How to properly load your campervan?

An overloaded or improperly loaded motorhome, may be illegal, therefore invalidating your insurance and suceptible to traffic fines. But it is also a danger to you and others on the road. Indeed, if your campervan is not loaded correctly it can become to heavy or the weight might be poorly distributed, which might affect the brakes or the steering performance, and my cause the tyres to blow out.

How to properly load your campervan?

First things first, you must know how much you are allowed to weigh. Most campervan models have a weight limit of 3.5 tonnes, which takes everything into account : the appliences, the passengers, your belongings and even the vehicule itself. Hence, you might want to know how much your items weigh before starting a road trip.

Distribute the weight evenly

The space you have available in a motorhome is a lot less than at home, think about what you need to bring versus what you can live without. Heavy items should always be stored on the floor of the motorhome and as close to the middle space between the axles as possible. These could be items such as water bottles or outdoor equipment. This will ensure that there is not too much pressure being placed on either axle.

Remember to spread them along the middle, on the floor, as much as possible to avoid staking and things falling over. Also, think about where the appliances are, those sections of the campervan are already heavier than others. Items that are not too heavy can be placed in the middle cabinets or on counter tops. Such as heavier clothing items, extra sheets and towels or dinnerware are perfect for storing all around the middle section of your campervan. Only the lightest items should be placed in the overhead storage as even when those cabinets are secured, putting heavy items in them can cause the latch to break causing serious injury. Lighter items such as summer clothing can be stored anywhere, but it’s best practice to put them in places where you can only store light items, so you can have room for heavier items in their proper place.

Other things to keep in mind

When planning your trip make sure to think about how much space you will need.

Most vehicles are not designed to travel with full water tanks, so this may cause instability and excess weight you had not budgeted for. Full tanks and unbalanced loading can cause instability and difficulty in steering.
To help keep weight reduced, empty the holding tanks whenever you can. Consider only carrying as much water as you will need until you get to the next fill station. 1 gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds.
When weighing your campervan, it’s a good idea to weigh both right and left-hand sides separately. This will show you if you have overloaded one side more than the other.
Your goal should be to load everything as evenly as possible, with the possibility of having a little more weight to the front of the axles. This will help prevent you from being lopsided, which could lead to swaying and tire blowouts.
A lopsided campervan won’t do well on slippery roads, nor do will it do well in areas where there is construction going on.
When loading, make sure that all items will be secured and won’t move around when driving to prevent damage to the items or injury to the passengers.
Once everything is loaded into the campervan, you should walk around the vehicle, checking the tyres to make sure one isn’t overloaded compared to the others.

How NOT to load your campervan

Do not overload your RV period. You should never be driving in excess vehicle weight as doing so causes tires to wear out quickly and makes it significantly harder to stop the motorhome. In addition, if you are involved in an accident you might not be covered by your insurance. You can also be pulled over at any time by law enforcement to be weighed if they think you might be over your weight limit. If you are over, you could receive hefty fines and be forced to unload and leave some stuff behind.

There are a few things you should absolutely not do when organizing your campervan storage:

This first is to store your gas canister anywhere else besides its allotted space, as well as do not store anything in the gas canister space.
When driving, please make sure that the canister is properly secured before setting off.
Once again, do not place anything heavy in the overhead storage cabinets or bins, doing so could result in serious injury.
When loading your RV do not overload one side over the other, this will cause issues will steering and stability.
If your RV has a rear under storage compartment, do not overload it, as overloading can cause excess weight on the rear axle.

Pro-tip: Leave room to grow. Don’t go traveling with a campervan that is already at or close to its maximum weight limit. Leave as much room as possible in case you need or want to add anything to your campervan.

Couple dancing out of a campervan to road trip songs

Now that your campervan is safely loaded with everything you will need, it’s time to start your adventure!