Overweight with no/light load

[jimcumminsw]

For me I would lighten up an a few items when traveling. Such as carry as little as possible in food and drinks in the trailer and buy these in FL when you get there. I would also only carry 10 gallons of water for the toilets when on the road.

Why are you taking a TOAD since you have a tow vehicle already? If you really need this than have your wife drive the car and not tow it behind the RV. You can than have the car carry the bikes if you really need them.

[jacwjames]

Seen many similar posts in the last several years. There was one poster asking if it OK to drain the water heater tank to gain the ~50 lbs of carrying capacity.



At least you are wise enough to check and understand the weight limits and want to try and solve the problem.



Over the years manufacturers (and authorities) have changed the way they state the weight CCC of a RV.


My 2002 includes full fresh water, propane, and diesel before they state the CCC which is ~1800 lbs. (wish it was more).

Newer rigs start with empty water and propane and only count diesel.



So when people load up the RV without any thought they are surprised they are over weight.





I will admit that up until 2021 we were probably overweight. I made the decision to unload all the stuff out of the RV prior to my first solo trip. This included having my wife take out all of her stuff she'd accumulated both in the basements and bedroom cabinets and closet. Lots and lots of needless weight. Not doubt we shaved 750 lbs off the weight.

Now when she takes a trip I unload most of the tools, that she wouldn't use anyway, and she loads back all of her dog stuff (heavy Xpens and mats, and dog crates).

I know now when I travel I will be under weight and my wife should be also.



Good luck on your weight reduction goals.

[mfire1339]

The wheelbase is the killer for you.


Mike

[Mike8253]

Originally Posted by mfire1339

The wheelbase is the killer for you.
Mike

Actually, at a little over 20', the wheelbase isn't the real issue, it's the rear overhang that you get with a nearly 38' gas MH on a 24K F53 chassis. Don't know why they would not build that on the 26K version. Here are the specs:
Dimensions
Length
37.58 ft. (451 in.)
Width
8.5 ft. (102 in.)
Height
12.83 ft. (154 in.)
Interior Height
7 ft. (84 in.)
Wheelbase
20.17 ft. (242 in.)

You've got ~35% of your "house" hanging behind your rear axle with the bike, rack and trailer hanging all the way at the end of the MH. You have some decisions you are going to have to make.

[Suburbazine]

Originally Posted by Gordon Dewald

What kind of trailer and load gives you that much tongue weight? I followed the link and it shows the trailer interior. The inside looks like it is a triple axle.

Mine is actually a double axle, but with a custom aluminum chassis (reinforced triple tube extended tongue, reinforced A-frame coupler) designed for additional forward weight in the nose. Trailer GVW is 10k (for licensing purposes) with 6k axles, but tongue is rated up to 2k. Typical load is 1650lbs on the tongue, 9300lbs total.

Tongue load primarily comes from storage when in transit- have a full office and tools for work stored everywhere. Car occupies the rear 3/4 so everything moves to the front. Has full HVAC and furnace, with 50A service.

[Gordon Dewald]

Originally Posted by Suburbazine

Mine is actually a double axle, but with a custom aluminum chassis (reinforced triple tube extended tongue, reinforced A-frame coupler) designed for additional forward weight in the nose. Trailer GVW is 10k (for licensing purposes) with 6k axles, but tongue is rated up to 2k. Typical load is 1650lbs on the tongue, 9300lbs total.

Tongue load primarily comes from storage when in transit- have a full office and tools for work stored everywhere. Car occupies the rear 3/4 so everything moves to the front. Has full HVAC and furnace, with 50A service.

I am running an 18,000 lb stacker but only loaded to 13,000 because of hitch limitations. The triple axle seems to bring in an entirely different loading paradigm. Empty the trailer hitch will not touch the ground with the jack fully retracted. Loaded we have about 900 lbs on the tongue, got this by moving the car forward.

It may help to reduce hitch weight by loading heavier items to the center or the rear of the axles. If you carry a vehicle loading it backwards will reduce some hitch weight as well.

[Suburbazine]

Originally Posted by Gordon Dewald

I am running an 18,000 lb stacker but only loaded to 13,000 because of hitch limitations. The triple axle seems to bring in an entirely different loading paradigm. Empty the trailer hitch will not touch the ground with the jack fully retracted. Loaded we have about 900 lbs on the tongue, got this by moving the car forward.

It may help to reduce hitch weight by loading heavier items to the center or the rear of the axles. If you carry a vehicle loading it backwards will reduce some hitch weight as well.

I can't get out the door if I load backwards, not nimble enough to get over the center console either. This was an expected issue bringing a sports sedan along, though. As it is, I have to rock the trailer to get the car door over the trailer tire.



I haven't made any great endeavor to reduce tongue weight for one specific reason- my front coach axle is 20lbs overweight without the trailer tongue unloading it by 500lbs. Packing is a lot easier without shifting things to the rear

[rssnape]

Originally Posted by Suburbazine

People think 3K is a lot of cargo until they actually try it. I have 7.2K payload capacity and I still don't have enough, although almost 2k of that is trailer tongue weight.

You must be towing a huge trailer to have 2000 tongue weight!

[alank]

You need to consider the leverage factor the 400#’s that you can remove from behind the rear bumper/ hitch. It’s likely that removing 400# from that location will bring your rear axle weight down to an acceptable level.

[Suburbazine]

Originally Posted by rssnape

You must be towing a huge trailer to have 2000 tongue weight!

No, it's just not balanced like most trailers need to be for things like pickups. 20% forward weight instead of 10-15%.

Coach pulls it like it doesn't exist and the air hitch makes it float so no vibrations.

[pokgunner]

I would bet that a majority of rvs are overweight at least part of the time. Reason being is that manufactures try to limit the size of the chassis that they can get away with. If RVs were suddenly required to go through truck scales there would be a lot for sale.

My rv could have been built on the next higher Freightliner chassis. It has the same physical dimensions. For our first trip we loaded it for a weekend.
Out of curiosity I took it to the scales and found that we were 75lbs overweight. We had not begun to load it. I spent about 20k and my "free" labor beefing up the suspension, brakes and engine. I was fortunate to find a wrecked heavier chassis I could scavenge parts from.

That was 13 years ago. Our RV was our retirement dream, that started as a nightmare. We were clueless as to how poorly they are designed. It is little wonder that floor plans ae pushed at the sales lot because if you look past the cosmetics you are likely to bard. If I had it to do all over again I would buy a chassis and build my own.

About 10 years ago I was at a shop where a lawyer was having all the "options" removed tv, awning, generator etc. The reason being was that he could not get the empty weight down to what was advertised. With a full tank of gas, propane and water, once he and his wife got in there was 300 lbs left for cargo. The dealer told him it was because of the weight of the "options". He was planning on suing and I've always wondered how that went.

[THenne1713]

First, your 2nd weight math wrong, correct= 24,000 which= GVWR, not 780 over? 2) Proper way is add fuel, water, scale weigh rig, and THEN see what CCC you have, then weigh everything you add. TOAD is a different issue, but you seem to have capacity there? Good Luck

[Steve Rankin]

The problem as I see it is you are guessing the weight of the load you are carrying, and the actual weight of the rig says you're guesses are wrong. This is very common, especially on coaches at the upper range of the length, number of slides, etc. for the chassis. When I add your axle #'s I see you are not only well over the rear axle rating, you are over the total GVWR, and perhaps over the tire's GVWR.

Another issue is that your coach has less than 3,000# of carrying capacity, which is exacerbated by adding weight (Toad and bikes) to the hitch.

The solution is simple. Either go through the coach and decide what you can live without, relocate what stays, and ALL get the weights inside ALL of the ratings. Or trade for a coach with more carrying capacity. For example, our Patriot had over 7,000# carrying capacity. Even so, we had to pay attention to where we put stuff.

[Shadow5501]

I would second weighing the rig when it is unloaded. You have acceptable load capacity for a gas motorhome at 3,000ish pounds. Given the amount of storage and two people, that ought to be enough. But I suspect the manufacturer placed (ended up?) with most of that capacity on the front axle. That they placed the water tank near the front axle would indicate they know this. That makes it rather difficult to use because most storage adds weight to both axles, or entirely to the rear axle.

I’d start by moving the bikes to the tow car and stop carrying the spare tire. Then load everything as far forward as possible, carrying as little behind the rear axle as possible.

Beyond that, your chassis has the same frame, same front and rear axles, same brakes, and same drivetrain as the 26k chassis. I might look at beefing up the rear springs but would probably call it good at that point. Would sumo springs be sufficient - I don’t know what they claim? Could be a good excuse to install rear liquid springs.