How much does a 'standard' paving slab weigh?

[usenet]

As I said before there is no legal maximum limit. The law does not state that if you exceed a specified trailer weight it then becomes automatically illegal. I think you'll find in fact that there is no maximum trailer weight specified (as a recommended maximum) for many cars, especially older ones.

I quite agree (and so does the URL I posted) that if you exceed the manufacturer's recommended weight it will be used as part of the evidence if you get prosecuted for having a dangerous load or some such. however you can't be prosecuted specifically for 'too much weight' because there isn't a weight limit.

[Christian McArdle]

For the vast overwhelming majority of cars sold in the last 30 years, the manufacturers publish a limit. Just because that limit isn't totally supported by specific legislation doesn't mean that you won't get done for dangerous driving by exceeding it. The manufacturers have stated that, in their opinion, the car is dangerous to drive above that weight. If you want to defend yourself, you have to explain why the designers of the vehicle know less about the safe towing limit than you do.

Also, I'd guess a 'DD40' conviction would be worse on your record than a 'CU50'. Getting insurance with a DD code on your licence must be pretty damn hard.

Note that there are loads of things you may be prosecuted for whilst driving that don't have a specific piece of legislation. They are just prosecuted under a general careless or dangerous driving charge.

Christian.

[usenet]

Well yes, but that's hardly relevant is it. There *is* a speed limit and you can be prosecuted simply for exceeding it. You can also be prosecuted for careless/dangerous driving if you go round a corner too fast but lower than the speed limit. However you wouldn't thus say "there is a legal speed limit on this corner (that is lower than the general speed limit)".

[nightjar]

The MGW assumes that the load is distributed rather more evenly than that. Personally, I would have the slabs delivered, even though I have a van that would take the lot in one go.

Colin Bignell

[Christian McArdle]

But the manufacturer's limits are much better defined than a speed round a corner, so although they would be prosecuted under a general provision, the offence is likely to be accurately determined by your failure to comply with the manufacturer's recommendations. In fact, your failure to do so can probably be measured more accurately than your speed!

Christian.

[usenet]

Since they were being given to me free I could hardly "have them delivered".

Anyway we collected them five at a time last night, spread them around on the floor with the rear seats down. The XM's self levelling suspension coped fine, just a few clicks of the hydraulic pump after loading them and it was back to the normal ride height. The car handled quite normally with no problems although of course I was relatively cautious. 400kg is well within the maximum load so that was to be expected I suppose.

[Turboweasel]

replying to Set Square, Turboweasel wrote: Just carried 9 in the back of my volvo, with spring assisters lol. wasnt bad!

[Andy Burns]

As Chris is still posting here, perhaps he'll tell us how many times he's replaced his car since asking that question twelve years ago ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

IIRC around 20kg

[John Rumm]

It does rather depend on the size. The last batch of 600x600x40mm slabs I bought were 33kg each.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah, I don't think of those as 'standard'.

[pamela]

You're replying to a post from 2004.

[John Rumm]

Not sure there is *one" standard as such. Edges that are 300, 450, 600mm in various combinations are quite common. Other sizes are not unknown though.

[Chris Hogg]

Thicknesses vary too.

[Geo]

He is from that house owner site that copies this USENET group to a web page. For some reason none of the users seem to see the posting date. I have actually been to the site and the date is stated quite clearly.

[Andy Burns]

It also has a "click here to quote the selected text" button, but none of them see that either ...

[alan_m]

12 years ago when the question was posted paving slabs were heavier :)

[GB]

Do they get heavier when they've been laid a while? Maybe absorbing water?

I recently had to lift a couple of slabs when I put up my new fence, and they were really **** heavy. Much more than the 20kg bags of postfix I was carting around.

[PeterC]

I've always worked on a relative density of 2.4 - for slabs in the real world this woul be 2.4kg/li. So, 900x600x50:

9x6x0.5=27li, times 2.4=64.8(kg). The Paving Expert gives 64kg about 80% of the way down the page.

[Turboweasel]

replying to alan_m, Turboweasel wrote: Haha, yeah but these are old paving slabs, at least 1970s :)