loaded car. What do you need to pay attention to?

The holidays are approaching and many drivers with their families are going on summer holidays. It is worth remembering that a car loaded with passengers and luggage has more weight and can present an unpleasant surprise.

Each car has a certain permissible gross weight - PMT. Some drivers associate this parameter mainly with heavy vehicles. Meanwhile, this also applies to cars. DMC stands for vehicle weight with passengers and cargo. Exceeding this parameter is especially dangerous. The consequences of overloading the vehicle affect its behavior and safety, so each car user must carefully stow luggage and ensure its proper weight.

It is especially easy to exceed the PRT during leisure trips when there are several people behind the wheel of the car, the trunk is filled to the brim, and there is an additional rack or several bicycles on the roof of the vehicle. Increasing the mass of the vehicle reduces its ability to respond in emergency situations, which can lead to an accident. First, the stopping distance has been lengthened.

– A loaded vehicle needs more space to stop. Drivers may not be aware of the vehicle's delayed reaction, and therefore the risk of participating in a dangerous event increases, explains Radosław Jaskulski, an instructor at the Skoda driving school. – It is true that manufacturers of modern cars take into account that the vehicle is neutral for movement when it is driven by a full set of passengers with luggage, but this applies to a situation when the road surface is dry. When it's slippery and you need to brake in an emergency, the weight of the loaded car pushes it forward,” he adds.

In addition to complying with loading norms, it is very important to properly arrange luggage. A vehicle with an incorrectly loaded or unbalanced load may skid or even roll over in the event of a lane change or sharp turn.

You should also remember to properly secure luggage, including transported bicycles. – Incorrectly secured bicycles placed on a roof rack can move during movement and maneuvering, change the center of gravity and, as a result, change the direction of travel. They can also just fall off the trunk, warns Radosław Jaskulski. The Auto Skoda School instructor advises not to charge and check the permissible load and maximum speed before going on the route by the manufacturer of the bike rack when riding bicycles on external racks.

Proper securing of luggage does not only apply to cargo carried in the luggage compartment or on the roof rack. This also applies to items carried in the cabin. Unprotected objects gain speed on impact. An ordinary phone at the moment of hitting an obstacle at a speed of 50 km / h will increase its weight to 5 kg, and a 1,5-liter bottle of water will weigh about 60 kg. In addition, we do not transport animals in a vehicle without proper restraint. A dog sitting freely on the back bench will “fly” at the driver and passenger with 50 times the weight when braking hard at a speed of 40 km / h.

Vehicle weight also affects tires. An overloaded car tires heat up faster. Tire pressure must be increased as the number of passengers increases. Information about the respective pressure values ​​can most often be found on the driver's door or on the inside of the fuel filler flap (this is the case, for example, in Skoda vehicles). Changing the weight of the car also affects the light. We have to adjust them according to the loading of the car. In older cars, a special knob is used for this, in modern cars, the light is usually adjusted automatically. However, once a year, check the correctness of their settings on the site.