Dealing with the "Weight Police" and Finding the right RV

Before we get into this subject, lets take a slow, step by step, look at a real world example of how to properly weigh your rig. We have a 2002 Ford F350 and a 2004 Everest 343L. We took our rig to the scales loaded with 2 adults, 2 18 year old boys, and two labrador retrievers, firewood and all the gear needed for a 4 day weekend. So, step by step, here is how we weighed our rig on our way out of town.

Oops, here come the weight police!

First of all, the term weight police deals primarily with those on the Internet forums who constantly talk about others who are over weight. Rarely do the actual authorities stop RVs to weigh them. Notice that I said rarely and not never. There have been times when the police have weighed RVs and there are stories of the police forcing someone to park their rig until they come back with the proper tow vehicle to carry the load. This is far more prevalent in Canada than in the US, especially British Columbia

When vehicles are weighed by the authorities, items are usually checked in the following order. The first weights they check are the axle ratings, GAWR. These numbers can be found on your door panel. This is by far the most dangerous rating to exceed. An axle failure on the highway can be devastating. If they go beyond axle ratings the next weight they will check is the gross vehicle weight, GVWR. This number can also be found on the door panel. The main reason for checking this rating is revenue. You pay for your tags based on GVWR. If they go all the way, the last number they will check is gross combined vehicle weight. This number is generally not on the door panel. You have to search the manufacturer's literature to find this value. To date I have not heard of a single case where they have enforced this rating. This rating is set by the manufacturer and if you exceed it you will probably void your warrantee and you will cause more wear and tear on your tow vehicle drive train.

We posted the question: "Are there laws about GCVW?" in the RV.net forum. The basic gist of the 48 replies we got in the first two weeks was that there are no laws on the books governing the weight of your RV, but that a lot of RVers are in love with lawyers and are ready to sue you if you are an ounce over weight and get in an accident (your fault or not).

There is also a lot of controversy over wether adding air suspensions to the truck or 5er increases the load capacity. The only laws on this deal with commercial trucks, and it does increase their capacities, but they have to have their trucks re-inspected by an authorized agent.

So, how do you look for the right 5er to match the truck that you have?

Use the lower of the two green numbers (2,660) as your allowable pin weight and the blue number (11,160) as your allowable GVWR to see if you can handle the model you are looking at. Don't rely on the UVW or pin weight ratings in the RV literature. If the RV literature does not supply you with a GVWR, add the total cargo capacity to he UVW to calculate it. Use 20% of the GVWR as the 5er's estimate pin weight. Compare these numbers to the allowable weights you determined in the chart

NOTE: It is very dangerous to shift your cargo to the back of the 5er to reduce your pin weight. Reducing the percentage of weight on the pin will cause your 5er to rock back and forth while traveling down the road. This is called porpoising and it has a tendency to lift the tow vehicle causing an unstable ride.

We hope that this helps you to find the right RV. Can you increase the numbers by modifying your truck or RV? Remember that there is a lot of controversy about how much weight you can safely handle. The bottom line is that it is your family that you are putting at risk, not to mention anyone else you might get in an accident with.

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