Have just been asked to suply to SVA an Amateur Declaration form along with Design Axle Weights and GVW.

Could any BEC Locost builders give an idea of what figures to be using.

I thought 600KG for the Gross Vehicle Weight, but have no idea for the Design Axle Weights?


Thanks

Try a search, this gets asked regularly.

Cheers
Davie

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=73587&page=&contribmessage=none

this tread should be a good starting point

Paul

quote:

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Originally posted by ChrisS
Have just been asked to suply to SVA an Amateur Declaration form along with Design Axle Weights and GVW.

Could any BEC Locost builders give an idea of what figures to be using.

I thought 600KG for the Gross Vehicle Weight, but have no idea for the Design Axle Weights?


Thanks

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The gross weight is the individual axle weights added together, this is not a sum of the actual weight.
The design weights are what the car is designed to be able to cope with not the actual individual axle weights.
This is also the weights the SVA inspector uses to calculate the brake efficiency.
My design weights are 450, 450
a Robin Hood that i witnessed the SVA with had design weights of 650, 450 but had an almost perfect 50/50 weight ratio.
Do not confuse actual weight with the weights the car is designed to cope with.

On the form we put design weights as 450kg front and rear, gross weight 900kg.

At SVA actual weights with all fluids but without driver was 308kg front and 304kg rear.

No problems at all.

Remember that the gross weight includes 2 passengers (75kg each) plus a luggage allowance for each person.

I put the wrong figures on my application form - the SVA man pointed this out, suggested 800kg (350kg axle 1, 450kg axle 2), I signed an agreement to this, and on we went with the test.

The actual car weight is 600kg with a full tank.

There seems to be some confusion here.

Gross weight is simply the maximum the vehicle is legally allowed to weigh, fully loaded, when used on the road. It is not based on the unladen weight plus allowances for people, fuel, luggage, etc - it is just the safe maximum weight of the vehicle.

Design axle weights are the load that each axle is designed to carry as a maximum. They are also the legal limits when you are on the road. Axle weights added together are normally MORE than the gross weight such that you can reach the gross weight without exceeding the axle weights even if the vehicle is unevenly loaded.

Since we have no way of calculating the strength of the chassis components etc, we just make a guess on the SVA form that will ensure we don't end up 'overloading' the vehicle when it's on the road. The numbers do come into the SVA brake test but you should not worry about them as if you lock (which you will if your braking system is any good at all) then you automatically pass.

[Edited on 3/3/08 by matt_claydon]