Buying a motorhome – there’s a lot to wrap your head around!
There is a lot to understand when you start the journey of buying a motorhome. There are likely to be some terms you are not familiar with so take a read through the following.
Weights and payloads of a motorhome are really vital to understand as a buyer, as they have a bearing on many things, including the vehicle testing cycle you will need to follow and how you can correctly use your motorhome.
The good news is that, if you hold a full New Zealand class 1 drivers license or above you can drive any motorhome with a gross laden weight (GLW) of 6000kg or less. All vehicles above 3500kg will need to have a certificate of loading which is displayed on the front windscreen. There you can find the vehicles gross vehicle mass (GVM) or gross combined mass (GCM)
Terms you should know before you start your search
- Tare Weight: this is the total weight of the motorhome with nothing loaded on board. In other words no gear, all storage/waste tanks are empty (apart from fuel) and there are no occupants or contents on board.
- Gross Laden Weight (GLW): this is the weight of your motorhome and any load it is carrying. This includes any equipment, full fuel tanks and LPG bottles. Fresh water tanks are empty as are the waste tanks. This weight may be specified by the vehicle maker. In most cases GLW is the same as GVM.
- Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM): this is the maximum loaded weight (as stated by the manufacturer) at which the motorhome may be driven on the road.
When you’re searching for the perfect motorhome, a very important factor to understand before you buy is payload. Motorhomes on CoF can hold much more equipment than one on a WoF – such as outdoor chair and tables, the golf clubs, your bikes and the BBQ! Talk to your dealer to better understand how much payload you have on the vehicle you are thinking about buying.
To work out the payload, you take the GVM and subtract the Tare Weight from it, the Tare Weight being the vehicle without any load.
CoF motorhomes are ideal if you’re looking for a motorhome with a generous payload. This will allow you to carry more gear such as bikes and golf clubs, have more batteries and bigger water tanks if you want to stay off grid for longer, all while having less worry about overloading than for a motorhome on a WoF.
Here at RnRV we specialize primarily in vehicles with a very good payload as we believe a motorhome is a significant investment, and one that should be able to be used as its been designed both legally and of course, for your enjoyment.
