So I have 50 high density concrete blocks left over from raising my garage floor so it is flush with the car and bike lift platforms which the local builders merchant will refund the cost of if I take them back. 50 at 19 kg each is 950 kg / 2094 lb, just shy of a ton.

Handbook says max rear axle weight is 1840 kg / 4056 lb. The EEC defined kerb weight with full fuel tank and 75 kg / 12 stone (near enough) driver is 2100 kg / 4629 lb gross with 1000 kg / 2204 lb on the rear axle.

By my maths that implies I can load 840 kg / 1852 lb in the back. Probably a bit more as the tank is down to 1/4 full and I'm 10 stone dripping wet at most.

Looks like 46 in the back and 4 in the passenger footwell will do it.

Only 2 miles down a twisty hill but its still seems a scary load for a passenger car. The £75 refund on my flexible friend will be nice but I'm not inclined to risk popping the airbags. Cleaning out all the dust afterwards is quite bad enough a prospect thank you (quietly ignoring the slog of manually loading and unloading).

Clive

You could always split them into 2 trips if your not sure about it? I'd think the problem would be more one of the space available (I wouldn't want any above the level of the bottom of the windows just in case it slid about as I can't imagine the window would put up with that sort of impact)

Brian
Only two deep and will be packed most carefully so they don't slide. With plenty of padding on the doors and loadspace sides. The windows should be safe.
All downhill and drive time will be carefully timed for a nice clear slow run to minimise any chance of shifting. No way would I contemplate this over any sort of distance or well used road.

Clive

It can, as long as your air springs are decent. I've carried over half a tonne in the car and 3.5 tonnes on a trailer behind it. The nice thing about the EAS is that the arse doesn't sag when it's loaded so unlikely to attract the attention of Mr Plod.

don't forget the back has a big piece of plastic covering the spare tyre . this is the limit to how much you are game enough to put on it . i did put 10 bags of premix cement on it at 20kg a bag with the thought i have a spare one in case it lets go

Thanks for the re-assurance. Weather seems to have turned so I guess I'll give it a go later this week or early next.

Nice thing with blocks on a flat surface is that they will spread the load cleanly so the boot floor should be fine. Probably use a modded pallet or two tho'.

Clive

Wouldn't a trailer make sense at this point? I reckon it would be easier to load/unload too...

I have brought back 450 bottles of plonk in the back (approx 1 Kg each) via Calais plus towing a 2 tonne caravan and two adults.
1 tonne in the back is quite a bit more.
You are not going to damage the chassis or bend an axle. The air bags are probably the weakest point but they are limited to 10 bars or so?
Tyres? Are yours within date and in good nick?

Whether or not they're capable of carrying a ton inside is an interesting point.

But for your purposes and with your concerns surely the practical ways of shifting the blocks 2 miles are no brainers. If you've got easy access to a trailer, use that. No trailer, put a sheet in the back then do 2 x 4 mile round trips each with 25 blocks in the back. Or if concerned about airbags do 3 or 4 x 4 mile round trips.

No trailer so Plan A was two trips. Tyres are about 1,000 miles old and bags good, albeit a few years old, so no great worries there.

Heavy loads being very much not my thing I thought "better check the weight limits to make sure thats OK". Running the numbers it looked like doing it in one was possible, making life much easier at the builders merchants.

Seemed a heck of a lot to me so it was clearly time to ask folk who understand the practical side of such things.

Daves reference to 450 bottles of plonk reminds me of seeing a couple of guys loading up a Montego estate at a Dunkirk hypermarket back when I was doing the lifting and shifting for one of her ladyships cigarette runs. I swear they flattened the back springs. The thing was totally full. Following it up the long hill towards Lewes on the A27 the headlamps were clearly a major hazard to aircraft navigation! I can only imagine the driver knew the road.

Clive

I should also point out that the wine was to last the two of us for a year. It was carefully stored in my wine cellar (my shed in the back garden).

Re the EAS, do the sums. Unloaded each rear spring is supporting around 500kg and at that the pressure in the rear springs is roughly 75 psi. Increasing the load to maximum results in each spring supporting 920kg so the pressure in the springs will increase to around 140 psi.

However, your original weights are wrong. The EEC kerb weight (car+full tank of fuel+75kg driver), for a 4.6 is 2220 kg and the gross vehicle weight is 2780 kg, so the maximum load is actually 560 kg (2780-2220). What I find interesting is that the EEC kerb weight for a 4.0 litre auto is 2100 kg, yet the kerb weight for a 4.6 auto, is 2220 kg, a difference of 120 kg. Yet the difference between the two versions is merely a different crankshaft and con rods, which I would assume would weigh around the same and a marginally larger gearbox which, having humped both around just recently, doesn't weigh that much more. No more than 10 kg, if that, and the additional 1.3 litres of ATF in the gearbox isn't going to make that much difference either.

Yep the whole weight thing is a bit puzzling which is why I asked. Must admit that I didn't check the difference between gross vehicle weight and EEC kerb weight, just assumed that the maximum rear axle weight would be available when driven solo.

When pushing towards the maximum I think the key comment, in my handbook at least (year 2000 4.0l petrol) is below the data tables:-

Note :- Axle weights are non-additive. The individual maximum axle weights and gross vehicle weights must not be exceeded.

So my book says the same as yours:-

Maximum front axle weight 1320 kg / 2910 lb, maximum rear axle weight 1840 kg / 4056 lb, gross vehicle weight 2780 kg / 6129 lb.

Loading both axles to maximum gives 3160 kg / 6966 lb which exceeds the given maximum gross vehicle weight by 380 kg / 837 lb so obviously some sensible balance is needed.

The EEC kerb weight gives 1100 kg / 2425 lb on the front axle and 1000 kg / 2204 lb on the rear axle for 2100 kg / 4629 lb gross.

Subtracting the EEC kerb weight from the gross vehicle weight gives 680 kg / 1500 lb for payload for my 4.0.

So the 840 kg / 1852 lb loadspace capacity implied by the difference between EEC kerb weight and maximum rear axle weight is purely theoretical. No way to get near it without exceeding gross vehicle weight, even when driven solo.

Bottom line I'm on two trips with 25 blocks each run at 475 kg load. Which, frankly, sounds a lot more like a sensible loading for the car.

The 120 kg difference in EEC kerb weights between the 4.0 and 4.6 petrol its very odd and inexplicable. It does make you wonder about the accuracy of other figures.

I'm glad I asked and thanks for everyones help and patience. I'm now a bit clearer on what you can and can't do with vehicle loading in practice.

Clive

I got deeply involved in axle weights and gross vehicle weights when I was still working. As all the vehicles were fitted with racking and storage cupboards built in, along with a pair of huge leisure batteries with associated electronics to control them, one of the vehicles was sitting a bit low when loaded with some other specialist equipment and two people. So much so, it was spotted on a vehicle check and put on a weighbridge. Only to find that without the passenger it was just under the gross weight but as soon as he got in, it was over.......

I was tasked with getting the weight down and by removing one leisure battery, I saved 31kg immediately. After attacking some of the racking with an angle grinder and dumping some of the other useless stuff (like the jack, wheelbrace and spare wheel, as we weren't allowed to use them anyway and were supposed to just call out the AA), I managed to lop almost 200 kg off the weight. We even had a chart in the office of how much each of us weighed so we could match who could travel together too.

Gilbertd wrote:

We even had a chart in the office of how much each of us weighed so we could match who could travel together too.

Clients always did wonder why your works always sent a little and large team out to visit them lol

Hypothetical situation... What would happen if you got flagged onto a weighbridge but the passenger got out and just walked away. Would they have the legal authority to stop the passenger walking away, assume a weight for him, or just have to go on the weight they could measure. You could say 'Ahh that was John, he looks burly but only weighs 4 stone and those heavy duty looking bags he was carrying were lightweight PVC and full of kids balloons'.

We had a big bloke called Rob who weighed exactly 100kg, so a Rob became a unit of weight. I weighed 0.7 Robs and all our other kit was marked in Robs......

I'm afraid I wouldn't have been travelling with Rob, not particularly big but heavy lol.

Finally got round to moving those blocks on Thursday. A pal incautiously offered to help so 35 blocks went in the Rangie and the other 15 in his BMW something or other SUV. Single layer in 3 x 10 pattern on the floor with the 5 extra on top over where the passenger seat goes. So 665 kg / 1463 lb in the load area which was almost up to maximum permitted.

The beast didn't want to come up to normal ride height initially but by 20 yards down the lane over a few umps'n ollows it had lifted up OK. At no more than 25 mph, usually less, all the way I was very aware of all that mass behind and its effects on handling.

I shan't be doing that again. Very much pushing the envelope methinks.

Clive

had the same with my old diesel had trailer on back and 100 2foot by 2 foot slabs it knew it had that weight pulling behind almost came to a stop going up a hill lol