How to Weigh Your Caravan at a Weighbridge
Knowing the weight of your caravan and tow vehicle is vitally important while travelling. Getting it right can give you peace of mind while you are enjoying your travels, but getting it wrong could lead to unnecessary stress on you, stress on your caravan and tow-vehicle, or put you and your family in a dangerous situation. Also, there could be legal and costly implications for being overweight.
We’ve put together a printable maintenance schedule that covers this kind of pre-trip check too, and you can grab your own copy here.
Our Favourite resources for caravanners:
– Grab a set of your own caravan scales for weighing your van at home: Caravan drive on scales
– To check your tow-ball weight, get yourself a Towball weight scale
– For all great camping/caravanning gear: Wild Earth
Weighing your caravan is quite simple, and you can easily do it yourself, either at a weighbridge or at home.
Bookmark this article so you can return to it when you’re at the weighbridge and use this calculator to make life easy!
For a rundown on caravan weights terminology, check out this article.
How to weigh a caravan on a public weighbridge.
The most popular way to weigh your caravan and tow vehicle is on a public weighbridge.
Weighbridges can be found across Australia. To find your local weighbridge, go to this website It is a good idea to get in contact with the weighbridge operator prior to your arrival, to find out their terms and conditions.
Ideally, you need to weigh your caravan and tow vehicle twice. Once, when it is empty (without all of the gear you will be filling into it to go on holiday) and once when you have loaded your gear.
This will give you an idea of how much “stuff” you can pack. Don’t forget to load up the family into your tow vehicle for this exercise. Get the kids involved by writing down the weights for you.
Steps to weighing your caravan on the weighbridge:
Step 1: Finding the GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass)
First, drive your tow-vehicle and caravan to the weighbridge, but stop with only your tow-vehicle’s wheels on the weighbridge (keep your caravan’s wheels off the weighbridge). Make sure the driver and all passengers stay in the tow vehicle. Record this weight. This is your tow vehicle’s Gross Vehicle Mass.
Step 2: Work out the Tow Ball Weight (download)
Next, lower your jockey wheel and unhitch your tow vehicle. Make sure the jockey wheel is not on the weighbridge. Record this weight. This difference between this weight and your previous recorded GVM is your Tow Ball Weight (downforce)
Step 3: Work out the GCM (Gross Combination Mass)
Next, re-hitch your caravan to your tow-vehicle and drive your tow-vehicle and caravan onto the weighbridge so that all wheels are on the weighbridge. Record this weight. This is your Gross Combination Mass.
Step 4: Find the GTM (Gross Trailer Mass)
Next, drive your tow vehicle off the weighbridge, but leave the caravan wheels on the weighbridge. Stop when the tow ball is level with the edge of the weighbridge platform. Record this weight. This is your Gross Trailer Mass.
Step 5: Find the ATM (Aggregate Trailer Mass)
Next, lower your jockey wheel onto the weighbridge platform and unhitch your tow vehicle so it will measure the weight of your caravan by itself. Record this weight. This is your Aggregate Trailer Mass.
Step 6: Decipher your findings
Now that you have recorded all these weights, you can start to work out how much weight you have spare, to load into your tow-vehicle and caravan. It is a good idea not to go too close to any of the limits. It is always safer to keep your weights well under.
Load your Caravan with all your holiday gear, and re-check weights
Once you have loaded up your tow-vehicle and caravan with everything you will be taking with you on your travels. It’s time to see how good your calculations are and how close to the weight limits your vehicles are.
Go back to the weighbridge and record the weights all over again. This will let you know if you need to remove anything (or anyone) from your tow vehicle or caravan to keep your weights under the limits.
In some instances, you may not need to remove anything, but instead, relocate items or re-distribute your weight between your tow-vehicle and caravan, or even re-distribute your weight within your caravan. Check out this article on caravan packing
How to weigh your caravan at home
If you don’t feel like loading up and travelling to your local weighbridge, you can weigh your caravan at home by purchasing scales. No, not bathroom scales, but purpose-built caravan scales.
The procedure is the same, just make sure you are on level and solid ground to be as accurate as possible. Instead of weighing all your wheels at the same time, you will need to weigh them individually and add them together.
Or, if the budget allows, you could buy a scale for each wheel. By having your own scales, you can re-check weights whenever you like, eg. when families grow or when modifications are made to your caravan or tow-vehicle.
Knowing your caravan’s weights has many benefits for you, your family, your caravan and your tow vehicle. Get them right, and you will be enjoying your travels across this beautiful country of ours, just that little bit more.
