They see me turfin'

hardc0re_tid · 27 Apr 2008 at 09:57

Skeeter said:
Ahh, reminds me of the days when my dad was a builder... tonne of bricks or sand or gravel in the back of a P100 pickup, or when that was broken, in the back of my mums Sierra!

i can remember me and my dad doing that, few knocked down houses on a remote street and my dad just so happened to be building a garden wall at the time. theres the 2 of us loading red house brick into the back of a sierra with the back seats down. pretty dam low afterward

dan^uk · 27 Apr 2008 at 10:44

1. It's illegal (the car is overloaded, so it's unroadworthy). The handling, performance, braking ability are all knackered when your car weighs the same as a house. Also tyres have a habit of overheating on overload vehicles and then they blow out due to the stress.

2. It's as good as driving without insurance.. no insurance company would cover you if you had an accident with a car as overloaded as that.

3. Something is probably bent or had its life shortened. Best case: damage/wear to your shocks, worst case: you've bent the chassis.

The risk was crazy for £50 of turf.

chipperhead · 27 Apr 2008 at 10:50

Wow everyones got really excited over this.
You can all calm down, the end results were definately worth it.

Freefaller · 27 Apr 2008 at 11:31

Meh, it's not such a big deal - don't understand what the fuss is about. If they knocked the back seats down the load would have been spread over quite a decent area of the car anyway (including a percentage over the front axle), so 1tonne is not such a big deal. Besides I doubt they were caning it on the way back, and it's not as if it's a supermini, it's a big A6 2.7T so it's brakes are going to be pretty hefty anyway. Some people really like to quibble over such menial things in this forum these days :/

dan^uk · 27 Apr 2008 at 12:08

So an unsafe, unroadworthy and uninsured (as stated his policy wouldn’t cover it) car isn’t that big of a deal? If that Audi went into the back of you at a junction, you wouldn’t be too happy would you (after finding out it shouldn’t have been on the road in the first place and their insurance policy won’t cover it)? You would be hacked off, just like anyone else would.

How anyone can think that loading a ton into the back of any car is OK is beyond me. VOSA have taken transits off the road for having that weight in them..

Matt82 · 27 Apr 2008 at 12:09

being a bit dramatic arnt you?

if that drove into the back of you, his insurer would pay you. they are obliged to

Freefaller · 27 Apr 2008 at 12:19

dan^uk said:
So an unsafe, unroadworthy and uninsured (as stated his policy wouldn’t cover it) car isn’t that big of a deal? If that Audi went into the back of you at a junction, you wouldn’t be too happy would you (after finding out it shouldn’t have been on the road in the first place and their insurance policy won’t cover it)? You would be hacked off, just like anyone else would.

How anyone can think that loading a ton into the back of any car is OK is beyond me. VOSA have taken transits off the road for having that weight in them..

Yawn.

Besides it's not all in the back, it goes all the way to the front seats. OMG huge drama.

I've used an old volvo 740 estate before with the back seats down and shifted more than 1 tonne of stuff to the dump before - one of which was a safe - the car stopped fine, I didn't corner like McCrae, I took it nice and easy, and you know what? The suspension coped fine!

I seriously doubt that would have caused any suspension issues, look the top of the tyre is hardly even under the arch - it can cope with 1 tonne for a short period of time. In fact I think Matt's statistics pointed out that it can easily take a tonne on the rear axle - in fact it can take over a tonne on the rear axle alone - so it's WELL WITHIN tolerances.

Some people get high and mighty for the most stupid and absurd things. Seriously, get a life!

Freefaller · 27 Apr 2008 at 12:22

Chipper just let me know anytime if you want the thread closed - though I do hope we get to see a pic of the grass

gareth.e · 27 Apr 2008 at 13:41

to be honest I don't know what all the fuss is about...

Caravans weigh over 1 tonne...

dan^uk · 27 Apr 2008 at 13:49

The axles limits include the weight of the car!

The max permitted weight of the car, including any load (which includes people) is 2.44 tons. the car is 1.8 tons which leaves 0.64 ton carrying capacity. ~140KG for 2 people leaves you 0.5 ton carrying capacity, so if the turf was a ton, then the car was overloaded by 0.5 ton. Does that sound safe to you? "I've done it before and it was OK" and "the top of the tyre is hardly even under the arch" doesn't make it safe or legal.

gareth.e: Towing is different and anything over 750KG has to have its own brakes.

The car shouldn't have been on the road, it's not legal, end of.

Freefaller · 27 Apr 2008 at 13:52

Go do a census form or something. You sound like that's the sort of thing you'd love doing.

Seriously you must be the most boring person in the world.

gareth.e · 27 Apr 2008 at 13:53

dan^uk said:
gareth.e: Towing is different and anything over 750KG has to have its own brakes.

you have got a point there...

but tbh I can imagine most people would drive their car like this in his circumstances regardless..

Matt82 · 27 Apr 2008 at 13:54

dan^uk said:
The axles limits include the weight of the car!

The max permitted weight of the car, including any load (which includes people) is 2.44 tons. the car is 1.8 tons which leaves 0.64 ton carrying capacity. ~140KG for 2 people leaves you 0.5 ton carrying capacity, so if the turf was a ton, then the car was overloaded by 0.5 ton. Does that sound safe to you? "I've done it before and it was OK" and "the top of the tyre is hardly even under the arch" doesn't make it safe or legal.

gareth.e: Towing is different and anything over 750KG has to have its own brakes.

The car shouldn't have been on the road, it's not legal, end of.

why would be be unsafe?

Freefaller · 27 Apr 2008 at 13:57

Matt82 said:
why would be be unsafe?

He's probably working out all the loading and sheering forces on every bolt at every angle... Some people are so anally retentive it's really quite sad to see

Matt82 · 27 Apr 2008 at 14:06

Freefaller said:
He's probably working out all the loading and sheering forces on every bolt at every angle... Some people are so anally retentive it's really quite sad to see

but itll be interesting to see what info he comes back with if thats his take on this.

even if he says about the mass or momentum etc, the OP already said he took the journey very easily to counter this anyway

... looks nuff decked tho

Freefaller · 27 Apr 2008 at 14:18

He took it slow, made it back, yes maybe a little overloaded but for 1 trip it's really not the end of the world. I see much worse driving and cars in worse condition than that.

dan^uk · 27 Apr 2008 at 14:45

Audi state that the max gross weight of the car is 2.4 ton. Now it suddenly doesn't become a death trap at 2.41 ton, there are shades of grey before it starts to get unsafe. However in the eyes of the law, there are no shades of grey, if you are over the permitted gross weight, it's illegal as they deem it unsafe. In my opinion, 0.5 ton over falls well within the unsafe category and Audi would say the same (if they thought it could handle 2.9 ton safely, then that's what would be on the VIN plate).

Normally the traffic police and VOSA go by how low your car is sitting to whether it is overloaded or not, however they can weigh them if they feel like it. Normally it's vans and trucks that get weighed and they will look at the VIN plate to get the gross weight. If they are over, then the driver is in the poo. It doesn't even matter if they upgraded the suspension to cope, they will always use the manufactures spec and the same applies to cars.

The Audi with that load couldn't handle all normal UK traffic conditions safely, which makes it unroadworthy and unsafe. For example, would you really want to take that car on the motorway? The tyre sidewalls are at risk of overheating at anything >50 mph and when that happens, that's when you can get a blow out. Taking it slowly would cut no ice with the law and you can't say "don't worry officer, it's roadworthy, but only up to 30mph".

Zuma · 27 Apr 2008 at 14:48

to be fair i actually doubt it was a tonne anyway. i reckon 20-25 kilos per roll maximum and so that makes about 600-750 kilos which is only a little bit over the maximum.

i've really crammed some loads into the volvo on a number of occasions and i think in this case even i would have made two trips, just to reduce the risk to the car.

Jonny ///M · 27 Apr 2008 at 14:49

dan^uk said:
Audi state that the max gross weight of the car is 2.4 ton. Now it suddenly doesn't become a death trap at 2.41 ton, there are shades of grey before it starts to get unsafe. However in the eyes of the law, there are no shades of grey, if you are over the permitted gross weight, it's illegal as they deem it unsafe. In my opinion, 0.5 ton over falls well within the unsafe category and Audi would say the same (if they thought it could handle 2.9 ton safely, then that's what would be on the VIN plate).

Normally the traffic police and VOSA go by how low your car is sitting to whether it is overloaded or not, however they can weigh them if they feel like it. Normally it's vans and trucks that get weighed and they will look at the VIN plate to get the gross weight. If they are over, then the driver is in the poo. It doesn't even matter if they upgraded the suspension to cope, they will always use the manufactures spec and the same applies to cars.

The Audi with that load couldn't handle all normal UK traffic conditions safely, which makes it unroadworthy and unsafe. For example, would you really want to take that car on the motorway? The tyre sidewalls are at risk of overheating at anything >50 mph and when that happens, that's when you can get a blow out. Taking it slowly would cut no ice with the law and you can't say "don't worry officer, it's roadworthy, but only up to 30mph".

I'm sure he thought about all that before doing it. I can't imagine the police pulling him either.

Matt82 · 27 Apr 2008 at 14:52

dan^uk said:
Audi state that the max gross weight of the car is 2.4 ton. Now it suddenly doesn't become a death trap at 2.41 ton, there are shades of grey before it starts to get unsafe. However in the eyes of the law, there are no shades of grey, if you are over the permitted gross weight, it's illegal as they deem it unsafe. In my opinion, 0.5 ton over falls well within the unsafe category and Audi would say the same (if they thought it could handle 2.9 ton safely, then that's what would be on the VIN plate).

safety by numbers, 70mph is fine on a motorway by your safey by numbers reconning (in rain, sleet, snow too?) but 80 is illegal, so its bad? even at 1am on a clear motorway? no, it depends on a lot of variables, and this guy took his journey slowly and safely. he made it home in one piece

dan^uk said:
The Audi with that load couldn't handle all normal UK traffic conditions safely, which makes it unroadworthy and unsafe.

incorrect. the op made it home satisfactorily, he is alive, he did not kill anyone, because he took the journey safely.

im sure the op wouldnt have wanted to site at 80mph with the sidewalls bulging on the motorway, which i expect is why he didnt lol