We are getting very busy with work already booked in for most of November and December has started to fill up
If you are planning on using GCL billiards before Christmas for work on your cue sports table , please book now we have only around three weeks of days left plus the odd day here and there.
WEIGHT LIMITS and PAYLOADS for 3500 van carrying snooker tables .
I had a phone call the other day from another Billiards fitter I know very well on the south coast
he informed me he was stopped by the Police in a long wheel base transit hire van with a full size snooker table on board .
Not many people know this but Transits and sprinter Mercedes are not very good at carrying capacity or what is known as PAYLOAD , the long wheel base transit he was driving only had a Load weight of 1050 kg Payload.
some of those sprinters are below 1000 kg payload , they are not very good vans for Snooker tables removals and deliveries.
an average snooker table weighs in at 1150 kg and the thick welsh slate bed tables can be up to 1400kg .
He was fined for being 600kg overweight and had to unload three slates to carry on his journey then return and pick them back up again pl;us £40 for storage to a breakdown yard at a services on a Motorway
that was one very heavy table he had on the van
Moving tables can take upto two days if distance is an issue , this bottom of the range Riley Regis weighs around 1100 kg
We specialise in the movement and assemble of tables this Sam american pool table weighs around 800 kg
the way you load a van can also be very tricky to work out , no more than 1000 kg on the back axle , these modern thinner italian slates are within that weight limit but if thicker welsh slate then this is loaded to the front of the van right up to the bulkhead separating panel between load area and drivers cab
you have to cut down on tools to only taking what you require for the work as it all tallies up including the Driver the passenger and the Fuel in the tank is all regarded as Payload .
if you are border line then we only fill half a tank at a time .
I did a lot of research when I chose our works van , the Newer shape Vauxhall Movano or the Renault Master which is the same vehicle really is the van to go for and class leading in payloads for 3500 vans , the Transit cannot touch it .
with the very small version carrying the most Payload and as you increase length of van the payload decreases
for example the normal no high roof standard wheelbase version of the Movano has a payload of 1684 kg , that’s a whopping 634 kg more weight carrying capacity than the long wheel base Ford Transit that my Colleague from down south had .
he was 600 kg overweight , and with that smaller movano van he could have been around 50 kg within the legal payload if he had been driving the L1 Vauxhall movano .
My van is the L2 H2 the medium wheel base medium roof version , you can move the load around a bit more and get the weight forward of the back axle
it takes a full size table within the back compartment without removal of the bulk head panel which protects the driver and passenger and the payload for our van is 1610 kg
I have worked that out that most snooker tables with a full tank of fuel and two people and tools on board we have a tolerance of 100 kg from type of table to carry within the payloads to stay within the Law .
We can increase this if we take out the double passenger seat and replace it with a single one and also take out the Bulk head panel , thus making the van weigh less but increasing the payload capacity by say a further 50 kg .
and you can buy them with just two seats in rather than the normal three seater.
The longer the wheel base then the payload decreases as extra weight for panel work comes into force , this is all for the 3500 range , which means the total weight must not exceed 3500 kg of van and load .
the next step up is a twin wheel version of the Movano which can carry way over two tons 2000 kg , but these are very long vehicles and not easy to park .
If we do have a very heavy table to move then it will of course be a bit more expensive to transport as we have to either use two vehicles or use jonhills removals who have a 7 ton removals van
I would say 95% of tables move can be done in our own Vauxhall Movano , but we do get the occasional thick heavy slate and heavy wood with steel cushioned table to move
this table for instance was especially heavy , we did move it 35 mile but found out we were actually overweight by around 300 kg
a mistake that we cannot ignore anymore , if you have a very heavy table then it will be more costly to move as we will use two vans or jonills removals to deliver your table .
this the normal way we stack a table inside the van , this one is within legal load weight and is positioned just right for back axle weight to front weight ratio to avoid light steering .
we carry just enough tools , to erect the table at the delivery address .
Very light Metric tables by Thurston are around 1150 kg we have two frames cushions and the slates on here , we where transporting them to a council yard two mile down the road who had a weigh bridge
we weighed the van with two people on board and it came to a little over 1450 kg with two tables and shades but one set of slates on .
with 1000 kg exactly on the back axle , and just below half a tank of fuel .
for comparison a Gallon of fuel weighs approx 3.5 kg , half a tank would be around 8 gallon , = 28 kg , full tank around 60 kg .
Deduct that off the 1610 kg and it reduces the payload to 1550 kg, less 200kg for driver and passenger = 1350kg
tools and a normal weight snooker table just come in on that weight limit on my van for 95% of tables .
The law is that the Police may give you leeway of a up to 5% discrepancy , warned and tell you to take more notice of your load weight .
after the 5% it is a sliding scale of fines of around £100 per 200k kg overweight , if you go over 30% overweight then it is a court case and you will have to appear in court .
we cannot go above the load capacity using just one van , we just cannot afford to do this . so if you have an extremely heavy table such as a Burroughs and watts solid oak or Mahogany steel cushioned table then be prepared it will cost more to transport .
Read this and see the gulf between a Transit and a Movano for payloads.
http://www.parkers.co.uk/vans/news-and-advice/2015/march/top-10-vans-for-payloads-at-35t/
