Interesting thread, and a bit worrying. Many race vans (LWB converted to half camper) are over the strict 3500 weight in all probability, and cover thousands of miles to race meetings over the course of every year all over the country with no problems.

OK, it may be against the law, but then so is doing 80 on an empty motorway and people don't get too bent out of shape over that. For the drivers, if you do it and take the p*** and get caught that's your lookout but what you don't expect is for the port authorities to take the place of VOSA and start policing weight limits on vehicles that will be using the roads away from the port.

I went over recently with a couple of trail bikes, had a great weekend, though the booking agent did say there was a 3000kg weight limit on the seacat, so I went to Heysham. OK no problems but if somebody had started moaning about the weight of the van the Island could kiss goodbye to any further tourist income from me, and I've spent a fair bit over the years.

In my opinion if the port authorities want to keep tabs on overloaded commercial vehicles this is par for the course, but take it easy on the tourists. Not that they will care about my opinion of course.