# Results From Scales



## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

Took the Outback and Yukon to the scales this afternoon and here's the results, they're somewhat suprising and disappointing;

Chris is outside right now taking things out of the trailer to help her feel better









The truck and trailer were packed for our trip with about 10 gallons of water and the black tank was about 1/3 full. The truck had 1/2 tank of gas and no passengers.

GVWR of the yukon is 6500, unloaded weight is 5250
Yukon front axle max is 3150 actual is 2700
yukon rear axle max is 3750 actual is 3350
With the truck hooked up to the trailer, the actual weight of the truck is 6050 leaving a margin of 450 for passengers and the other 1/2 tank of gas. I figure I'm overweight by about 150 with passengers and fuel.

My weight distributon is only transferring about 100 to the front axle, I'll have to angle the hitch head back a little more to get more weight up there.

The outback weighed 5450 with a tongue weight of 800. The front axle is 2450 and the rear axle is 2200. The tongue weight suprised me quite a bit, but I guess it is what it is.

Total GCW is 10700 which is 1300 under the GCWR.

The one number I'm bumping up against is the GVW of the truck.

There's a fair margin left on the truck axles as well as the trailer axles.

So what am I gonna do? Do I worry about being 150 over GVW on the truck? I don't know yet. I have to think this thru for a bit. I don't really have that much gear up front in the trailer to decrease the tongue weight by much. I don't have the capacity in the trailer to transfer gear from the truck. There's not that much in the truck to decrease the weight by 150 anyway and that would only get me down to the GVW.

A new truck is not out of the question but not what I really had in mind. I'm kind of bummed out, but on the bright side it's not grossly overweight.

Well it's off to Cape May tomorrow, we'll worry about it next week.

Mike


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Find out from GMC if the rear axle weight rating is limited by the springs or the axle itself, I bet it will be the springs. You can add air bags or another spring leaf to the back end to raise the rating of the back end and thus raise the rating for the Yukon.


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

camping479 --

good job taking the time to do it right... after i got my numbers I went out and bought a new truck cuase the numbrs were saying my original TV was just too close for comfort...

its never wrong to err on the side of safety ....


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Mike's coming down with "The Fever!"


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## drobe5150 (Jan 21, 2005)

a 2002 white excursion in the near future









darrel


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## cookie9933 (Feb 26, 2005)

Mike,

With your TT weight of 5450, 800 lbs is a good tongue weight. For minimal sway and good towing manners, you want (max) 15% of your gross trailer weight on your ball and that would be 817.5 lbs.

If you get 150 lbs of stuff out of the Yukon and into the Outback and load it so you still have 800 lbs tongue weight, you will have 14% tongue weight and you will meet GVW for the Yukon. Or did I miss something?

Bill


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## HootBob (Apr 26, 2004)

Yeah Jolly 
Mikes looking alittle feverish








Have a good time in Cape May
And a safe trip.

Don


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## dougdogs (Jul 31, 2004)

CamperAndy said:


> Find out from GMC if the rear axle weight rating is limited by the springs or the axle itself, I bet it will be the springs. You can add air bags or another spring leaf to the back end to raise the rating of the back end and thus raise the rating for the Yukon.
> [snapback]42655[/snapback]​


I don't think there is any way to legally change a weight rating, but this is a good idea to transfer wieght to the front axle


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## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

Andy, thanks for the idea but I don't plan on doing any mods to the truck.

Thinking of buying a different truck after spending a grand on a complete brake job yesterday kind of smarts.

Chris has been bringing in bag after bag of stuff from the trailer since last night. I hope I have underwear for the trip.

No white excursion, too big and too many miles.

You're right cookie, the tongue weight is right, just thought it was lower. I thought of moving things out of the truck to the trailer but I don't think there is 150 to move. Just a few chairs, some kindling and my bucket of tools.

I'll be thinking this thru, been towing with good success for two years like this, so we'll see.

Mike


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

Mike, is the 5450 the total wgt of the trailer, or the axle wgt? If it is total wgt, I don't feel so bad, 'cause your 21 weighs more then my 26.









I am a bit surprised by your tongue wgt also. I thought the 21RS was in the 350 to 400# neighborhood, and you have more TW then my 26RS (780# when I weighed it)

I took 72# of PT lumber from the front pass through, and drained the fresh tank (had more in it then I originally thought), and drained the grey tank (again, more then I originally thought). I don't know if I will head back to the scales or not, but either way, a new truck is not in my immediate future either, dispite what I may want.

Enjoy Cape May.

Tim


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## dougdogs (Jul 31, 2004)

Hey Mike, if you don't mind me asking, what did/does Dewalt charge for this weighing?? Or was it free because you were a customer??


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## cookie9933 (Feb 26, 2005)

Mike,

Here's another angle. If possible, re-distribute your cargo in the Outback so that you have 150 lbs less tongue weight. This will then satisfy your Yukon's GVW and you will still have 650 lbs sitting on the ball, which is 12% (nominally).

This should still yield good trailer manners, since I believe that a tongue weight between 10% and 15% is acceptable. Anyone else agree?

Bill


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

The "rule of thumb" that everyone is so fond of quoting is 10-15%, with 12% being the best, I think only because it's in the middle.

Tim


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## ddavidson (Jun 12, 2005)

We looked at upgrading our Explorer to an Expedition (similar to Yukon in numbers), but upon further investigation came to the conclusion that there is little to be gained in terms of numbers.. I think the stability would have been better, but the extra displacement really just covers the added weight, and the GVRW and GCVW numbers didn't offer any more leeway than we already have because of the additional vehicle weight.

I have come to the conclusion that my next TV will be a 3/4 ton truck, so I don't have to worry about the numbers any more.

D'Arcy


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## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

Back from Cape May, the trip was great, nice weather and lots of r and r.

Tim,

5450 was the total weight of the trailer including tongue weight. I'm 50 under gvw and quite a ways under on the axle ratings when you take into account 800 of the total is tongue weight. I thought you were 180 over gvw on your trailer?

I wonder if Keystone is actually weighing each coach or what. The sticker in the cabinet on mine says 4380 from the factory, there's no way I have over 1k of gear in there including propane, water and battery. Maybe that number doesn't count the awning, a/c and whatever else, I don't know, but something doesn't seem right there. Maybe Coachlight can shed some light on that for us.

Cookie,

There's not much in the front to move to the back to decrease tongue weight. Just a few tools and clothes. The only thing I could do is drain the water heater when on the road. 6 gal. is about 50-60 or so.

Doug,

DeWalts charges 95 for the weighing which includes a printout. They were pretty thorough on gathering info on gross axle weights, tire pressures, etc. and putting it on the printout so you can see exactly where all the numbers fall.

ddavidson,

You're right, when you take into account all the weights etc, a 1/2 ton truck doesn't have much payload and you reach the gvw rather quickly.

I'm pretty sure if you took all of us towing with 1/2 ton trucks and ran them over the scales, more than 1/2 would be right at gvw or overweight. It's that gvwr number that seems to be the issue, you can be under all the other numbers, gcwr, axle ratings AND tow ratings and still be overweight.

Still unsure what we will do. We removed a lot from the trailer and what we could from the truck, but that won't really change the fact we are really close to the trucks limits. Amazing what we found in the trailer that we haven't used in quite some time









Running right at gvw concerns me safety wise more than the extra wear and tear on the truck. We towed our other trailer and the outback for 4 seasons now and the truck seems to be holding up quite well. When I had the rear serviced, my mechanic said the gears and fluid looked good. I've had the trans serviced twice and there wasn't anything unusual there either. The couple of big repair bills we've had had nothing to do with towing or carrying extra weight, unless power window motors have something to do with towing







. So what to do? No idea yet.

Mike


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## vdub (Jun 19, 2004)

You are right on target, Mike. My experience has also been that the GVWR is the culprit when it comes to busting the weight. That's why I may someday regret not getting an F-350 like Y has. His rig has a GVWR of 11,400 and that's with a single axle. Of course he needs it to pull the USS Raptor around.


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## tdvffjohn (Mar 10, 2005)

The cast iron Dutch oven alone weighs........................ leave it in there









John


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## Scooter (May 9, 2005)

Mike
On behalf of Bella she requests you stop eyeing her weight as you work through GVW distibution efforts .. She hasn't grown all that much. Yet!!


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

tdvffjohn said:


> The cast iron Dutch oven alone weighs........................ leave it in there
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yea...yea! Leave it!


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## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

Have dutch oven, will travel










Mike


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

Yeah Mike, the 'ole 26RS was 6180 total weight, with 780 on the tongue. When I started to take things out, I realized that I had about 20-25 gallons, and there was about 10 gallons in the grey tank too. That is over 290 pounds, plus the 72# in lumber I took out, I should be good now. We just got back today from a short mid week stay at Seashore Campsites in Mystic, CT. The trailer towed great, and I think that may have been the problem. I still don't know if I will get it back over to the stone yard, but I do feel a lot better now.

Hmmm, I just a commercial that GM's employee price sale has been extended to August 1. I wonder if the NTF will surface again?

Tim


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