Weigh your caravan: the nearest weighbridge

Municipal weighbridges, often signposted « poids public », are meant for everyone, sometimes with a key or a badge to collect from the town hall (mairie). Those of farming cooperatives, quarries, merchants and recycling centres belong to their operator, who decides whether to let a private vehicle on. In every case, call before you go.

The price is set by the town or the operator: it is shown on the page when we know it. Ask for it when you call, together with the opening hours and whether you can get a printed ticket.

Yes, by difference: weigh the car alone, then the hitched car with only its own wheels on the deck, the caravan wheels staying on the ground at the same level. The gap between the two weighings is the nose weight.

Unhitch the caravan, leaving its wheels on the deck and its jockey wheel on the ground at the same level: you read the load on its axle. The actual weight of the caravan is this weighing plus the nose weight, measured separately.

For the gross train weight and the car's load, yes: they count. For the weight of the caravan alone, they make no difference, since the car's weighing is subtracted.

The French Highway Code (Code de la route, article R312-2) provides for a fourth-class fine for every 500 kg over the limit on a vehicle of 3.5 t or less, and the vehicle can be immobilised beyond 5 % overload. These rules apply to every vehicle driven in France, whatever its country of registration. Overloading also lengthens braking distances and wears tyres and brakes faster.

They come from the collaborative OpenStreetMap map, which gives their location but rarely their access conditions. We are checking them one by one with town halls and operators. Until then, a phone call saves a wasted trip.