honest question:
in the US, our sprinters seem to be limited to 5000 lbs of total trailer weight....but there is WAY more than 5000 lbs on some of the vans above. I can't imagine our vans are spec'd differently, but I guess anything is possible.
My van seems to be OK pulling 2000 lbs worth of trailer and any amount of car I want to put on it (4500 lbs of chevy caprice wagon and 4000 lbs of Q45 are my top two, currently). I'm guessing the limits are based on the brakes or the tires.
so, are the euro vans equipped differently, merely placarded differently, or generally overlooked when running way overweight?
In europe You can buy Sprinter in 5 permissible gross weight (vehicle weight + payload) 3000kg, 3200kg, 3500kg, 4600kg, 5000kg. Max trailer weight (in sprinter homologation) is 3500kg, so maximum total weight is 7000kg when sprinter has single tires on rear axle and 8750kg (Sprinter with permissible gross weight 5000kg (double tires on rear axle)has 3750kg trailer possible).
In fact, most of Sprinter (single tires on rear axle) with 10 meters trailer (2 cars on trailer) is overweight.
Total weight is about 7300kg.
Police has got a mobile weighing scale, and this overload (300kg) = ticket
Sometimes policeman gives you a ticket, when he sum weights in document(sprinter + trailer + load).
Sprinter with Perm. GVW 3500kg + 3500kg trailer requires basic permissions without for example transport licence or truck driver licence.
So ~15500 lbs for Sprinter on single tires and trailer is ok.
~7700lbs for Sprinter and 7700lbs for trailer with load.
Max weight for twin tires on rear axle and trailer is ~19300lbs.
Oberaigner produce 3 axle Sprinter with 7000kg (~15500lbs) overall gross weight, but at this moment Oberaigner does not allow pull a trailer.