A weighty matter

This is what you need to know about tare, GVM and GCM

The combined weight of the two vehicles may not exceed the towing vehicle’s GCM. ( You will also find this on the towing vehicle’s mass plate.)

Suppose you’re driving a Toyota Land Cruiser 79 bakkie with a 4,0 ℓpetrol engine and you want to tow a Jurgens Exclusive: According to Toyota SA’S website, the tare of the bakkie is 2 055kg – so you can legally tow the Exclusive (with a GVM of 1 800 kg) with it. If you load the Cruiser to its permissible GVM of 3 200 kg and the caravan to its maximum too, the two will have a combined mass of 5 000 kg.

The Cruiser’s permissible GCM is however only 4 700 kg. Although the two vehicles aren’t individually overloaded, they nevertheless do exceed the bakkie’s GCM with 300 kg and the combination is therefore illegal.