250kg+ Plaster - So What?

Hi
I have got a plastering job to do in my kitchen so I went to get some plaster at the local DIY store. My XM rear brakes are a bit weak so I thought that might be a good exercise to get them working again. So I loaded all the sacks into the boot, plus a sack of sand and cement, on the roof rack 10 plaster boards as well.
Rest of family in the car. My wife was afraid whether the car would make it. I said sure! THe car took a bit longer to rise (sitting on the rear rubber bumper), once up all fine.
All in all, the car drove as wonderfully as before, no change in perceived handling or performance. Everything just like normal. Spooky actually. Braking fine, no effort (the disks look a bit more shiny now). Overall I am very impressed!

Michael

Hi Michael,
So what's the problem. why do you seem surprised?
The XM is very reliable if properly maintained. Most problems are of a minor nature and very few will result in making the car unusable.
You do not say what size of plasterboard you put on the roof,it had to go there anyway having the family with you. I have carried a fair number of 8' x 4' ply sheets INSIDE my estate with tailgate tied down to save the roof rack hassle.
The BX estate I had never handled better than when fully loaded with a full complement of passengers.

Regards, Robert.

I AM impressed!

There is a thread in the Toad Pond on Aussiefrogs at present about Cits carrying large loads. (If you are not a member of AF and/or have not posted at least 30 messages you cannot access the Toad Pond, so I cannot post a link) Anyway...

There are of course stories of 500kg of this and that being put into cits and people being amazed, but the best story is about the father of one AF member that drove to the hardware store some years ago in his CX 2400 Pallas. He bought several lengths of timber and when asked if he wanted them cut to size replied no. He then placed the timber on the ground and drove the CX over the timber lengthways. He then lowered the car, tied the timber up to the front and rear bumpers, lifted the car to intermediate drive height and drove home!

Fully kewl!

Hi Craig,

That shows ingenuity, he obviously got the idea from Formula 1 cars!

Derek

This post has been edited by DerekW on October 06, 2008 05:37 pm

I find that my XM and CX are better to drive when they have a lot of weight in the back. Especially the XM, she's less crashy.

Same for my XM, the crashiness goes away when loaded when loaded, the effect is so marked that I noticed it immediately the 1st time I ever carried 2 people at the rear. Other people have remarked this also, there was a discussion on Planete-Citroen XM section about this.

I have not found an bulletproof explanation of why it is so. Only related clue I can see is what I read on the "Citroen hydraulic suspension" manual (uploaded in my Flickr page, think it was page 4 or 6) where it says that "the effective damping rate of the dampers (= the orifices) gets smaller as the load increases". The manual also says this effect is negligible in practice, but perhaps it is not so. This would mean Citroen tuned the dampers over a typical load of 3-4 people, with the cost of the suspension being crashy when there's just the driver.

Could also be that the extra weight at the rear reduces a friction effect of relatively dried up rear arms' bearings (that could be responsible for this "crashiness" on an old car)...

cheers
George

This post has been edited by jorgy9 on October 07, 2008 12:38 am

Sounds like a logical explanation. And I have noticed this phenomenon not only with other hydraulic Cits (BX and CX) before, but also with conventional sprung cars (Mazda, Isuzu, Honda, etc.)

I remember collecting lots of 25kg bags of salt once, much to the amusement of the guys loading up. they put 10 bags in and at that point commented how mad i was putting that much weight in the boot. I didn't have the balls to suggest that the two of them might not been far off that tally! But anyway, the owner then said they could offer me a special offer on 20 bags - assuming i would have to return.

the two guys fell over when i told them to load it up there and then. the drive home was effortless. Even at motorway cruising there was little noticable difference in acceleration.

But thats probably nothing compared to a booze cruise a few years back with a full complement of 4 adults. We had to empty the bottles from their boxes and pack them in bottle to bottle. The boot was full, the footwells were full, the gaps between passengers were full. That did actually make a difference to the handling - especially coming up the M20 from the tunnel and was decidedly wallowy! From memory i still returned over 40mpg though (of cheap diesel too).

250kgs is only the equivelant of 2 big fat people sitting in the back !

seeya
Shane L.

A few weeks ago I brought a 2.1 engine and box plus a Ford 1600 diesel engine back from Newcastle and Derbyshire, the ride was superb, the handling little changed and still 50 mpg, the only thing that did suffer was the performance.

The more weight you add, the greater the sprung to unsprung weight ratio so the better the ride

Peter.N.