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kansasfrogs 
Groupie 
Joined: 21 Jul 2016 Location: KS Online Status: Offline Posts: 80 |
 Topic: Reducing Trailer WeightPosted: 27 Jul 2019 at 11:04am |
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I wondered too, what dry weight meant, so asked FR. They said it was just the camper, no propane, or battery and of course no water. Not what the dealer told me...but I have since weighed if loaded and we're fine.
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FROGGY
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GlueGuy
Senior Member 
Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2629 |
Posted: 16 Jul 2019 at 10:24pm |
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Could have been gold bars...
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bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
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offgrid
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 16 Jul 2019 at 6:24pm |
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Glad to hear its not bodies
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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Jeepinator
Groupie
Joined: 08 Sep 2017 Location: Seacoast NH Online Status: Offline Posts: 72 |
Posted: 15 Jul 2019 at 9:56pm |
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[Oh, and last thing, I just gotta ask, what's in the 120lb crates and where do you keep them
 ?]Ha! 120 lbs total and that was a very rough estimate. I keep the crates under the slider when traveling and outside at the site. 4 gals drinking water (empty for trip home) Small solar light Collapsible wash bucket One-burner propane stove with two bottles of propane Coleman camp-stove toaster Rope/bungees Hammock 2 collapsible trash/recycling baskets Clothes pins Rain & fleece jackets Flip flops & water shoes Tarp Stove grate and propane hose for Road Trip grill Hatchet/hammer Sven folding saw American flag mount (modified shower suction cup handle) 2.5 gal collapsible water container 2 Foam kneeling cushions (for picnic table) Rain cover for the crates Wag bag 4 trash bags to cover removed Jeep Doors We are moving to a Blackstone grill so the Coleman Road Trip and accessories will be gone. We are also breaking up the gear for boon-docking or hookups so we only bring what we need. |
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2018 Jeep Wrangler Willys
2017 179 |
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podwerkz
Senior Member
Joined: 11 Mar 2019 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 966 |
Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 2:16pm |
Bodies?  |
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r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten!
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offgrid
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 11:30am |
I like your dishwashing protocol. I'd try the shower every other day thing too but my wife would make me sleep outside
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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mjlrpod
Senior Member
Joined: 27 Sep 2016 Location: Massachusetts Online Status: Offline Posts: 1214 |
Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 11:13am |
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If we are going to talk water conservation here, i'll try to add something. I find that in a one week stay, i can stay just over 1/3 full. I think dishes is the big culprit. I do like I used to do when I tented. I fill a 7 gallon aqua-tainer with water and dish liquid. I first wipe EVERYTHING with wet ones wipeys until they look clean. Then i quickly wash them under the dishwash container (which is directly over a 5 gallon pail I dump responsibly) and lastly either a super quick rinse in the sink, or I walk to the water hook up and rinse it there. Very little water goes into the grey tanks from dishes, and NO grease or food particles. We only use bottle water as well, so no waste water goes into sinks. In a week, we will both shower twice in the camper, and sponge bath in between. If you shower at home before leaving, you never really go more than 2 days without showering. So 4 showers and a little of the rinsing are a third / third and a half of the tank.
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2017.5 Rp-172
2020 R-pod 195 2015 Frontier sv 4.0L 6cyl I'll be rpodding |
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offgrid
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 8:17am |
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Interesting idea.
What I've done to extend boondocking time is to install an additional thermostat for the water heater, set to 105-106 degrees (the perfect shower temp for us). That way we don't waste water fiddling with the shower temp. We wash dishes once a day having wiped the dirty dishes as well as possible immediately after use. We use water heated on the stove with a little soap in one of the pots we need to clean anyway. Only takes a few seconds to get the little water we need warm. Then we rinse using the sink hot water tap. By the time we're done rinsing the water is coming out warm so we take our navy style showers. We are only using maybe a gallon or gallon and a half or so each showering and another gallon rinsing dishes so never run out of warm water. My wife and I can go a week that way on 30 gal and still take daily showers, and by myself I can go over two weeks. We do bring bottled water in a couple of 2.5 gal plastic containers for drinking and food prep so that extends the dwell time a day or two. As we're camping in primitive campgrounds or dispersed camping 90% of the time I always travel with my fresh water tank filled, and I do have dual GC2 batteries. I keep the trailer weight down by keeping everything else as simple and light as possible. I agree that for folks camping in developed campgrounds with water most of the time that its better to travel with a near empty fresh water tank, and if there's also a dump station you don't have to be that focused on water savings. I suppose to save weight you could also rig up a water heater drain that doesn't require pulling out the anode and then fill that and the fresh tank when you get to the campground. |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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crankster78
Senior Member
Joined: 08 May 2018 Location: Minn Online Status: Offline Posts: 163 |
Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 7:37am |
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Greetings: I've found that due to the time it takes for the water to get hot in the water heater, the amount of time that you have to run the facet to get hot water, It's easier to just heat up a large pot of water with what you need on the stove. I'm going to turn off and drain the water heater to save some weight. Most of the time I stay at State parks with showers, and when I dry camp, I take sponge baths. I use a plastic dish pan to wash dishes in. It works for me and I use less water. I travel by myself, so this works for me. Crankster78
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Crankster 78 R-179 2015
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offgrid
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 14 Jul 2019 at 5:12am |
The 4080 should be correct for the trailer, wdh tension notwithstanding, because you first weighed the entire rig and then subtracted the TV by itself. IOW, the wdh doesn't change the total weight, only shifts some weight back and forth between the axles. If you want to know what's included and not included in FR's empty weight sticker take a look at the 2017 brochure here. This lists the standard empty weight of the base trailers and on the second to last page it lists the weights of each of the factory options. Note that battery weight and specs are not included, so you need to add both batteries to your list. A single full propane cylinder is supposed to be included now,. Also, the 50 lbs of water we are all dragging around in our water heaters is not included in the dry weight, and there is probably another gallon or two in the plumbing, plus some remaining water in the gray and black tanks. I tried to reconcile the actual loaded weight of my 2015 179 (3740) and couldn't do it either, by about 250-300 lbs. I highly suspect that FR's empty weights are optimistic but the only way to prove that would be to empty everything back out to as delivered configuration and reweigh it and I'm too lazy to do that  If you can do so conveniently I'd also recommend running your rig through the scales again with the wdh not tensioned, this time getting a weight on the tow vehicle only (trailer axle off the scale). Then you can subtract your first 5380 lb TV weight from this second tow vehicle + trailer weight to get your tongue weight. That might be more a limiting factor for your Jeep than the total trailer weight is. As to how much weight is on the rear axle with the wdh, the simplest way would be to just weigh the trailer axle by itself (TV off the scale) with the wdh tensioned. Note though that if the scale and roadway where the TV is when you do that aren't completely level with each other there will be a little variation as the wdh will be doing its job trying to accommodate the high or low spot under the TV rear axle. Should be a small variation though. Short of that you can work backward to estimate the rear axle loading using this calculator. By working backward I mean that you can input your rig dimesions and weights and then adjust the tension of the hitch in the calculator until the load on the TV front axle is the same with the trailer and wdh as it is for the TV without the trailer, just like the adjustment instructions for the wdh say to set it. It's a bit of a PITA but doable. FWIW, my trailer axle came out at about 120 lbs additional from the wdh but YMMV. Oh, and last thing, I just gotta ask, what's in the 120lb crates and where do you keep them ? |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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Reducing Trailer Weight