Payload of 2021 4Motion 6.1 Ocean

[LucyYorkshire]

Hope someone can help. I’m taking delivery of my new 4Motion 2021 6.1 Ocean in a few weeks and am just looking at payloads. The thing is I have added a diff lock and a tow bar to my spec and am a bit worried about how much payload I have to play with. I have 3 pretty heavy dogs (87kg total) and my partner and I weigh 140kg between us. I see we have 376kg to play with before looking at diff lock etc and am now panicking that I’ll only be able to take one pair of flip flops and a small bottle of wine each! I think the the payload includes 1 person and the fuel tank at 90% - is this true? And anyone know how much extra weight the diff lock and the tow bar adds? I’ve looked at the weight of everything I would like to take - gas, alcohol, electrical cable, alcohol, bedding, alcohol, clothes, camera equipment, cadac, porta potti, food, dog food, gas, etc etc and it soon adds up. I bought a carpet and seat covers and I weighed them this afternoon and they alone add 12kg (yes, I know I’m sad but got myself in a panic with nothing else to do!).

Thanks in advance.

 

[WelshGas]

Hope someone can help. I’m taking delivery of my new 4Motion 2021 6.1 Ocean in a few weeks and am just looking at payloads. The thing is I have added a diff lock and a tow bar to my spec and am a bit worried about how much payload I have to play with. I have 3 pretty heavy dogs (87kg total) and my partner and I weigh 140kg between us. I see we have 376kg to play with before looking at diff lock etc and am now panicking that I’ll only be able to take one pair of flip flops and a small bottle of wine each! I think the the payload includes 1 person and the fuel tank at 90% - is this true? And anyone know how much extra weight the diff lock and the tow bar adds? I’ve looked at the weight of everything I would like to take - gas, alcohol, electrical cable, alcohol, bedding, alcohol, clothes, camera equipment, cadac, porta potti, food, dog food, gas, etc etc and it soon adds up. I bought a carpet and seat covers and I weighed them this afternoon and they alone add 12kg (yes, I know I’m sad but got myself in a panic with nothing else to do!).

Thanks in advance.

The definitive way is to go to your local Public Weighbridge and get it weighed.

 

[LucyYorkshire]

The definitive way is to go to your local Public Weighbridge and get it weighed.

Thank you for your reply. We’ve found our local weigh-bridge and will definitely do this. We’ll take a reading as soon as we take delivery and then after the essentials are added. I just can’t find online how much each ‘add-on/extra’ weighs - I just suddenly worried that the tow bar and diff lock would add a huge amount of weight which would take from our payload. We will also tow an Eriba caravan occasionally so I know the nose weight will take from the payload too.... I just want to make sure we’re safe and legal.

 

[Stu@rt]

Thank you for your reply. We’ve found our local weigh-bridge and will definitely do this. We’ll take a reading as soon as we take delivery and then after the essentials are added. I just can’t find online how much each ‘add-on/extra’ weighs - I just suddenly worried that the tow bar and diff lock would add a huge amount of weight which would take from our payload. We will also tow an Eriba caravan occasionally so I know the nose weight will take from the payload too.... I just want to make sure we’re safe and legal.

I thought the configurator did that for you. If you add options the tech specs change I think. Could be wrong, but worth a quick check.

 

[LucyYorkshire]

I thought the configurator did that for you. If you add options the tech specs change I think. Could be wrong, but worth a quick check.

Thanks for that - I’ve just tried to input my specifications into the configurator again and it doesn’t show up the weight/payload info despite there being a button saying ‘technical details’. I’ve tried this on a couple of different devices just in case it was my phone but it doesn’t work. I know there was an issue with weight/emissions earlier in the year but haven’t been contacted that my specification may alter my payload availability.... I’m sure I’m worrying about nothing....

 

[Stu@rt]

Thanks for that - I’ve just tried to input my specifications into the configurator again and it doesn’t show up the weight/payload info despite there being a button saying ‘technical details’. I’ve tried this on a couple of different devices just in case it was my phone but it doesn’t work. I know there was an issue with weight/emissions earlier in the year but haven’t been contacted that my specification may alter my payload availability.... I’m sure I’m worrying about nothing....

I may be barking up the wrong tree here and confess to being out of my depth, but you can see what difference the options make, weight wise though. A 4motion with no options gives the vehicle and driver weight at 2704KG & then when I added the towbar and the diff lock it increased to 2721KG - does that not help with the equation at all? I'll defer to those more technical than me, but do you subject this from the gross weight to get where you need to be? Apologies if I am misleading you.

 

[LucyYorkshire]

I may be barking up the wrong tree here and confess to being out of my depth, but you can see what difference the options make, weight wise though. A 4motion with no options gives the vehicle and driver weight at 2704KG & then when I added the towbar and the diff lock it increased to 2721KG - does that not help with the equation at all? I'll defer to those more technical than me, but do you subject this from the gross weight to get where you need to be? Apologies if I am misleading you.

Stuart - thank you so much - I really really appreciate you looking into this. I think you’re right. I am not very good at technical stuff. I just looked again at the configurator (I was looking in the wrong place before) and think that ALL my options add 27kg so I still have a v good payload to play with. Where we live we have to have 4motion and diff lock as we get bad weather but if it means we have the safety net of that over a load of tat that I fill the van with then I’m happy Hope you have a lovely evening Stuart.

 

[SusiBus]

Hope someone can help. I’m taking delivery of my new 4Motion 2021 6.1 Ocean in a few weeks and am just looking at payloads. The thing is I have added a diff lock and a tow bar to my spec and am a bit worried about how much payload I have to play with. I have 3 pretty heavy dogs (87kg total) and my partner and I weigh 140kg between us. I see we have 376kg to play with before looking at diff lock etc and am now panicking that I’ll only be able to take one pair of flip flops and a small bottle of wine each! I think the the payload includes 1 person and the fuel tank at 90% - is this true? And anyone know how much extra weight the diff lock and the tow bar adds? I’ve looked at the weight of everything I would like to take - gas, alcohol, electrical cable, alcohol, bedding, alcohol, clothes, camera equipment, cadac, porta potti, food, dog food, gas, etc etc and it soon adds up. I bought a carpet and seat covers and I weighed them this afternoon and they alone add 12kg (yes, I know I’m sad but got myself in a panic with nothing else to do!).

Thanks in advance.

You're not alone. We had a T6 4Mo with different lock, bike rack etc, no dogs! It always looked over loaded when fully fueled and ready to go, due to re-end sag, but l choose to ignore it. Now with a T6.1 4Mo in the pipe line, and the recent highlighting of payloads, l like feel obliged not to overlook it to be legal.

 

[LucyYorkshire]

You're not alone. We had a T6 4Mo with different lock, bike rack etc, no dogs! It always looked over loaded when fully fueled and ready to go, due to re-end sag, but l choose to ignore it. Now with a T6.1 4Mo in the pipe line, and the recent highlighting of payloads, l like feel obliged not to overlook it to be legal.

Thank you - I think I’m being over cautious but just don’t want to have any problems when we can eventually go abroad and if we were stoped for being over our allowed weight. Just so excited about our first ever Cali being delivered that I’m getting the wobbles now about anything that can go wrong.

 

[The Blue Merle]

Hope someone can help. I’m taking delivery of my new 4Motion 2021 6.1 Ocean in a few weeks and am just looking at payloads. The thing is I have added a diff lock and a tow bar to my spec and am a bit worried about how much payload I have to play with. I have 3 pretty heavy dogs (87kg total) and my partner and I weigh 140kg between us. I see we have 376kg to play with before looking at diff lock etc and am now panicking that I’ll only be able to take one pair of flip flops and a small bottle of wine each! I think the the payload includes 1 person and the fuel tank at 90% - is this true? And anyone know how much extra weight the diff lock and the tow bar adds? I’ve looked at the weight of everything I would like to take - gas, alcohol, electrical cable, alcohol, bedding, alcohol, clothes, camera equipment, cadac, porta potti, food, dog food, gas, etc etc and it soon adds up. I bought a carpet and seat covers and I weighed them this afternoon and they alone add 12kg (yes, I know I’m sad but got myself in a panic with nothing else to do!).

Thanks in advance.

Diff lock on westy joker is extra 2kg and tow bar detachable type etc is 18kg
I imagine it’s the same for cali

 

[WelshGas]

You're not alone. We had a T6 4Mo with different lock, bike rack etc, no dogs! It always looked over loaded when fully fueled and ready to go, due to re-end sag, but l choose to ignore it. Now with a T6.1 4Mo in the pipe line, and the recent highlighting of payloads, l like feel obliged not to overlook it to be legal.

I very much doubt if it was overloaded due the the “ rear end sag “.
The front wheel arch is cut higher than the rear arch giving an optical illusion.
Instead of measuring wheel centre to wheel arch apex, measure wheel centre to horizontal body contour.
If it was that severely overloaded then the handling would be severely affected.

 

[Mrstu2u]

Lucy, if you live in a location that requires 4motion and diff lock, I can recommend the 35mm suspension / BFG tyres route, I had mine done by T5 upgrades but there are several options out there Seikel etc, I’ve had several lift kits over the years and it does install confidence.

 

[kurienp]

Let me also throw this into the mix of items - if you want to increase the payload, do take a look at Air Suspension. VB Air Suspension is rated for a higher payload and helps increase the payload .. .and brings other benefits along with it. Rosmia are on the forum here and check out their website https://www.rosmia.co.uk/

 

[LucyYorkshire]

Lucy, if you live in a location that requires 4motion and diff lock, I can recommend the 35mm suspension / BFG tyres route, I had mine done by T5 upgrades but there are several options out there Seikel etc, I’ve had several lift kits over the years and it does install confidence.

Let me also throw this into the mix of items - if you want to increase the payload, do take a look at Air Suspension. VB Air Suspension is rated for a higher payload and helps increase the payload .. .and brings other benefits along with it. Rosmia are on the forum here and check out their website https://www.rosmia.co.uk/

Thank you so much for letting me know about these options. It’s really kind of you to share your knowledge. I guess I just need 50-75kg extra payload as I didn’t realise the 4motion would take so much of it up (circa 110kg between the 2 different 204 models). It is all totally new to me so I will need to do some research about how it’ll affect insurance and re-sale etc. Do either of you know if that would be a problem?

 

[andyinluton]

I have 3 pretty heavy dogs (87kg total) and my partner and I weigh 140kg between us. I see we have 376kg to play with before looking at diff lock etc and am now panicking that I’ll only be able to take one pair of flip flops and a small bottle of wine each!

The payload assumes full water, 90% fuel and 75kg Driver so on your figures above you would have 376kg - 140kg +75kg - 87kg = 224kg left.

With 3 dogs filling the van where are you actually going to fit another 1/4 of a Tonne of stuff - thats 10 full holiday suitcases.

What will eat into it massively is if you start taking heavy electric bikes. A big awning could be another 25-40kg other than that even a case of wine is only about 8.5kg. I reckon you will run out of space before you run out of weight. If you tow & put 50kg on the nose weight, just take 50kg out the van & put it in the Eriba.

I would fully load the van before you even consider changing the suspension, ours rides much better fully loaded - its almost as if it was designed for it.

 

[LucyYorkshire]

The payload assumes full water, 90% fuel and 75kg Driver so on your figures above you would have 376kg - 140kg +75kg - 87kg = 224kg left.

With 3 dogs filling the van where are you actually going to fit another 1/4 of a Tonne of stuff - thats 10 full holiday suitcases.

What will eat into it massively is if you start taking heavy electric bikes. A big awning could be another 25-40kg other than that even a case of wine is only about 8.5kg. I reckon you will run out of space before you run out of weight. If you tow & put 50kg on the nose weight, just take 50kg out the van & put it in the Eriba.

I would fully load the van before you even consider changing the suspension, ours rides much better fully loaded - its almost as if it was designed for it.

Helloo! Thanks for your reply Andy. Alas my research has led me to realise that the payload includes 90% fuel and 75kg person - no water. This may have changed recently. I checked the online brochure and have spoken to 2 dealers today and they confirm this. The Grand Cali includes full water tanks on their spec but not the Cali. And with my spec I have 350kg payload minus 70kg person, minus 87kg dogs which means 193kg payload. This maybe still sounds a lot but when you add even a small allowance of water at a kg per litre, food, alcohol, clothes, gas, bbq, kitchen e, dog food, hook up, levelling blocks, bedding, medicines, photography equipment etc it soon adds up. And even 1 bottle of wine on my scales is 1.2kg so I really think I may need to up my payload as a case of wine would be almost 15kg!
But it’s great to hear that your van rides better fully loaded as ours certainly will be!

I’m just wondering if I can up the payload by paying to have it replated but not actually change the suspension as such (maybe this can only be done in other country’s but it sounds like the suspension can take extra weight if needed judging by what other people have told me).

I’m investigating tomorrow as my Cali is being registered imminently - I guess I just want to be safe and legal. People talk about the 5% leeway on payload but even the manufacturer has a 5% leeway so if the manufacturer has understated the weight of the van by 5% and then I’m overloading by 5% I could be in real trouble.

Really really appreciate your thoughts though - I’ve read many of your responses on this site and have always appreciate your point of view and advice.

Lucy

 

[Calimili]

Mine is a T6 150 Dsg 4M Ocean with spare wheel and towing hitch. I went through your exercise recently, figuring out what weights how much. After finding the possibility to upgrade springs and wheels to get to 3.5 T, I thought that the springs might take such increased load easily, maybe the dsg and transmission, chassis , brakes not so much. The smarter way is to go light on the paraphernalia we take with us camping.
Don't underestimate the little things because it adds up quickly. You will not run out of space before you run out of payload. Especially with 3 dogs and the food and stuff they need.
I bought a scale and made a spreadsheet of literally everything that is in my Cali. I suggest you do the same, then you'll be able to decide what you need and what you can bring with you.

 

[LucyYorkshire]

Mine is a T6 150 Dsg 4M Ocean with spare wheel and towing hitch. I went through your exercise recently, figuring out what weights how much. After finding the possibility to upgrade springs and wheels to get to 3.5 T, I thought that the springs might take such increased load easily, maybe the dsg and transmission, chassis , brakes not so much. The smarter way is to go light on the paraphernalia we take with us camping.
Don't underestimate the little things because it adds up quickly. You will not run out of space before you run out of payload. Especially with 3 dogs and the food and stuff they need.
I bought a scale and made a spreadsheet of literally everything that is in my Cali. I suggest you do the same, then you'll be able to decide what you need and what you can bring with you.

Bless you! Thank you for your reply. I’m so pleased you’ve done the spreadsheet exercise. I did this yesterday and scared myself rigid by weighing EVERYTHING that will go into the van and it is the little things that soon add up. We have also sourced our local weighbridge to check our weight once laden. We have made a mistake I think getting the 4motion because of the decreased payload with our situation but we are where we are and will try to ditch as much useless stuff as necessary. It is only because of our 3 hefty dogs and their paraphernalia and food that we are having the issue but they are very important to our free time and the reason we don’t jet off without them to exotic places! When we’re towing our eriba we’ll be able to distribute the weight between the 2 (or carry it all in the Eriba) but the plan is not to be towing most of the time.
I don’t want to go down the modification route re: payload- I thought it might be an administrative exercise but it sounds like it’s not.... Ho hum. I’ll have to find some lighter wine bottles! Thanks again for your advice.

 

[s2bear]

Let me also throw this into the mix of items - if you want to increase the payload, do take a look at Air Suspension. VB Air Suspension is rated for a higher payload and helps increase the payload .. .and brings other benefits along with it. Rosmia are on the forum here and check out their website https://www.rosmia.co.uk/

If one does this and goes for ‘replating’ does anyone know if you then get hit with lower speed limits or other restrictions which apply to heavier vehicles?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[andyinluton]

If one does this and goes for ‘replating’ does anyone know if you then get hit with lower speed limits or other restrictions which apply to heavier vehicles?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I don't know how far you will get replacing a recent cali. Vw have already done that by giving a gross weight of 3080kg on what was originally a 3000kg vehicle. The T32 vans - the 3200kg chassis has different suspension etc

Speed limits in the UK won't change unless you go over 3050kg unladen weight so you would be fine there.

I still reckon you will run out of space! where are you going to put everything?

 

[clarinetbcn]

I very much doubt if it was overloaded due the the “ rear end sag “.
The front wheel arch is cut higher than the rear arch giving an optical illusion.
Instead of measuring wheel centre to wheel arch apex, measure wheel centre to horizontal body contour.
If it was that severely overloaded then the handling would be severely affected.

I agree but I doubt you'll get very far with this. Two popular suspension specialists on the T6 forum, Bognor Motors and CRS Performance, claim that if the van is level, handling and steering are badly affected (CRS goes so far as to say that VW fit the wrong rear springs to the the Cali and that they are the worst handling vans made). They claim that unless the rear is raised 40-50mm so that the wheel arch gap is the same at front and rear, and the door sills and horizontal body line slope down from back to front, it's not right and handling will be poor. This makes no sense in a world where so many claim that lowering their vans improves handling. They also claim that the Cali's camping equipment weight is all in the back, while ignoring that an empty Transporter is very front heavy due to the engine, and is designed to be balanced and level when it's loaded.

When I pointed out that this higher rear arrangement makes the floor of the interior of the van slope down from rear to front, things got quite snippy. Both do a brisk business selling kits to remedy "rear sag."

T6.1 And Eibach Springs (beware)

Just to let you know I had the 30mm lowering springs fitted to my 2020 T6.1 California. The rear was too low and the van sloped to the rear. VW would not do anything about it - however I have just received an email from Eibach who have admited they are aware of the problem and have just received...

www.t6forum.com

 

[WelshGas]

I agree but I doubt you'll get very far with this. Two popular suspension specialists on the T6 forum, Bognor Motors and CRS Performance, claim that if the van is level, handling and steering are badly affected (CRS goes so far as to say that VW fit the wrong rear springs to the the Cali and that they are the worst handling vans made). They claim that unless the rear is raised 40-50mm so that the wheel arch gap is the same at front and rear, and the door sills and horizontal body line slope down from back to front, it's not right and handling will be poor. This makes no sense in a world where so many claim that lowering their vans improves handling. They also claim that the Cali's camping equipment weight is all in the back, while ignoring that an empty Transporter is very front heavy due to the engine, and is designed to be balanced and level when it's loaded.

When I pointed out that this higher rear arrangement makes the floor of the interior of the van slope down from rear to front, things got quite snippy. Both do a brisk business selling kits to remedy "rear sag."

T6.1 And Eibach Springs (beware)

Just to let you know I had the 30mm lowering springs fitted to my 2020 T6.1 California. The rear was too low and the van sloped to the rear. VW would not do anything about it - however I have just received an email from Eibach who have admited they are aware of the problem and have just received...

www.t6forum.com

I totally agree. But facts are facts, and measurements are measurements, New Glasses for them?

There is a transporter near us, lowered so much he cannot get out of a parking bay with everyone on board without a horrendous noise from the wheels rubbing on the front arch. He gets around the rubbing by putting on a set of 16" wheels for the MOT.

 

[andyinluton]

The suspension on a panel van is even more of a compromise than it is on an Ocean.
The difference in weight between an empty T30 van and a fully loaded one is 1026kg I would expect that to be high at the back when empty, about level when half loaded & looking a bit saggy if fully loaded.
If you then take a 4 motion Ocean based on the same underpinnings, if its only got 395kg payload left it should look like a van thats 6/10ths loaded.

 

[B J G]

Let me also throw this into the mix of items - if you want to increase the payload, do take a look at Air Suspension. VB Air Suspension is rated for a higher payload and helps increase the payload .. .and brings other benefits along with it. Rosmia are on the forum here and check out their website https://www.rosmia.co.uk/

When I had VB it stated that NO INCREASE in GROSSE WEIGHT can be added.
It was also stated on their website 3/4 years ago but can't find that detailed info now.

Might now be changed but wheels & tyres would have to be suited to the increase as well as having it replated (chassis plate) and insurance advised.

 

[andyinluton]

When I had VB it stated that NO INCREASE in GROSSE WEIGHT can be added.

So in fact adding air suspension would lower the payload by whatever the weight of the air system was?

Its also worth noting that the two maximum axle weights for a 4 motion add up to a figure only slightly over the max gross weight for the vehicle.
This would suggest that its not just the total weight you have to be careful of its the distribution of the weight within the van to avoid overloading an individual axle.