Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing +4 loading on Brittany Ferries

Naa, you should exhale, less air in the lungs = less weight

But wouldn't that lower the Centre of Gravity ?

When you enter "Morgan Plus4" during booking on LeShuttle for Eurotunnel between Calais and Folkestone, they automatically indicate that the Morgan has low ground clearance and it will be allocated to a single storey wagon. As campervans and SUV>1.85m

We hit the floor last year (Plus 4 2019 trad, fully loaded) when leaving the Stena Line Ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich. It touched a rubber band that was the top of the ramp on the ship going down to the shore. Was quite a bang but could not see any damage later.

We lightly scraped getting on and off on the Brittany ferry to jersey and France ,the last time even with an empty tank. That said I think the plus6 might be a tad lower to the ground. What i was most nervous about was the way they parked us on the furthest corner bit with a big suv reversing at an angle within inches of the front wing.

I have never had a problem with Brittany and we always tell them that we are very low and get loaded on the most level deck.

Unfortunately on our last trip to Spain on GNV (never again) we hit something coming off the ramp on arrival. later inspection showed that we had hit the crossmember under the gearbox so hard as to curl back the front bottom edge. It will have to be inspected before the next trip to make sure there is no critical damage.

The most critcal part of the ramp is where it touches terraferma. At that point there can be a massive hump like a speed hump depending on tide levels and ramp inclination. This is where you really need to try to cros it diagonally so that any contact is less abrupt. In this case I was very tired and unfortunately not taking enough care with a fully loaded car.

The Plus 4 is the lowest car of the range and even unloaded you may have as little as 9cm under the crossmember. With a full load it could get down to 8cm particularly if you have the dreaded sagging cart springs. Fitting 195/65 R15 tyres will gain you a valuable centimetre over the standard tyres.