Hi all,

I'm a guy from Belgium which just bought a 1992 dodge Ram Van B250 (conversion).
We did rebuild the interior a bit and want to register it as a camper.

This might be a silly question to ou guys but to get it on the road over here I need to specify the gross vehicle weight.

I do not have enough technical specs of the van and didn't find the GVW on the internet.

Could somebody help me out with this.

Cheers,

Loneriderken.

 

The information from the factory is on the driver side door post, or on the door itself. The GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Ratio) is the number you want.

You may also want to weigh your van after the modifications so you know how close to the GVWR you are right now before you start adding anything else. I think that is done with a full tank of gas and 2 people onboard, though I'm not 100% sure about the people. You need to find a truck scale to weigh the front half of the van seperately from the the rear (both halves are done at the same time). That would be a drive on scale. Any place that deals with tractor trailers on a regular basis can tell you where to find one. They are not uncommon and help tractor trailer drivers distribute their cargo weight evenly across the truck's axles.

 

Being a conversion van I'm not sure if the figure is the correct one to use. Finding a scale is the better idea and another place to look for one is a town dump. Many dumps have them so they can charge forthe load by weight.

 

I wouldn't expect the dump to have a split scale though, for that the better place is some kind of truck stop. I'm not sure what they use in Belgium, or even what their name for it is, but most any kind of heavy truck driver there should be able to point him in the correct direction.

The reason I am recommending the split scale if at all possible is that will give some idea of load distribution which affects handling during stopping.

If the rear is much heavier than the front there is a tendency for it to come around in a quick stopping scenario. Which on any type of slick surface is a nasty thing to have, because not only do you loose traction (slick), but control(sideways).

You may notice that heavy tractor trailers have a method for brining the
rear wheels forward or even spreading the rear set apart to distribute the weight better. Split scales for tractor trailers have 3 sections usually,

This is also the reason when the aprotioning valve is working properly that more of the brake preasure is applied to the rear brakes even though approximately 70% of the stopping power is on the front wheels.

 

Hi guys,

I found the GVWR on the side door post, 6400. This means 2905 kg I suppose.

Now I just need to weigh the vehicle somewhere before we try to pass it trough technical controle.

Perhaps we need to take some seats out of the van because here we have next rule regarding the weight:

GVWR > A x 75 + the actual weight of the van. (where A is the amount of passengers, driver included)

In fact the difference should be even more then 10 x (A + L) where L is the length of the van in meters.

This might get tricky also because we are driving on LPG (gas) and this extra installation is retty heavy already.


Thanks for the information, I will keep you up to date on the result and will try to post some pictures of our van also.

 

If you're worried about weight, not only taking out the seats would help, but to keep all of the camping gear and carry on hardware out of the vehicle for weighing. This would give you the intended vehicle camper "dry weight"

There are a few RV companies that have converted Dodge Ram Vans into Class-C campers here in North America.



The most notable and popular is the RoadTrek. The've been building RV campers on Dodge Ram Vans since 1974.
Roadtrek Celebrates Last Dodge Built

Pictured with a cake commemorating the 1974 to 2003 relationship with Dodge based Roadtreks is from left to right Ben Spengen, Production Manager, Jeff Hanemaayer, Chairman & Owner, Franco Coroppo, Prototype Specialist. Behind is one of the first Dodge Roadtreks and on the right the 2003 Dodge 190.

http://www.roadtrek.com/news_detail....5&fromPage

Coachmen also used the Dodge Ram van for making Class-C campers. (1970's-mid 1990's)

Since the Dodge Ram Van is no more, RV companies are either using the DCX Sprinter or the Ram 3500 diesel cut-away trucks. http://www.xplorermotorhome.com/xcursion_dodge225.html

 

Well if the LPG engine was an original option, it will have been included in the GVWR on the post. Would an aftermarket LPG option be that much heavier than the 318 or 360 V8 engines? Also don't forget that the GVRW includes a max load on the chassis so in your case an additional 1500 lbs (250 model = 3/4 ton) on the stock curb weight.

 

I just bought a 96 1 ton ram van. it used to be a delivery van. and on the sticker by the door its GVRW is like 8000lbs. I dont think it weights that much. and I cant take it to a scale. does anybody know how much it would actually weigh?

 

That's the fully loaded weight, not just the weight of the vehicle.