lancepar Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 Haha, We had a strange one we couldn't reason out. Mates Moho lower than mine and 3.5t was charged more than our taller 3.85t, same toll travelling approx 30mins apart. Not a lot but it didn't make sense. *-) And regading uprating, after purchace of our Moho we discovered it was built on a Maxi chassis but was taxed as a PLG (3.5t). So in our case it was simply a paper exercise with no expense.(lol) B-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billggski Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 Some French tolls, especially around Paris, charge more at peak times. Like the M6 toll road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted December 6, 2016 Author Share Posted December 6, 2016 Up Date further to this thread, we decided to uprate our van to gain the extra weight. At the same time we had the log book corrected. It was showing only 2 seats, and we have 4 belted seats. Had to get a letter from Swift, and sent this along to DVLA. pleased to say has now come back, and for the first time in 10 years the log book is correct!1 Not that we have more than 2 people in van, but should we need to, and got stopped , with the log book incorrect , WHO Knows what the French/Spanish police might have done ?? (fined us maybe?) Any way now have an extra 100 . What do I take with me know!!! i made OH reduce the amout of tools he carried !! Guess space for more vino to bring home? PJay Ps friends not bothered yet to uprate . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverback Posted December 6, 2016 Share Posted December 6, 2016 lancepar - 2016-11-01 8:30 PM Haha, We had a strange one we couldn't reason out. Mates Moho lower than mine and 3.5t was charged more than our taller 3.85t, same toll travelling approx 30mins apart. Not a lot but it didn't make sense. *-) And regading uprating, after purchace of our Moho we discovered it was built on a Maxi chassis but was taxed as a PLG (3.5t). So in our case it was simply a paper exercise with no expense.(lol) B-) okay..but it is now a PHGV so that qualifies for tax at £165 instead of £235 so a saving of £70 a year so if you want that you send off your V5 to DVLA Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan k Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 Agaric - 2016-10-22 4:28 PM One thing to keep in mind is that once you are over 3500kg there are a lot of roads, for those who tour France, that you are not allowed on. OK you could probably drive hundreds of thousands of kilometres without being stopped but there is always a chance. I've always understood that the 3.5 Weight signs showing a lorry, means that the limit is for goods vehicles only and yes there are lots of them around towns. However if you are driving a motorhome, the relevant 3.5t banning sign is simply the 3.5t in a red circle. The real issue in having a GVW over 3500kgs is the reduction in speed limits in lots of european countries cheers alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 david lloyd - 2016-10-28 7:32 PM Steve928 - 2016-10-28 7:09 PM webby1 - 2016-10-28 6:28 PM We had ours uprated to 3850 by SVTECH but it was just a paper exercise and cost almost £300 Now I don't mind anyone running a business but they had a monopoly and had cornered the market and priced an hours work accordingly as they knew what paperwork to fill in. On the motorhome fun site there are posts from people using another company who charge about half the SVTECH price...........................have a look...........although they do a good service, I reckon SVTECH have exploited their position for too long.................................as indeed do many companies supplying the motorhome market http://consulting-engineer.b99.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/j-r-consultancy/ Half the price of SVT, although now also jumping on the bandwagon somewhat having started out at c. £80 a year or so ago. I think SVTech are probably charging what they believe they can get for the service they provide. I did try the other place - left messages and got no reply so had little choice in the end. In my case it was not a paper exercise so I would not have known what was required but, for the same price, I received technical advice on what mechanical changes I would have to make to allow the uprate and then received the documentation and new weight plate. David As the person who did all the extensive 'leg-work' on finding the alternative engineer to use in place of SVTech I felt I needed to comment on this. SVTech have had the 'pseudo monopoly' for a long time as they have always been the company who those wanting to uprate/downrate are told to contact, when we bought our Globecar FamilyScout L PVC I found that despite being registered at 3500kg it was capable of being registered as 4250kg as a purely paper exercise, ie no modifications etc due to it already being built on the XLWB Fiat Ducato 'heavy' chassis. I objected to paying SVTech over £300 for this if I didn't need to hence all my research, calls, emails etc to find an alternative, this took a lot of time and some say I shouldn't have bothered and just gone with SVTech but I knew that if I found someone it would not only benefit me, but a lot of others too. Consequently I found John Ruffles (JR Consultancy) and I was the first to ask him if he could do the uprating which he said he could, the cost to me was just £76 as I believe he just did it as an 'extra' job on top of what he does normally. Then he started to get more and more people contacting him to do this, due to my recommendation, so he obviously had to make it a more sensible figure as he wouldn't be able to fit it in alongside his existing work, but instead of it, therefore the cost has had to be increased, and of course whereas my requirement was very simply as it is a PVC, some MH calculations etc will be more complicated depending on what has been modified on them and their being converted by a third party from the original base vehicle. So 'jumping on the bandwagon' is in my view a rather derogatory term ... he has made it a more sensible price so that it makes it worth his time to do it, and we still benefit from it being cheaper - if it wasn't worth him doing he might stop and we'd be stuck just with SVTech again! Unfortunately John Ruffles had problems with his email being hacked and he is also based in 2 locations (Bury St Edmunds and Buckley in Wales) so depending on which he is at it may be a while before he gets the messages - he doesn't do this full-time so obviously you need to make an allowance for this - if you are in a hurry then go to SVTech by all means but if not then I can highly recommend John. Many of my forum friends on another site have benefitted from my research and saved a lot of money, at least 20 of them if not 30, so I am more than happy that the time I spent on doing this has helped a lot of people. This is what I posted on another forum the other day after I emailed John regarding getting in touch with him and this is the reply I got: Hello Mel , I am very sorry you have had difficulty in contacting me but I do operate from two sites, one at Bury st. Edmunds in Suffolk and the other at Buckley, Flintshire N Wales where we have another house. We usually spend about four weeks at each address and currently I am in N Wales. I try to explain this to people but obviously not enough and I would be glad if could let everyone know how they can contact me . As you already know my Email address is truckcon@outlook.com my telephone number in Suffolk is 01359 250808 and my number in Wales is 01244 544598 if you are unlucky in reaching me on one number, try the other. Again my apologies but just spread the news ! Best Regards, John Ruffles? Please do try John if you need uprating/downrating ... he's a very nice chap! No, I do NOT get commission ... wish I did!!! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted December 10, 2016 Author Share Posted December 10, 2016 Mel B - 2016-12-10 2:37 PM david lloyd - 2016-10-28 7:32 PM Steve928 - 2016-10-28 7:09 PM webby1 - 2016-10-28 6:28 PM We had ours uprated to 3850 by SVTECH but it was just a paper exercise and cost almost £300 Now I don't mind anyone running a business but they had a monopoly and had cornered the market and priced an hours work accordingly as they knew what paperwork to fill in. On the motorhome fun site there are posts from people using another company who charge about half the SVTECH price...........................have a look...........although they do a good service, I reckon SVTECH have exploited their position for too long.................................as indeed do many companies supplying the motorhome market http://consulting-engineer.b99.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/j-r-consultancy/ Half the price of SVT, although now also jumping on the bandwagon somewhat having started out at c. £80 a year or so ago. I think SVTech are probably charging what they believe they can get for the service they provide. I did try the other place - left messages and got no reply so had little choice in the end. In my case it was not a paper exercise so I would not have known what was required but, for the same price, I received technical advice on what mechanical changes I would have to make to allow the uprate and then received the documentation and new weight plate. David As the person who did all the extensive 'leg-work' on finding the alternative engineer to use in place of SVTech I felt I needed to comment on this. SVTech have had the 'pseudo monopoly' for a long time as they have always been the company who those wanting to uprate/downrate are told to contact, when we bought our Globecar FamilyScout L PVC I found that despite being registered at 3500kg it was capable of being registered as 4250kg as a purely paper exercise, ie no modifications etc due to it already being built on the XLWB Fiat Ducato 'heavy' chassis. I objected to paying SVTech over £300 for this if I didn't need to hence all my research, calls, emails etc to find an alternative, this took a lot of time and some say I shouldn't have bothered and just gone with SVTech but I knew that if I found someone it would not only benefit me, but a lot of others too. Consequently I found John Ruffles (JR Consultancy) and I was the first to ask him if he could do the uprating which he said he could, the cost to me was just £76 as I believe he just did it as an 'extra' job on top of what he does normally. Then he started to get more and more people contacting him to do this, due to my recommendation, so he obviously had to make it a more sensible figure as he wouldn't be able to fit it in alongside his existing work, but instead of it, therefore the cost has had to be increased, and of course whereas my requirement was very simply as it is a PVC, some MH calculations etc will be more complicated depending on what has been modified on them and their being converted by a third party from the original base vehicle. So 'jumping on the bandwagon' is in my view a rather derogatory term ... he has made it a more sensible price so that it makes it worth his time to do it, and we still benefit from it being cheaper - if it wasn't worth him doing he might stop and we'd be stuck just with SVTech again! Unfortunately John Ruffles had problems with his email being hacked and he is also based in 2 locations (Bury St Edmunds and Buckley in Wales) so depending on which he is at it may be a while before he gets the messages - he doesn't do this full-time so obviously you need to make an allowance for this - if you are in a hurry then go to SVTech by all means but if not then I can highly recommend John. Many of my forum friends on another site have benefitted from my research and saved a lot of money, at least 20 of them if not 30, so I am more than happy that the time I spent on doing this has helped a lot of people. This is what I posted on another forum the other day after I emailed John regarding getting in touch with him and this is the reply I got: Hello Mel , I am very sorry you have had difficulty in contacting me but I do operate from two sites, one at Bury st. Edmunds in Suffolk and the other at Buckley, Flintshire N Wales where we have another house. We usually spend about four weeks at each address and currently I am in N Wales. I try to explain this to people but obviously not enough and I would be glad if could let everyone know how they can contact me . As you already know my Email address is truckcon@outlook.com my telephone number in Suffolk is 01359 250808 and my number in Wales is 01244 544598 if you are unlucky in reaching me on one number, try the other. Again my apologies but just spread the news ! Best Regards, John Ruffles? Please do try John if you need uprating/downrating ... he's a very nice chap! No, I do NOT get commission ... wish I did!!! :-D Pity this was not posted on here sooner, we went with SV Tech, and I agree a lot of money for the amout of works done. But at least now done, and makes OH happy to have the extra payload You see I said you where missed on this forum !! KEEP coming back MEL (make it a new year resolution, to pop in more often) PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 PJay - 2016-12-10 3:36 PM Pity this was not posted on here sooner, we went with SV Tech, and I agree a lot of money for the amout of works done. But at least now done, and makes OH happy to have the extra payload You see I said you where missed on this forum !! KEEP coming back MEL (make it a new year resolution, to pop in more often) PJay I did post on a previous thread about it ... :D http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Companies-who-uprate-a-motorhome/40213/ I'll try to pop on a bit more so long as the grumpy b@ggars promise to behave! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 No grumpies here - the forum is now ruled with an iron rod and at least 50% of long-term members have moderator privileges (except for ‘banning’) and are more than happy to use them. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david lloyd Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Mel B - 2016-12-10 4:04 PM PJay - 2016-12-10 3:36 PM Pity this was not posted on here sooner, we went with SV Tech, and I agree a lot of money for the amout of works done. But at least now done, and makes OH happy to have the extra payload You see I said you where missed on this forum !! KEEP coming back MEL (make it a new year resolution, to pop in more often) PJay I did post on a previous thread about it ... :D http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Companies-who-uprate-a-motorhome/40213/ I'll try to pop on a bit more so long as the grumpy b@ggars promise to behave! :-D Thank you for clarifying the details for contacting John Ruffles. He did eventually get back to me but by that time I had gone with SVTech - although would happily have had John do the work. It was, in fact, you comments on the previous thread that pointed me in his direction. All done now but if ever I need something done in the future (you never know....) I will certainly try him first. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webby1 Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Thanks for the legwork and research you put in for this Mel. Its good to see lazy monopolies being challenged.....wish ACSI could be the next one. I did see the info on the Fun Forum I think, so it shows the value of looking through various forums. However I have to say there are (GENERALLY) less grumpies and gratutious unpleasantness on here than on either of the other MHF sites...........................but I still like to dip into them all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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