Hi there,

Where do I find the Unladen Weight for my Oct II TD-VRS?

This is now one of the most important weights for towing and it's not in any of the documentation that I've got.

As I took my test in 1997, I can only tow up to the Unladen weight of the Octy on my current licence.

Cheers!

Somewhere in the 'Technical Data' section of the handbook, or perhaps in a brochure/skoda website.

Only Kerb weight is stated which is different to Unladen weight.

Cheers!

What's the difference?

Unladen weight

The unladen weight of any vehicle is the vehicles own weight when not carrying any goods or burden. This is:

inclusive of the body and all parts which are necessary to or ordinarily used with the vehicle or trailer when working on a road

exclusive of water, fuel or accumulators used for the purpose of the supply of power for the propulsion of the vehicle.

The Kerb weight can take into account the driver and pos. a full tank of fuel.

The Unladen Weight is a government specific weight that laws are made around.

Cheers!

Well you can only tow a trailer upto 750kg

I see why you are asking about the unladen weight of the octavia, however trust me it will be more than 750kg, probably somehwere areound the 1200kg mark.

You are also OK under MAM as max octy weight is not going to be 2.75ton.

That's not quite true.

Category B vehicles may be coupled with a trailer up to 750kg MAM (allowing a combined weight up to 4.25 tonnes MAM) OR a trailer over 750kg MAM provided the MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen weight of the towing vehicle, and the combination does not exceed 3.5 tonnes MAM.

Taken from the DVLA

Cheers!

Where abouts - all I could find is

"Motor vehicles with a MAM not exceeding 3500kg having not more than 8 passenger seats with a trailer up to 750kg. Combinations of towing vehicles in category B and a trailer, where the MAM of the combination does not exceed 3500kg and the MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen mass of the towing vehicle"

The Kerb weight can take into account the driver and pos. a full tank of fuel.

If you know the kerb weight, you could get a rough idea of the unladen weight, by assuming a driver is 70kg, and the full tank of fuel will be 55 litres (?) - a litre of fuel is roughly 1 kg.....

Chris

Hi there,

Where do I find the Unladen Weight for my Oct II TD-VRS?

This is now one of the most important weights for towing and it's not in any of the documentation that I've got.

As I took my test in 1997, I can only tow up to the Unladen weight of the Octy on my current licence.

Cheers!

Kerb weight or unladen weight are IMHO not material.

From a Skoda Sales brochure (and I presume it will be in the handbook) it lists, for the vRD TDI Hatch & Estate:

Towing unbraked max kg - 650

Towing braked max kg - 1,400

Nose weight max kg - 75

Any higher weight than this will be in excess of the designed towing weights for the vehicle which will inevitably invaldate your insurance; regardless of what your licence or any DVLA directive says !!

The DVLA Towing document is at http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/inf30.pdf and i took the bit from page 4.

Yes, I could guess/roughly work out the Unladen weight, but this is a legal weight that should be stated somewhere, shouldn't it?

The max towing weight is 1400Kg's, but if the Kerb weight is approx 1400kg, then the Unladen weight will be less than 1400kg, so i will only be able to low less than 1400kg so the max towing weight isn't really important for me.

Cheers!

Might I suggest a visit to a weighbridge? That will tell you what you actually want to know!

No, not so. The Unladen Weight is a Controlled Specific Weight. It must be listed somewhere!

How about this:-

I have looked at my Registration Document (V5c), I also have a vRS TDI, which states the following:-

F.1 Max permissible mass (exc. m/c) - 1970

G Mass in Service - 1505

O Technical permissible maximum towable mass of the trailer

O.1 braked (kg) - 1400

O.2 unbraked (kg) - 650

Considering the above;- the unladen/kerb/mass in service weight of the car is clearly 1505 kg and the max 'braked' towable weight is 1400kg so if this does not answer the original question of 'how much can I tow?', I don't know what does !!

No, not so. The Unladen Weight is a Controlled Specific Weight. It must be listed somewhere!

You're still going to have to weigh whatever it is you are towing!

If you are towing a caravan (I can't quote on other trailers) then the kerb weight is the recognised weight for towing purposes . I believe the kerb weight of the the 2.0Tdi hatchback (140bhp) is 1330 kgs. and the kerb weight of the RS 2.0Tdi hatchback (170bhp) is 1505 Kg. The maximum gross weight of the total outfit must not exceed 3500kgs, (car +all passengers+all luggage + full tank of fuel,tools etc.) and (caravan+ ALL contents inside the van). The recommended maximum towing percentage weight is 85% therefore for the 2.0Tdi the recommended maximum towing weight is 1130 Kgs and for the RS 2.0Tdi is 1279 Kgs, although it is permissible for "experienced" drivers to tow up to 100% of the kerbweight. Check out TowCar.info - All about Towcars and Towing Caravans for more detailed information. Hope this helps.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, this is now driving me mad.

The DVLA states it's the Unladen weight and the MAM, Max authorised mass, not the gross weight. I understand that the MAM is the max it could hold not what is is holding.

We all seem to be going around in circles on this one and looking for a statistic that does not want to be found. :(

Let's try a different way - what is it that you ACTUALLY want to tow? How heavy is it? Will the trailer you use be braked or unbraked? Perhaps with this information given, answers/advice can be provided.

Have copyed this from the Octavia section on Skoda .co.uk

Lists Kerbweights at the bottom of the broucher hope this helps.

Will be towing a 1400kg caravan in the next week or two with no problems.

new_octavia_quickv1.pdf

Have copyed this from the Octavia section on Skoda .co.uk

Lists Kerbweights at the bottom of the broucher hope this helps.

Will be towing a 1400kg caravan in the next week or two with no problems.

But you are too old to be affected by the rule change.

Intresting it is the MAM weight of the trailer as this will severley limit what trailers you can tow.

But you are too old to be affected by the rule change.

:eek:

I'm more looking to see what I can tow up to.

The trailer/caravan cannot weight more than the Unladen weight of the car, so if the unladen weight is less than 1400Kg's then it doesn't matter that the car can tow upto 1400Kg's.

The total MAN then has to be less than 3500Kg's.

This effects anyone who passed there test after 1st Jan 2007 only.

Crap, I know!

Cheers

You could always take a B + E test have a read here,

B+E tests

Yeh, but I want to know what I can tow without taking the B+E test.