VW max payload figures 40 years on.

A couple of days ago a mate asked for some help getting some building materials and asked how much Lola could take, I figured about a metric ton seeing as she's running standard height with the rear slightly higher, so off we went to Wickes.

Three trolley loads of sand, gravel, cement and bricks later, Lola was slammed, wheels in their guards, nice and squat, we all got in..three adults...though that is disputable...

Driving was at first like being in a car...low, moved off out of the car park and boy was the steering heavy, felt every...yeah every bump, speed bumps were crawled over, nothing scraped, even at 30 the steering was keeping me fit, breaking took a little longer but acceleration was only affected a small amount...cool.

So unloaded and re parked and she was sooo light and nimble...and a whole lot higher, thought that I had really overloaded her so went and checked the max payload stats and I was right, Kombis and microbuses max at 855-985 kgs, we worked out the approximate weight of 40 20kg bags of sand gravel and cement, 50 bricks and three adults...not including tools and skateboard to be over 1000kgs.

So hats off to VW and my mate who welded up my sills, 40 years on, the stats still stand up 8)

 

Good to see someone using a bus for the purpose it was designed for ! They're hard-working delivery vans, not poncy campers with curtains and silly headlight eyebrows...

Recall the payload was 750kg, so about 3/4 of a ton. Mine sits nicely when filled with paving slabs ...

 

I carry that amount when camping! but yep had mine pretty loaded over the years and the steering does get heavy. bit of extra puff in the tyres works wonders.

 

you can get long lengths in them compared to modern vans as well



that's 4.2m almost in there

 

I do recall some years ago scrounging a large amount of maple(a squash-courtsworth). Storing it in my van for a while I just parked the bus up in the yard and left the timber in it. In the following weeks I built new gates with posts and a cross-bar, dutifully measuring the hight of the bus. Needless to say I unloaded the van and then crashed the roof into the crossbar on the may out. Numpty

 

I used my bus to move house with its amazing how much you can actually fit inside