hi all,
after we filled with fuel today we unhooked the car and weighed the coach.
we weighed with empty waste tank, full water tank and full fuel tank and darlene and i at our seats.
attached is the picture of the scale readout. it is a little confusing to me as it is lower than i expected.
my vin plate shows gross weight of 55,000 pounds with 12k at tag, 18k at steer and 25k at drive.
corresponding tire pressures on the vin plates for 215/88r22.5 lrl are
100psi at tag, 110psi at drive and 140 psi at steer
i have changed the steer to 365/70r22.5 lrl and have been running 115psi.
my scale readings were 9940lbs tag, 17500 steer and 23360 drive
for a total of 50,800
so tire pressures are now a bafflement to me.
the michelin chart show that the tire pressures could be wayyy lower than what i am running. it was a cat certified scale. what other axle weights do you guys with 2 slides see?
tom
I would say your coach is balanced as good as you can get. When I weighted mine, I was surprised that I was over on my steer & drive & 1/2 the capacity of the tag. My vin plate shows little relationship to the individual actual capacities of the components.
Tire air pressure will be dependent on you comfort level lowering to the static capacity listed on tire charts. My experience has been as the ride gets better the handling does not.
Looks reasonable to me. When I was weighed the CAT scale did not separate the tag from drive, but this was the result.
Front axle: 17,300
Rears: 32,260
Total: 49,560
Russ
Thought I had it on my 'puter but must be at the coach.
If I remember it was pretty close to what Russ shows.
Individual axles weights are great for determining if you are over GVW on any axle, and yours look very good. For determining individual tire pressures and coach balance, I feel an individual wheel weighing is in order--had Newell do mine. Before I began dropping tire pressures, I would want to take into account side to side weights and not just individual axle weights. I believe Michelin even says to determine which wheel on an axle is heaviest and use that weight on both sides for determining tire pressures on that axle. Using my coach as an example my left front and right rears(both drive and tag) are the heaviest. My side to side weights differ as much as 500 pounds. That surprised me, as I would have assumed that the left side would have been heavier than the right on all axles, on a 2 slide coach. Just thought I'd give you something to ponder as you drive down the road.
i am running 100 tag, 110 drive and 115 steer. not going to change anything for now.
i would have been happy to get each wheel weighed, but have not found anywhere that would do it.
we were at a loves truck stop and the scale was empty so i paid the ten bucks to get weighed.
assumming the scales were accurate, it just surprised me the tag weight was so low. and...all the axles are below the tire pressures i am running.
tom
Yup, That is exactly my experience. I was thinking the exact same thing. Where I have come out (subject to further discussion) is that once I am over the minimum required pressure for the weight, it is a matter of how the coach drives. I would also assume that the milage will be better at higher pressures, but have not attempted to figure that out. If you have further thoughts...would love to hear them.
Tom, I weighed mine fully loaded, exactly as you did. Weights are 18,110 steer, 21,530 drive, 11,160 tag for a total of 50,800. I carry 110 in steer and drive tires and 100 in the tag, and according the Michelin chart, these pressures support almost 60,000 lbs. Steve is correct in that each wheel should be weighed, but with almost 9,000 lb. margin, I should be safe until I can get each wheel weighed.
To get individual wheel weights, once the axles are weighted, could you have the coach re-weighed with one side of the coach just off the scale to get the weigh of just the wheels on the other side that are still on the scale?
If any of you guys are Escapees members their rally is at Gillette, WY on June 30-July 5 and they will be doing their Smartweigh there. They do individual wheel weights for $45 and $10 for your toad.
http://www.escapees.com/escapade/