But what about Doka's !
can't leave those out ..very heavy duty haulers.

tell me ..
AKO   ( all knowlegible one ) ..in Germany do they allow large dogs loose
inside a passenger car while driving ?
A large animal in a car, unsecured, could be quite lethal as a
flying/flailing object in a serious car crash.
I'd think they would have laws about that in Germany ..

Here of course ..
anything pet-wise in the vehicle goes...as long as you can mostly see out
the windshield ..or so it would appear to me.
( I also don't like too many laws about *every little thing* ...don't like
things too over-controlled like that. )

didn't mean to get carried away.
I think the law for a stop sign should stay 'you must come to a full and
complete stop when it is neccessary' ..
in other words...if it's 3 AM and no other car is in sight ...it should be
legal to go through a stop sign carefully without coming to a full and
complete stop.

like allow some discretion and some thinking ..don't dumb everything down.

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2011 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: How much weight can I carry?

> At 03:26 PM 3/26/2011, Ed Lloyd wrote:
>>What cargo weight limit do you think is maximum?  If the bags are
>>wet they could be 50 pounds or more.
>
> Ed, you need to qualify the question and supply more data,
> specifically are you talking about a 7-passenger, a Syncro, a Westy
> or a Syncro Westy?  They all have the same gross weight but they
> weigh a lot different empty.
>
> As to the question - if it's "can I get away with it?" the
> non-binding answer is sure, no problem, even if they weigh 50 lb each
> and you have 20 of them.  People have carried far more in these vans
> and gotten away with it, and if anyone has carried something very
> heavy for a short distance and *not* gotten away with it in the short
> term we haven't heard about it.  If it's a passenger van it's
> probably within published limits.
>
> If it's "What can I carry and stay within published limits?" - and
> this is a question that pertains both to longevity and *potentially*
> to liability issues should there be an accident*** - then the list
> can supply rough answers or you can weigh your front and rear axles
> at a truck stop and make your own calculations.
>
> Of course in order to carry maximum load safely you need properly
> specified tires, correctly inflated - the door sticker provides
> correct inflation pressures for the two stock sizes of tire as well
> as the minimum tire specification (open can of worms here).
>
>
> ***I queried my insurance company (USAA) about this in context of the
> list's ongoing discussion about tires, and whether it was necessary
> to meet the published spec.  The question was "In the event of an
> at-fault accident, would USAA refuse to pay a liability claim if
> sub-specification tires were on the vehicle?"  The answer was
> (roughly) "In Germany, absolutely.  Our German policies are
> specifically written that the vehicle must comply in all
> respects.  In the US that would be a matter for the claims adjuster
> to determine.  If he determined that the tires were a contributing
> factor we might refuse to pay under the general negligence clause of
> the policy."
>
> Yours,
> David