Why a Mobile Weighbridge?

We hear you wondering, "why would I pay Take A Weigh for a service that I can get for free at a public weighbridge?"

Well, they're not quite the same thing. Here's why:

1. Accuracy.  Usually a public weighbridge will weigh in 20kg increments. This  rounding is  fine for a truckload of gravel but if your caravan is close to it's maximum weight it could mean unnecessarily going without a bbq or even a slab or 2 of beer. Our mobile weighbridge weighs in 1 kg increments and is regularly calibrated.

2. Pre purchase weigh. If you were to Google "what should I  check before buying a new van, camper or trailer?" you will invariably be advised to "have it weighed on the day of pick up". This is simply because every gas bottle, jerry holder, and toolbox added to the trailer since it rolled off the line has added mass and reduced the mass that you can pack into it. Imagine spending $80,000 on a new caravan and finding that you can only pack 150kg of gear into it before exceeding it's allowable gross weight? This happens. Alas, very few vendors have scales and they're not always that excited for you to tow their rig for an hour through traffic to a dusty waste station weighbridge. We work with vendors, dealers and buyers around Sydney to complete a pre purchase weigh at the vendors preferred location to ensure you're not buying more than you bargained for. 

3. Flexible Location. Lets face it, it's never a relaxing or pleasant experience towing your rig to the local tip for some caravan weighing. Plus if it's your first caravan and you're already feeling apprehensive about towing, there is nothing more daunting than having to tow your potentially overweight rig to and from the weighbridge in Sydney's traffic and holding up a bunch of trucks while you do it.

4. Balance. Weighbridges weigh with 1 to 2 weigh pads. We use a pad under each wheel/axle of the vehicle/ trailer. This allows the owner to obtain a balance across their load by shifting weight from front to back or side to side.

 We have just finished towing a 3 tonne van and 2 toddlers around Australia, so boy do we understand that wobbly feeling your van can get at the wrong speed. As do we know the frustration of the unknown when you're adding water, recovery gear, racks and rod holders to your rig. Over the course of our caravan journey, there were four scenarios when we found ourselves wishing for a mobile vehicle weigher: 

1) When we couldn't obtain the true weight of the van on the day of purchase

2) When the local tip had a line of tippers revving at us while we were busily winding the van up and down to get a read on the ball weight 

3) Almost anytime we found a city with a buffet of listed weighbridges only to find that they no longer existed, their owners don't encourage public weighing, or that they were located at the docks on the other side of the CBD, or at the tip via a dirt road some 20km away

4) When we trusted an oddly high weight reading at a stockyard weighbridge and lightened our load by 50kg (the equivalent of 2 bulging hiking packs, a yoga mat and a gas stove) so that we could take water across to the NT border. We later learned that the weighbridge was out by at least 80kg - and that this is not uncommon!

As we stood there working out what next to ship off back home to lighten our load, if someone had pulled up to my site, walked past my screaming kids and brooding wife with a set of scales ready to place under the van and ute I would've simply said "shut up and take my money!"