Add a tow vehicle

Every weight check loadmate makes starts from your tow vehicle. How much it can legally carry, how much it can safely tow, how the load should sit, and the score it gives your rig all trace back to the numbers you enter here. Get the vehicle in first, with its real limits and its empty weight, and the rest of the app has solid ground to stand on. You do not need every document in front of you to begin. Add the vehicle by name in under a minute, then fill in the limits and the starting weight afterwards, when you have the plate, the manual, or a weighbridge ticket to hand. This page walks through both halves.

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Open Garage and start

Go to the Garage tab. If you have not added anything yet, Garage greets you with a short empty state and a single button to add your first vehicle. Tap the add action and choose Vehicle. If you already have a trailer set up, Garage still offers an add-vehicle action so you can complete the rig.

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Name the vehicle

The first screen asks only for enough to identify the vehicle. You can type a nickname, or fill in the make and model. Either one on its own is enough to create the record, so you are never forced to fill in both. The photo, year, and registration are all optional. There is no odometer box on this screen, and nothing about weights or limits yet. This step is just the name on the door.

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What happens after you save

Once the vehicle is saved, loadmate confirms it and offers a short list of recommended next steps. Pick the one that matches whatever you have handy right now.

• Add specifications — choose this if you have the vehicle plate or manual with the legal numbers on it.
• Set baseline weight — choose this if you have the factory kerb weight or a weighbridge result.
• Add a trailer — jump straight to adding the other half of the rig.
• Go to vehicle profile — collect your documents first and come back later.

You will also see a card offering to record any warranty cover while the paperwork is out. That is optional and you can skip it. On the vehicle profile, the Overview tab shows a short Vehicle setup checklist for as long as important details are still missing. It has three steps, in this order:

1. Add specifications — the legal limit numbers printed on your vehicle plate, manual, or towbar.
2. Add baseline weight — the empty weight loadmate starts from before passengers, cargo, and trailer load.
3. Configure storage locations — the places on the vehicle where you usually carry gear.

A green tick means a step is done; an open circle means it is still waiting. Tyres are not on this checklist — they live in the Health area, so tyre-safety guidance can run on its own once you add tyre size, load rating, age, and pressure there.

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Add the legal limits

Specifications are the legal numbers loadmate checks your rig against. Enter them from a trusted source: the compliance plate, owner’s manual, VIN plate, towbar or receiver label, or tyre placard, depending on which one names the figure. A help banner at the top of the form reminds you where to look. Three limits are required:

• Loaded vehicle limit — GVM in Australia, MAM in the UK, or GVWR in the US and Europe/international. The heaviest the vehicle is allowed to be, fully loaded.
• Combined limit — GCM in Australia, GTW in the UK, or GCWR in the US and Europe/international. The heaviest the vehicle and trailer are allowed to be together.
• Braked towing capacity — the heaviest trailer the vehicle may tow when the trailer has its own brakes.

Two more are optional but worth adding:

• Maximum coupling limit — the most weight that may press down through the tow ball, nose, or tongue. loadmate marks this Recommended, because it is the limit a heavy front-of-van load is most likely to breach.
• Front and rear axle limits — tucked inside a collapsible Axle limits section. A vehicle can sit under its total loaded limit and still overload one axle, especially once passengers, rear cargo, and tow-ball load pile onto the back. Enter these when your plate lists them.

If a number is missing from your source, leave it blank and come back when you have the right document. loadmate does not look up factory ratings for you, and a guessed limit can make a safety check look healthier than it really is. For a field-by-field walkthrough of every rating, see Edit your vehicle ratings.

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Set the starting weight

Your starting weight — the app calls it the baseline weight — is the empty weight of the vehicle, before any passengers, cargo, accessories, or trailer load. This is the figure every later calculation builds on. If loadmate does not know what the vehicle weighed empty, it cannot tell you what room is left for everything you pack. You can enter it two ways, chosen with a Factory / Weighed toggle at the top of the form.

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Factory mode

Use Factory when you are working from the maker’s published figure — the kerb, curb, tare, or unladen weight from the plate or brochure. The one thing worth checking is fuel. A full tank can add 70 kg or more, and not every published figure includes it. If your source does not include a full tank, leave Fuel included in weight switched off and enter the fuel type and tank capacity. loadmate then works out the fuel weight and adds it to your starting point for you. If the published figure already includes fuel, switch the toggle on and you are done.

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Weighed mode

Use Weighed when you have a real measurement from a weighbridge or a professional mobile weighing service. A measured weight beats a published one, because it reflects your actual vehicle with its bull bar, drawers, and roof rack already on it. Enter the total weight and the date you weighed it. If your ticket also lists front and rear axle weights, switch Do you have axle weights? on and type both in — that gives loadmate the best possible footing for axle checks. If you only know the total, leave that toggle off and use the percentage split instead. It spreads your total across the two axles as an estimate. It is genuinely useful, but it is not a substitute for a measured front-and-rear result, so get the axles weighed when you can.

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Finish the rig

With the limits and starting weight in, two jobs remain. Set up your storage zones so loadmate knows where each load sits, and add tyre details from the Health area so tyre age, pressure, and load guidance can run. Then add the trailer — it is the other half of every weight check.