mass.
The permissible tyre loading can be found on the sidewall of the caravan
tyre, and this number multiplied by two (or four in the case of a double axle
caravan) will be the mass loading, which will be measured against.
It must be noted that when a caravan is weighed to determine the axle
loading, the caravan must be hitched to the tow vehicle, which must stand free
of the weighbridge. Alternatively
the vehicle can be unhitched, but then the jockey wheel must stand on the ground
and not on the weighbridge. The
second scenario will be the determination of the gross vehicle mass.
The procedure for this is identical to the procedure for the axle mass,
but in this case the vehicle must be unhitched, and the caravan must stand by
itself on the weighbridge. The mass
obtained will be compared with the mass as indicated on the caravan manufacturer
plate, which is attached on the caravan's draw bar. A
further law, which may be applied, is the gross vehicle combination mass.
In order for this to be determined, the tow vehicle and the caravan will
be weighed together, and the value to be measured against will be found on the
tow vehicle's manufacturers plate, which is located in the engine compartment of
the tow vehicle. The
last ruling which will be applied, and this one is perhaps more well known to
us, is that the gross caravan mass may not exceed the tare mass of the tow
vehicle. For the purpose of this
exercise, the caravan will be weighed by itself and the findings compared to the
tare mass of the tow vehicle, which can be seen on the tow vehicles licence
disc. I
trust this snipped from the law books will be of interest. Most
important, an overloaded caravan is uncomfortable to tow, unsafe, increases fuel
consumption and extends your travel time. SO
travel light and safely. Jan
Heyneke, President,
CCSA. (This article was taken from the December 2003, Edition 5 Publication of The Homestead News, the official news publication of the Caravan Club of Southern Africa.)
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