Overloading ?

Every car trailer with a certificate of conformity has its “Total Weight” stamped on its VIN Plate. A trailer’s load capacity is its “Total Weight” less its “Own Weight”. For example The Saris single axle DV75 has a “Total Weight” of 750Kg and as its own weight is 180Kg , it has a load capacity of 570 Kg. It is important that a trailer’s load capacity is not exceeded, so it is necessary to pay good attention to the weight of the cargo you are carrying. This is easier with some packaged items (eg bags of coal ) that with loose loads (eg sand or gravel etc)

You may be surprised with the weight of loose sand and also consider that wet sand will be heavier again. Staying with the example of the Saris DV75 trailer, its internal floor dimensions are: Length 2550mm x Width 1330mm and its sideboards are 300mm high. If you were to fill this trailer with wet sand ,……up just level to the top of the 300mm sideboards it would have a load of just over 2000Kg……….But , remember its load capacity is 570 KG……so you would be overloaded by 370 % !! In fact, to keep within the 570 Kg load limits of this 750 Kg trailer, you should have only a level depth of sand on the floor of 84mm !!

As a guide, assume wet sand weighs in at just over 2000Kg/cubic m , so to determine what level depth of sand you can carry on any trailer, you can calculate it by the following formula: Level depth mm = ( Load Capacity KG) / (length m x Width m x 2)

Using the above formula on this trailer: Level depth mm = 570 / (2.55 x 1.33 x 2 ) = 84mm

I bet its a lot less sand than you might have otherwise loaded !!