Weighing Your RV

[heruide]

Originally Posted by haroldj

If you were hauling a camper and thats it, the specs will be on the camper, or in the manual, and you can determine what type of vehicle hitch you have and if it can handle it.

Harold, As you shared you have to be cautious with what else you might be hauling. The weight that is listed on the camper is just the dry weight of the camper when it leaves the factory. However, it does not include the dealer added options (e.g., battery, AC, or propane) or all the stuff you might add yourself (e.g. generator, TV, cooking utensils, fresh, gray or black water). All these can add up and if you are not careful you might actually exceed the maximum trailer weight (GVWR).

This is why it is always advisable to weigh the trailer and I applaud Mailfire99 for raising the topic as only 5% of the trailers on the road today have been weighed after leaving the factory.

Ruide

[terryt]

if you live close to a farm community the local grain elevator will probably let you weigh for a small fee

[Gerry]

I'm a strong believer in knowing what my RV weighs and how my rig is balanced. To me it's a matter of safety knowing I'm not exceeding my gross and overloading my truck axles. Here in Oregon we are fortunate because we can use most any public scale not open with the readout always on. If I lived in a state without this feature I would gladly pay a few bucks to know what I was towing. Most of our rigs don't vary that much in weight when outfitted to our liking except maybe carrying a full fresh water tank from time to time but that's easy to weigh too.

[artmart]

Where I live there is a moving and storage location where I go to get my rig weighed. The scale is there because they weigh moving trucks, then pick up a load, then weigh again and the difference is what they charge the customer. Professional moving trucks charge by the pound and this is how they calculate your particular weight.

I have taken my rig there, weighed the whole thing, one axle at a time to know the weight at each axle and then one side of the axle to know what each side at each wheel weighs too. I also weighed with just no weight, with the truck loaded up for an RV trip (wife, passengers, gear, pets), then also with the fifth wheel so I know what the pin and each tire of the axle weighs.

I am like Gerry and want to ensure I am not overweight. Things break enough while you are within your weight ratings, why would anyone want to make it worse. Plus, the liability if you damage or hurt someone else because of it. I have heard of folks losing everything if they were found to be overweight and their insurance did NOT cover them because of it. There's just too much to lose if you are not compliant.

[RVCamper]

Yeah a lot of scales at gas stations or weigh stations on the highways will work.

I was surprised how much lighter our rig was after we renovated it and took out a lot of excess weighing furniture.