Calculating vehicle mass of horse and trailer

Question

We rented a horse and trailer. On the horse the weight plate says:T 6520kg, V14230kg, DT 41000. On the trailer the plate says T 5860kg, V 13700 kg and DT says 41000. What is the actual load that can be carried by this horse and trailer? We put the whole lot on a weighbridge and they came up with 23660kg. Was this vehicle overloaded? Please explain the meaning of all these letter and figures. The horse is only a horse and does not have a carrying compartment.

Answer

Thank you for your enquiry.

T - Tare - empty mass of vehicle with fuel V - Gross vehicle mass - maximum mass on the wheels of the specific vehicle DT - Gross combination mass - maximum mass of the vehicle and any trailer drawn by it

Note that the tare does not include the mass of items added on the vehicle over and above the tare.

Theoretically the maximum load on the truck tractor is 14230 - 6520 = 7710kg In the same manner, maximum load on the semitrailer is 13700 - 5860 = 7840kg The maximum load on the combination limited by the DT of the truck tractor is 41000 - 6520 - 5860 = 28620kg but this is more than 7710 + 7840 = 15550kg allowed for the total of this combination.

Thus the maximum operative mass for the combination in your specific case is 15550 + 6520 + 5860 = 27930 kg. Another way of calculation is GVM + GVM = 27930kg

------ For interest sake:
If an interlink with the same tare and GVM as the semitrailer was added to the combination, the maximum load increases by another 7840 kg, i.e. 15550 + 7840 = 23390kg.
The maximum load on the combination limited by the DT of the truck tractor is 41000 - 6520 - 5860 - 5860 = 22760kg so now the load it is limited by the GCM of the truck tractor :). The maximum operative mass is 41000kg in this case.