Over weight passengers?

[griff59]

Seems like a bit of a strange question I know! But I'm having problems here, a friend, who is incredibly overweight (23 stone) wants a ride in my Griff, I think I'm going to have to somehow say no, I'm worried that the extra weight might damage the car in some way, am I right to be worried about this?
I'm 5ft 10 and just under 15 stone, so our all-up weight will be around 38 stone, this can't be good for the car surely?
Anyone else been in a similar situation?

[griff59]

Thanks a lot folks, I think I'm going to be cautious here and say no. I'm dieting at the mo to get my weight down, for the cars performance as much as anything else. I'll just say that I'm only squeezing in at my weight, just to be diplomatic.

[griff59]

Phew! My friend has to go back home today, so I've been let off.
The car is arriving at lunchtime, after he's left.
After what's been said here about seat mountings, I'm definitely going to be more aware of things like this in the future.

[griff59]

phazed said:

The fibreglass floor must be the thinest area of fibreglass on the whole car, barely 2 to 3 mm thick!

Not to worry though, TVR in their wisdom fitted large penny washers behind the seat frame holding nuts.......

Well, that's a consolation

[griff59]

This weight thing is turning out to be quite a problem. As I said, I'm sort of OK, I'm 15 stone, my girlfriend is 17 stone, we are both on diets, but these things take time. That's a total weight between the two of us of 32 stone.
I didn't go out in the car as much as I'd like to have done over the weekend because I couldn't go on my own, I told my girlfriend that we needed the BMW as we had things to carry, it's getting ridiculous.
Worse still, I have another friend coming to stay soon, he's way over weight, about 21 stone, same old story, I'm going to have to make up more excuses.
It's not the cars fault, it's a performance vehicle, it's not supposed to have large people in it. But, saying that, there are a couple of guys in our TVR club that are way bigger than I am, and they take their wives on long trips in their cars so....
I didn't think it would be such an issue, but it's turning out to be so.

[griff59]

TheRainMaker said:

It's not really, get whoever services it to fit some support bars across the seat mounting points, job done forget about it ever being an issue.

Thanks, if that'll cure it fine. I'll have a word and see what can be done.

[griff59]

Hedgehopper said:

This looks promising...…………...


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3l0goGWl5mZOEhvT...


Pages 29-32.

Thanks a lot for that, if it comes to it that could fit the bill.
I'm ok, I'm just below 15 stone now, and dropping. It's just very awckward telling big friends they can't go in the car right now, and TBQH, I don't see why I have to make modifications to the car to accomadate people who will only be a passenger once in a blue moon. My girlfriend excluded, but she's loosing weight anyway.
The Lotus Exige was on my short list as well before I got the Griff, but after a test drive, even for me, it was unacceptably cramped and really difficult to exit. Still, if I had bought it, there would definitly be no requests from large friends to have a ride, it would be a non-starter!

[griff59]

RTB said:

Maybe a small Lotus is the male equivalent of buying a dress 2 sizes too small to give motivation for weight loss

I think making your excuses to not allow large people into your Griff is wise. How you approach that in the future without causing offence is more complicated. Maybe have some official looking stickers made up stating maximum passenger weight (2kgs more than your other half) for attachment to the dashboard....

I'm cooling down on this, after speaking to a couple of TVR people, I've heard of one guy, a Griff owner, who was 25 stone, he could only drive it with the roof off!
I'm not worried about my partner or myself, and the times my friend is likely to want a ride are minimal, even then, I've been reassured that it shouldn't be an issue, as long as the weight is within reasonable limits.

[griff59]

phazed said:

Well, I guess if there's two of you, each say a "normal weight" of 12-1/2 stone each that's the weight of that 25 stone guy, I'm coming down to 14-1/2 stone, and my girlfriend is aiming for about the same, so we should be fine with that combined weight, surely?

[griff59]

phazed said:

Why they made the floors so thin is beyond me.

A lot of things about TVR's are beyond me, but then again, that's why I love them!

[griff59]

Got it...

https://www.autoevolution.com/cars/tvr-griffith-19...

According to my calculations that's just over 37 stone?

[griff59]

RTB said:

That unladen weight will include fuel, so you could squeeze a few more kilos in by only half filling the tank

Which brings up another concern I haven't figured out yet, the accuracy of a Griff's fuel guage!

[griff59]

TheRainMaker said:

Always fill it up at a 1/4, having run out a few times I treat this as empty

I'm also filling up at a 1/4, and keep a can in the boot, seems sensible.

[griff59]

sgrimshaw said:

Way more than that in my Chimaera when it's me and the Mrs.

We seem OK too in our Griff, we are both "trying" to loose weight, not only for the car, but for impending health reasons

[griff59]

gavgavgav said:

I fill up at between 150-200 miles, never know really when the tank is at 1/4 full

I keep kitchen roll in the boot, as actually getting petrol in is a palaver, always ends up going over the rear hood.