Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello Gents,

I'm looking to purchase a '1970 Morris Minor 6cwt Van' for a new mobile catering business venture and really need to know the maximum load this kind of vehicle can carry. I have been confused with the interpretation of Cwt and would just like some clarification.

Thanks in advance! Hope someone can help.

Dennis

Providing that the vehicle is in good condition and the suspension is serviceable it has as it says a 6 cwt or 303.74 kilograms carrying capacity evenly spread over the cargo floor.

One hundredweight is 112 lbs. You may have been confused as the Americans tend to round it down to just 100 lbs, but the Morris Minor (and Austin variants!) is definitely British

So would this include passengers?

If i can expand on my project i'm looking into converting a morris minor van into a street food catering vehicle by installing a wood fired oven into the back. See picture below for mock up. The ovens weigh around 500-700kg. Are there any modifications I could do to accommodate this idea? Somebody told me that the 6cwt vehicles had a carry load of 800kg. Would really appreciate any more information or advice anyone has.

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1cwt is about 50kg.

An oven weighing 500-700kg is way too heavy for a Minor van, at the very least you need a van with a 10cwt payload.
The Austin/Morris A60 vans fit the bill here, as do the Cowley/Oxford vans (if you can find one).
They are only suitable for the 500kg oven, anything more than this will ideally need something Transit-sized.

Get a lighter oven. 6 cwt is 6 cwt whichever way you look at it - and yes that would include driver and passenger.

Thanks guys! I will look into the A60.

So you're saying that includes passengers, so if two people sat in front at 70kg each (6cwt van). That would leave around a 160kg carry load in the back?? That seems so small..

Wood Burning Pizza Oven I guess.
It's the oven that needs changing, have a look here maybe?
http://www.mobilepizzaovens.co.uk/
They seem to have one in the back of a French 3 wheeler!

I have my doubts about the driver and passenger counting towards a vans carrying capacity, true enough in real life, but seems unlikely in officialdom as pie consumption is very variable

I doubt anybody will insure you anywhere

Hard to see any benefit in building the oven into the van, a trailer seems a better and more flexible option.

If you have a weight plate on the vehicle, legally you have to obey it. And yes, it does include the passenger, driver, fuel, lunch etc.

If there are no weight plates (as is the case with most classics - not sure about the minor commercials though, I am sure I have seen them) then to determine if the vehicle is overloaded VOSA would compare the actual axle loadings with the weight ratings on the tyres.

However the design intent was that the load should not exceed 6cwt - so you would be extremely stupid to exceed this!

To put this in to perspective... as of the last model of transit (06-13) the smallest Transit could legally only carry about 600kg (inc driver, passenger, lunch etc). The smallest pre '2000 (mk1 to smiley) could take approx 800kg in total.

As it's an ex-PO telephone van, the details on the chassis plate are
as follows;

1st axle = 0.55/2nd axle= 0.73/gvw = 1.20 tons

Hot oven over the petrol tank ? not recommended.