OK, so what’s with the title? Well the other day Rana’s mother, Melba was searching for a 5th wheel to purchase to start her full-timing adventure. As she paged through all the different listings looking at floorplans she would mention the brand name; Montana, Big Country, Big Horn, Sundance and Elk Ridge. Since I was around when Rana and John purchased their 5th wheel (coach) I knew the major differences between the brands so when it comes time for Melba to purchase a tow vehicle (TV) I’ll be in on that decision. John, Rana and I have said that Melba needs to wait to buy a TV until either she has a coach or knows exactly which coach she wants to purchase. Which all boils down to waiting and knowing weights.
The waiting part is easy to explain, therefore I won’t bore you with the details of Melba’s search. I will however bore you with a detailed explanation of weights and ratings so that you’ll come away knowing how to tow safely, how that is determined and picking the best towing platform. At first you can be overwhelmed by the alphabet soup of acronyms; GVW, GCWR, RAWR, GVWR that many people give up and either go with a friends recommendation or the salesperson’s best guess. Since becoming a member of the Heartland family I use a website a member designed to help calculate a safe towing combination; truck & trailer. If you still want to know what the acronyms mean, well here you go:
GVW
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Gross Vehicle Weight
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Loaded weight of either truck or trailer
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GCWR
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Gross Combined Weight Rating
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Loaded weight of truck and connected trailer (Not to be exceeded)
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RAWR
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Rear Axle Weight Rating
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Weight rear axle and suspension can carry (Not to be exceeded)
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GVWR
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Gross Vehicle Weight Rating
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Loaded weight of vehicle (Not to be exceeded)
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As embarrassing as talking about your own weight, I now want to show you detailed weight results John has done since purchasing the coach. Just after returning from Anderson, IN where John and Rana bought the coach John weighed me and the coach on a CAT Scale at a truck stop across from the storage lot where the coach would be kept while not in use. The columns in Grey indicates the published specs for me and the coach. Yellow indicates the CAT scale data and Green indicates scale data from RVSEF. At the 2013 Heartland National Rally in Goshen, IN RVSEF had representatives there performing TV and coach weighing. This service is much more detailed than what the CAT scales provide because RVSEF places scales under each wheel of the TV and the coach in order to have true wheel weights. So John planned on arriving with full fuel tanks (86 gal.), 30 gal. of fresh water and about 10 gal. of black water so that we were weighted as true to the way we all travel. Once unhitched, John and Rana had the coach setup we then drove back to the scales and reweighed without the coach. This process yields the data in the table below.
Looking at the weight table you see there are some problems. As you study the CAT scale numbers compared to the RVSEF scale numbers you see a dramatic increase in weight. No it’s not all the donuts John I and eat, but the weight of becoming Full-Timers. So even if you are careful and know your numbers and are well within them when you are picking out your rig you can exceed various ratings by carrying too much stuff.
So do you want to know what weight loss program John has put all of us on? Well the first thing John did was moving all his tools from the very front compartment of the coach to the back of the van. That’s roughly 300 pounds gone from coach and me (GCWR). So the 15850 coach GVW should be down to 15550 as well as 3550 in pin weight. See how all the numbers tie together. The coach weighed in 15850, 350 over it’s rating but 2000 lbs. under in axle weight. Meaning all the excess weight is pin weight (750 lbs.) With the coach connected to me I’m over loaded by 1800 lbs. but my rear axle rating has not been exceeded. Meaning there is still work to be done before another weigh in. Earlier I stated that RVSEF provides true wheel weights or corner weights but the above table they are not listed. I did this because I wanted to keep the data points the same from scale to scale. I’ll post the detailed weights along with RVSEF recommendations that the reps pointed out. Although this much detail is not needed all the time John and I feel it is worth the $60 for detailed piece of mind. We plan on having RVSEF reweight us at least every two years with CAT scale ($9) checkups when we hit the road for a log trip.
If you have already gone to the RVSEF site you’ll see that they take a very detailed approach to RV safety and provide beginners as well as seasoned RV’ers information that will make their travels safer and more worry free. I really can’t stress enough that you need to do this homework prior to purchasing tow vehicle and trailer so that you end up with a combination that will be a pleasure to drive, safe in most road/weather conditions and different drivers. John has read many threads on various RV forums with people asking if their truck can tow this? Many asking what their numbers are; referring to the numbers John provided in the table above. Most posters either respond with a big NO or Sure it can, I do it all the time. Who is right? That’s up to you, we can’t say at this time we are “towing safe” because we are exceeding the weight ratings in several areas. But we have identified the problem areas and are taking steps to reduce the weight.
In closing I have to say that John and I know our weights and we are not waiting to make changes.
See you down the road!
