Vintage Van Rego

[heath]

Hi all,

Can anybody tell me whats required to be fitted inside a van for it to be accepted for rego? Mine is light and has no brakes in its original form. After 750kg it looks like brakes have to fitted. After my reno is completed it may go a little heavier. Any special tricks that you can suggest for me to come in under the 750kg limit? In any case, I'll just fit a new drum braked axle (to cope with whatever load) if it slides over. I have to replace the leaf springs anyway.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,



Heath

[Franklin1]

Crikey heath, more than 750kgs for your little van?? What are you doing...putting in a suspended concrete floor?

Your van doesn't look like it's more than about 10ft long, would that be right? Should weigh in at about 500, maybe 600 kgs at most.

For the Blue Slip you'll need:
1) a weighbridge ticket showing the weight. (My Blue Slip man told me to empty out the inside of the van as much as possible before getting it weighed)
2) a plate on the drawbar showing the VIN. If there isn't a plate there, the Blue Slip man will (hopefully) provide one and stamp a VIN on it.
3) approved quick-release coupling fitted (unless you want to argue about retaining an original coupling)
4) wheel bearings have no play
5) tyres in good nick
6) all traffic lights fitted to van operating.

For the RTA you'll need:
1) the Blue Slip paperwork
2) receipt for purchase of the van
3) payment

Yep, 750kgs and above means brakes. My 14ft bondwood weighed in at 748kgs. [Amazing what a little finger under the corner of the weighbridge can do..._kidding ]

Moral of the story...weigh it BEFORE you do the interior fit-out. As long as you can tick the numbers off I've posted above, nobody gives a rats about what's inside the van...at least not in my neck of the woods anyway.

Your biggest challenge will be to nominate the manufacturer's name of the van for the rego papers. NOW what're ya gonna do huh??

I reckon it looks a lot like one of those HEATH vans to me...made by a company up Taree way. ;D ;D

Good luck!

cheers,
Al.

[heath]

Hey Al,

Thanks for the info. I'm not really sweating on the weight if I can have the check done empty - I thought you had to have everything fitted when the certificate was issued. With the van finished in a good safe condition I reckon I'll be unlucky to crack 550kg to 600kg, unless Murphy is lurking. What about the fridge? Its the original Electrolux gas and electric unit. To be safe I'm going fit the fridge and take it in and get a weighbridge check before I finish the reno. My blue slip man says the four digit numbers I found next to the coupling may be accepted if they can decipher the first digit (funny looking lower case d/slash thingo). You need at least four digits to pass RTA. Buggered if I know what I'll say the manufacturer's name is. What do you do if its a home made rig? Plead a deceased craftsman? Say, that's not such a bad idea. What about a
"Heathlin Mini".

Cheers,




Heath

[vernon]

Hi Heath,
We just got our van registered last week (QLD) and we had to have a Fire extinguisher inside and it had to be sighted by the RTA, although l know there are different rules if your under the 750kg. (Good to have just for safety l think we got ours at BigW,cheap as.) We didn't have a make or date we said homemade, and thought it was built around 1956. Didn't have any problems, we just told them what we knew. Hope this helps.

Des and Kel

[heath]

Hi Des and Kel,

Thanks for the words of comfort. My friend called in here the other day (he's turned into a sort of "small van addict" and he gave me additional information regarding ventilation when you have gas appliances fitted. Probably doesn't apply on later models that automatically have it built in , but it seems that when you rebuild an older model you have to make sure that you have an input ventilator grille high on the van and an exhaust ventilator grill on the lower door - the gas is heavier than air and in case of a leak can fill up the floor on a small van. I didn't know this, appreciated the safety tip, and passing it on.

Cheers,

Heath

[vernon]

Hi Heath,

We too had to have additional vents put into Vernon. We were lucky the chap that did ours understood what we were trying to achieve, and went shopping for vents that suited our little/med man. (the van). Has to do with cross ventilation. Sorry could have mentioned this but weren't sure if you were going to use gas.

All the best l think if your up front you'll be fine. (We were really nervous too.)

Des and Kel