Weight of the r-pod 171 ready to roll
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Printed Date: 04 May 2025 at 10:08pm
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Topic: Weight of the r-pod 171 ready to roll
Posted By: podwerkz
Subject: Weight of the r-pod 171 ready to roll
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 3:15pm
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Took the rig to the local scales today for an 'oh-fish-ul' weigh-in! GAWR on the trailer axle is rated at 3000 on the trailer sticker, and 3500 on the axle sticker. GVWR of the r-pod is rated at 3242 pounds on the trailer sticker. Total weight of my entire rig, (pickup gas tank full): 10,300 Total weight of pickup: 7160 Total weight of trailer: 3140 (102 pounds under gross, yikes!) Steer axle: 3460 Rear axle: 4120 Trailer axle: 2720 Calculated tongue weight: about 420 pounds, (no WD hitch installed) Conditions present during weigh, after several additions to the trailer:
And supplies in the trailer:
Inside pickup bed/topper:
------------- r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten! |
Replies:
Posted By: Happy Tripping
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 5:12pm
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Thank you for this information. I guess I'd better plan on a visit to our local scale.
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Posted By: podwerkz
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 5:44pm
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Yep...the weight goes on fast when preparing to launch! The fridge had about 20 pounds of soda pop cans...I forgot to mention that. Anything else I pack will need to be put in the truck itself....the pod is just about at it's legal limit. I can move some heavy items like the jugs of drinking water and canned food into the truck so that I can add more water to the fresh water tank under the pod. The main reason for weighing it was so I would know how close I was getting to the limit...better safe than sorry! No sway at all, BTW....its very stable and 'planted' up to 70mph. ------------- r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten! |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 8:28pm
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Great job collecting all your numbers. Weight builds up really quickly as you see. But, you're not as close to maxing out the trailer as you might think. That has to do with how the DOT requires FR to set the MGVRW of the trailer. The are required to post a number no higher than the listed max axle weight (3000) plus the smallest number listed for tongue weight (242). Since you're TW is really 420, not 242, you have a bit more headroom even using the 3000lb derated axle max load. And, since the axle is really good for 3500, you actually could go as high as 3500+420 =3920, if you've installed tires and wheels capable of handling that. That's from an engineering pespective. Legally, you could still be held liable if there was an accident and your trailer weight exceded the 3242 number. So, I'm NOT suggesting that you exceed the manufacturer's MGVWR, just that you have more headroom that you might think if you load up close to that limit. You are at a tongue weight of 13.3% of trailer weight, which is a good place to be. Should be pretty stable from sway. Beware though that as you move water from fresh to gray and black tanks while camping this number will change, getting higher or lower depending on where your tanks are located relative to the trailer axle. If you want to check sway a bit further, take the rig up to about 60 on a straight roadway with two lanes in each direction. Then VERY CAREFULLY make a lane change and watch if the trailer oscillates back and forth before coming back into line on the new track. Slowly and carefully work up a bit until you can make a lane change reasonably quickly like you might actually have to do to avoid another vehicle someday. If the trailer takes more than one oscillation to come back into track with your TV I'd stop testing and suggest you at least consider some kind of antisway setup. Also check that your TV axle loads and the rig's max combined vehicle weight are well within specs. You can use this calculator for this, its handy: https://www.ajdesigner.com/apptrailertow/weightdistributionhitch.php - https://www.ajdesigner.com/apptrailertow/weightdistributionhitch.php ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
Posted By: podwerkz
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 9:29pm
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No problemo on the truck....Titan XD. GAWR Front is 4325 GAWR Rear is 4900 In fact the GVW for the pickup and load in the bed is 8800, so it's loafing along... it's rated for up to about 11,000 pounds towing (when properly equipped, of course!). Yeah I bought this as a tow vehicle for trailers, it does the job well. I think one of the interesting numbers is that the weight on my steer tires when the trailer is hooked up is about 300 pounds more than what the entire r-pod weighs...again, it's very 'planted'. I also pull a similar weight cargo trailer full of stuff, and it weighs within 100 pounds of the r-pod. Me and the XD tackled the Rockies and many other hills and it never missed a beat, no sway, no sweat. Even broadside winds and passing trucks were no problem. On my r-pod, the fresh water tank is just forward of the axle, and both holding tanks are aft of the axle. So yeah, load shift could be an issue after a week or two of boondocking on the way to the dump-station. Mainly I posted the information so others with r-pods will think about weight limits, especially if they have added heavy things like batteries and larger (or dual) propane tanks. ------------- r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten! |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 9:41pm
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Travel trailers always end up weighing more than you think. That's partly because ppl understimate what they've got in there and partly because the trailer manufactures specs are misleading, leaving out the wieght of many items that are almost always on the trailer when the customer takes delivery. Yeah with that tank configuration check for sway again when you have the fresh tank empty and the gray tank full. There are some cases where folks got surprised by sway returning home that wasn't there outbound. Add to that that the inbound trip tends to be downhill so any tendency for the trailer to want to be in front of the tow vehicle gets accentuated by gravity.... ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
Posted By: podwerkz
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 10:34pm
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Pardon me, but driving hundreds of miles towards home with full holding tanks is not in the plan, ever. I never did that with my old class A and have no intention of hauling hundreds of pounds of waste water (black or grey) back to Texas from wherever, only to have to deal with it here. Folly, I say! Man, that's what blue-boys and dump-stations are for!  ------------- r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten! |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 10:47pm
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I drive back from the Appalachians with gray water because there is nowhere anywhere near where I camp in the mountains to dump it and I can dump for free at the national park dump station a couple miles from my house when I get home. Not a problem, in my case it helps reduce my tongue weight which is pretty high anyway. ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
Posted By: podwerkz
Date Posted: 03 Apr 2019 at 11:15pm
Oh ok, BALLAST! Why didnt you say so? ------------- r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten! |
Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 04 Apr 2019 at 12:53am
Ballast, I like that  ------------- 1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |