Height, width, weight: what your motorhome needs to tell the routing

A car sat nav knows only one question: how do I get from A to B fastest? For a motorhome, that is the wrong question. The right one is: how do I arrive without failing at a bridge, a narrow lane or a weight limit? For that, the routing has to know your dimensions.

Height: the most dangerous dimension

Typical motorhomes are between 2.70 and 3.20 metres tall. It gets critical at old underpasses, car parks and railway bridges. Important: the height in the registration document is not always the real height. A satellite antenna, air conditioning, solar panel or roof rack sit on top. Measure once yourself and add around 10 centimetres of headroom. That reserve costs you nothing; a clipped bridge costs you the holiday.

Width: mirrors count

The registration document states the width without mirrors. On the road, though, you drive with mirrors, and depending on the model they add 20 to 30 centimetres. On mountain roads, in roadworks with narrowed lanes and in southern European old towns, that is the difference between getting through and getting stuck.

Weight: the 3.5-tonne line

The maximum permitted weight decides more than the routing:

• Driving licence: category B covers up to 3.5 tonnes maximum permitted weight — that rule is EU-wide. Above it you need C1 (up to 7.5 tonnes); some countries also have grandfathered rights from older licences. The legal basis, and what the new EU directive will change, is in the driving licence article.
• Speed limits: in Germany, motorhomes over 3.5 and up to 7.5 tonnes are limited to 80 km/h outside built-up areas and 100 km/h on motorways; other countries have their own tiers.
• Tolls: in several countries the toll class changes above 3.5 tonnes, for instance in Austria with the GO-Box. How the planner handles that is on the feature page route planner for motorhomes over 3.5 t.
• Roads: weight limits at bridges and through villages are hard rules. A routing that knows your weight avoids them from the start.

And: the real weight when loaded is often closer to the maximum than many think. Water, gas, bikes and supplies quickly add up to several hundred kilograms. Driving onto a public weighbridge once, fully loaded, is worth it.

Length: for manoeuvring and the pitch

For routing, length plays the smallest role; for everyday life a big one: many pitches and ferries price by length, and hairpin roads become demanding from about eight metres.

How Camperada uses your dimensions

In the planner you enter height, width, length and weight into the vehicle profile. It belongs to the trip plan and is saved with it: saving gives you a code that brings route and dimensions back on any device. With an account, you store your vehicle once and apply it in future with one click. Camperada calculates the route with exactly these values: roads with a height, width, length or weight limit below your dimensions recorded in OpenStreetMap stay closed, and above 3.5 tonnes so do recorded lorry bans. If no route can be found that way, Camperada continues without your dimensions. Which of the two applies is stated visibly beneath every calculated route, so you never rely on an assumption.

One thing still holds: no routing replaces looking at the signs. Data can be outdated, and roadworks appear. The dimensions in your profile are your safety net, not a free pass.