Thinking about an RV

[Texas Proud]

There should be another federally required placard inside the door - the "Tire and Loading Information" sticker. Take a look at the very small print right above the tire inflation chart and you should see a "combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed" payload limit for your vehicle. This info is on all cars and trucks sold in the US and has been for years - although I can't find when it became mandatory for mfgs. to include them.

You can see by the example below the payload info isn't prominently displayed, but it is there.

HOLLY MOLLY.... what kind of vehicle has 60 and 70 cold PSI

 

[REWahoo]

HOLLY MOLLY.... what kind of vehicle has 60 and 70 cold PSI

One that weights 10,000 lbs loaded. My last one had 110 and 120 cold PSI but it weighed 32,000 lbs...

 

[REWahoo]

As I am perusing the RV.org discussion of towing they spend a lot of time discussing wheel base, relative weight of towing vs towed vehicle, and weight distributing hitches.

This is all 'guy stuff' to me but I can see that many on the road don't have well matched rigs.

It is scary how many who post on those boards don't seem to have a clue about the actual capability of their tow vehicles vs. the weight of their trailer and are overweight - sometimes by thousands of pounds.

OTOH, you hear of relatively few RV related accidents which may lead you to believe there is a large margin of safety built into some of the weight limits. But I think I'll err on the side of caution and try to stay pretty close to my numbers...

 

[Brat]

Flipped RV setups are not uncommon on I-84. When the wind whistles down the Columbia River Gorge and a big rig passes they can be whipped around easily if not well balanced.

 

[devans0]

I fit the profile of having little clue of my truck's capacity. The sticker did not come with the truck, and it's old enough to not show up on searches. The best guess is 10000# and I scale empty @ 7200#. I may get an education someday by some government official, or maybe the truck will die first. My solace is that big rigs whip when I go by.

 

[REWahoo]

Flipped RV setups are not uncommon on I-84. When the wind whistles down the Columbia River Gorge and a big rig passes they can be whipped around easily if not well balanced.

I'll cross that section of I-84 off my bucket list...

 

[REWahoo]

I may get an education someday by some government official, or maybe the truck will die first.

It is highly unlikely you'll ever have an issue with any governmental agency. As far as I am aware the only laws dealing with weights in non-commercial vehicles are license registration and tax laws. The "weight police" aren't going to pull you over and give you a ticket - traffic cops are as confused as we are when it comes to weight limits on RV's and non-commercial trucks.

The only law we need to really be concerned about are natures laws - like Sir Issac Newton's Laws of Motion, primarily the one that says:

"A big-@ss RV in motion tends to stay in motion, especially when heading downhill hitched to an undersized and overweight tow vehicle."

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

It is highly unlikely you'll ever have an issue with any governmental agency. As far as I am aware the only laws dealing with weights in non-commercial vehicles are license registration and tax laws. The "weight police" aren't going to pull you over and give you a ticket - traffic cops are as confused as we are when it comes to weight limits on RV's and non-commercial trucks.:

Yep, until there is a serious accident and the insurance company says you are not covered since you were driving an illegal rig (it says right there on page 187 of the policy). Or worse yet an injured third party files a claim and were found to be over capacity.

Not trying to be paranoid here, but there are a lot of reasons to stay in compliance, IMO.

 

[REWahoo]

Not trying to be paranoid here, but there are a lot of reasons to stay in compliance, IMO.

Yep. No reason to tempt fate.

But I think I'll err on the side of caution and try to stay pretty close to my numbers...

 

[JakeBrake]

Since no one has mentioned the time-honored redneck method of determining the maximum load for your pickup... Don't worry about calculations or specifications. Load the cargo box or trailer until the rubber bumper on the frame above the rear axle is within 1/2" of the axle and you are ready to go.

 

[REWahoo]

Load the cargo box or trailer until the rubber bumper on the frame above the rear axle is within 1/2" of the axle and you are ready to go.

Yep, like this:

 

[Nords]

Yep, like this:

I thought that meant the person riding in the trailer is supposed to move up to the front seat of the SUV...

 

[ER Fireball]

Just put a new 2011 Silverado on the road with a 28BH trailer. The basics of the numbers: The 2011 was beefed up about 1000 pounds in combined rating, and works OK so long as you do not carry much in the pickup and you buy a trailer that has a max rating of around 7000 pounds. When hooked up properly, with full fuel and about 400 pounds of driver, passenger, and stuff in the pickup, you will be under max vehicle weight by about 300 pounds. With the trailer close to it's limit, you will still have spare capacity on the max combined weight.

We never plan to travel with the trailer filled up, and we know enough to load all the stuff in the trailer and basically run with an empty pickup. About 11 mpg on relatively flat roads.

On the way home yesterday we saw an older half-ton pickup pulling a 5th wheel camping trailer, with a welded on rear cargo box, with a hitch, trailering a fishing boat. He was all over the road and a wreck in progress. I would have liked to had a picture, but didn't want to get that close to him!

A 3/4 ton pickup will give you a lot more truck, but you will also pay for it with more fuel burned.

 

[devans0]

The Department of Transportation pull trucks over to weigh them on portable scales in my area. I don't know if it is from zealousness, short budgets, boredom or actual enforcements but non-commercial vehicles have been occasionally pulled over too, or so I've been told. (I wouldn't put it past some to tug the new guy's chain).
As for the time honored method, I haven't even seen a deflection of the top spring, yet. The tires are "G" rated and should be good to go. The insurance clause on page 187 is a problem, so I do try to comply.

 

[audreyh1]

HOLLY MOLLY.... what kind of vehicle has 60 and 70 cold PSI

One that weights 10,000 lbs loaded. My last one had 110 and 120 cold PSI but it weighed 32,000 lbs...

Yep that's us too! (100 & 110 PSI, weighing 29,000 lbs) Fortunately we can use the engine air compressor to get the tires up to 110 when we need to.

Audrey

 

[audreyh1]

I'll cross that section of I-84 off my bucket list...

Oops! And I am headed just that way!

[Not worried - done it before - might check wind advisories first though]

REWahoo - not one to cross off your list. It is well worth traveling down the Columbia River Gorge, and some neat camping and awesome sight seeing too.

On the road again, finally, after a year hiatus setting up a fixed abode...

Audrey

 

[Brat]

If you are driving from Boise a side trip to Joseph in the Wallowa Mountains is well worth the time.

The Columbia River Gorge is absolutely gorgeous!!! If you are trailing a motor home or driving an RV checking forecast winds through the Gorge is wise. Sometimes just changing your transit time a couple hours makes a huge difference.

I-84 isn't a busy freeway until you get close to Portland but it is the road semis take to and from Boise. One of the local legends was about a driver ticketed for going 75-80 (our State Police take speeding VERY seriously) east of Umatilla (a long straight section on a plateau). The Officer noted that traffic was heavy. The driver took the matter to the Judge who tossed the ticket.. 'heavy' traffic was that you could see another vehicle in your line of sight going the same direction. The Judge could hardly contain laughter. If truth be told everyone drives that section faster than they should.

 

[Gone4Good]

It is scary how many who post on those boards don't seem to have a clue about the actual capability of their tow vehicles vs. the weight of their trailer and are overweight - sometimes by thousands of pounds.

OTOH, you hear of relatively few RV related accidents which may lead you to believe there is a large margin of safety built into some of the weight limits. But I think I'll err on the side of caution and try to stay pretty close to my numbers...

It's scary how many rigs are build to capacity almost necessitating being overweight. I don't know if trailers are the same because I didn't look at those, but most of the C's and A's I looked at were built so heavy that the only thing you could carry safely was cargo holds full of packing peanuts.

And to find that out is a real ass-ache. You won't find weight detail on line or on any spec-sheet except for the one hidden inside the rig. If you don't know to look for it, and it seems most folks don't, you'll never know how much weight you can carry.

 

[REWahoo]

It's scary how many rigs are build to capacity almost necessitating being overweight. I don't know if trailers are the same because I didn't look at those, but most of the C's and A's I looked at were built so heavy that the only thing you could carry safely was cargo holds full of packing peanuts.

And to find that out is a real ass-ache. You won't find weight detail on line or on any spec-sheet except for the one hidden inside the rig. If you don't know to look for it, and it seems most folks don't, you'll never know how much weight you can carry.

Yep, the cargo/payload capacity of many of the various types of motor homes is ridiculously low. Of course this leads to overloading, which would explain what appears to be a higher than average rate of tire failure on these vehicles.

Generally speaking, travel trailers and 5th wheel trailers do not suffer from the same lack of cargo capacity as do the various types of motor homes. Problem is way too many of these trailers are attached to an under-capacity tow vehicle as described earlier in this thread.

Example: I'm sitting in an RV park next to an overloaded rig as I type this. The owner told me he was planning on adding an aux fuel tank to his truck, an extra 500 lbs. Based on what he told me about his 5th wheel (15,000 lbs) and the payload capacity of his truck (2,800 lbs), I estimate his truck is currently 6-800 lbs overweight. Adding another 500 lbs will put him almost 50% over the designed rating - not good.

 

[ls99]

More numbers:
Looked up curb weight of my Sub. 5860Lb,
The weight on the scales is 7200.

With the 4.10 differential gearing max towing weight is 10000 LB.

One more data point.

My 99 C2500 Suburban w/7.4 litre engine.

GVWR 8600 LB
GAWR 6084 LB That is rear axle load.

With me and a full tank of gas and some stuff in it shows up as 7200 LB on scales.
Edit add: fuel tank hold 45 gallons.

 

[REWahoo]

More numbers:
Looked up curb weight of my Sub. 5860Lb,
The weight on the scales is 7200.

With the 4.10 differential gearing max towing weight is 10000 LB.

I'm sure you are aware that max towing towing weight (how much weight the vehicle is rated to pull and stop) is different from your 8600 Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) - The maximum allowable total weight of the tow vehicle, including driver, passengers, optional equipment, cargo, fuel, trailer hitch and weight placed on the hitch by the trailer.

 

[ls99]

Yep.

There are many ways of exceeding capacities. All of them easy.