If you are building your own campervan or loading a manufactured one, you should carefully consider vehicle weight distribution. You obviously don’t want to exceed any structural limits or affect the vehicle’s handling. Having an aviation background, I am used to doing a trim sheet prior to flight. These allow you to check that the aircraft is ‘balanced’ or ‘in-trim’ for flight and not overloaded. I decided to apply the same principles to loading my camper truck, Cuthbert.
I have produced a ‘trim sheet’ for the Iveco Daily 4×4 chassis cab which you are more than welcome to use/modify to check your own vehicle weight distribution, see in the attached link: Iveco Daily 4×4 Trim Sheet
The basic principle of a trim sheet for vehicle weight distribution, is to allocate a load and position from a datum to each item. You can then work out the total load and where it is balanced or trimmed. I have chosen the front bumper as the datum.
How to use this trim sheet
- Weigh the item of equipment you are adding to the vehicle and enter its mass in the ‘Mass’ column.
- Measure the distance that the item of equipment will be from the front bumper and enter this distance in the ‘Arm’ column (if it is in front of the bumper, e.g. a winch, then enter the distance as a negative value).
- The spread-sheet will calculate: the effect that this item of equipment will have on the vehicle’s total mass; the distribution of the mass between the two axles; and whether the vehicle is within its loading limit.
Notes:-
(i) ‘Kerb weights’ are with full main fuel tank, oil, water, spare wheel, Iveco tools and include a 75 kg driver. These are the Iveco book figures. If you have a modified vehicle/campervan you may want to weigh your empty vehicle and use these figures for the front and rear axle masses.
(ii) This spread-sheet does not include Cuthbert’s Bocklet Dakar 630 modification; it is for the basic chassis cab.
(iii) The Iveco Daily 4×4 has a 32%/68% torque-splitting central differential, therefore the ideal load distribution for traction is 32% of the mass on the front axle and 68% of the mass on the rear axle. I have therefore added the lower section on the spread-sheet to show the axle loads as a percentage split front/rear and as a percentage of each axle’s load limit.
Update – You may be interested in my Strain Gauge project too.
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