RE: [A/S] Re: Travelling with full tanks

["Perry Joe Scudder" <perryjoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Betty,
I have a 34' Front Kitchen Limited. I just ran it through the "Weigh all the
wheels of your rig" RV weighing system at the Florida State Rally a couple
of weeks ago. I just received the paper work this week and did the analysis
of the setup of my rig. I had the rig weighed with the 54 gal Fresh Water
tank full, the 39 gal Wash Water almost full ( we had been setting on a
rally hookup - no sewer - for 5 days ) and the 37 gal Black tank about 1/2
full. I was surprised to find out the rear axle was 100 pounds over weight
with the tanks full. The level of the tanks added about 800 pounds to the
weight of the trailer. I try very hard to never tow with any full tanks. I
only have the fresh water tank full when going into places that don't have
water, or a rally where you can never tell when or if you will have water
when you need it. I did want to see what the full tanks would do to the
overall balance of the weight of the rig while I had the chance to get that
type of info from the professional weighing group. I dumped the tanks at the
dump station before leaving the rally grounds. I usually keep 10 or 15
gallons of fresh water in the tank in case we need to have some along the
road to fix lunch or use the bathroom.
I found out the rest of the rig was well in the "Green" safety zone for
towing. The 9800 GVWR on the Tri-axle was safe by 800 pounds even with the
back axle overloaded by 100 pounds. The dumping of about 600 pounds of
holding tanks and fresh water will give me that much more available carrying
capacity for loading on some more stuff when we take off for a 3 or 4 month
trip. I think the piece of mind is worth the $40 I paid for the professional
weight job. This also showed the new 2500 HD Crew Cab GMC Diesel had plenty
of reserve in all categories for handling the 9600 (Maximum Guestimated full
long trip load) pound trailer with an 1100 pound tongue weight.

Joe Scudder
WBCCI 8624