Moving to Uni? How safe is your precious cargo?

Finally the time has come, your young adult is flying the nest and you couldn’t be prouder, (although maybe a little teary at the prospect of an empty nest.) But how are you going to transport them and their stack of stuff to their new place? To save money you may decide to stuff it all into the car, after all, you can make it fit. However, you may be putting you and your precious family at huge risk and it may cost you a lot more than you thought.

Every vehicle has a limit on the weight it can carry. If you exceed these limits you are taking a big risk. For one, your wheels can bulge out under the pressure of the weight and heat up, increasing the risk of a tyre blowing out mid journey and causing an accident.

Certain safety features that your vehicle has may not operate under the stress of weight.

Your overloaded vehicle will not be easily controlled at high speeds; in fact the most crucial effect of overloading is that it compromises your ability to steer the car in straight line as well as on curves and could result in losing control. Your brakes will become much less effective too. 

At the end of the day it may be a fake economy; overloading increases your vehicle’s fuel consumption, adds year onto the life of your engine and is hard on the wear and tear of your tyres.

If your overloading does cause an accident, your insurance company might not pay out and you could be liable for damage to your own and others vehicles and health.

So when it comes around to safely transporting your fledglings to their new home, think again about what it is you are saving and how much your cargo is really worth to you and what is the potential cost of?