RV Upgrades for long term boondocking.

PghBob wrote:
Hi. You noted your gross weight is 14000 pounds with nearly full water and fuel. That means if your chassis is a newer Ford E450, you can only add another 500 pounds of weight to be within the chassis limit. So, does that 14000 include your weight as the driver? How about any passengers, clothes, food, plus the toys you are adding. Distribution of your weight is also important. Have you exceeded any axle weight limits? Best wishes for your very interesting and innovative plan.

I'm not at the RV Right now, but was able to take a screen shot of a video of my dryer working that shows my hanging storage



I have 5 of those 12" wide hanging, and they are loaded with clothing, tools, spare coffee.

In the pantry I have about 100Lbs of food and about (60) 4 ounce emergency aluminum bags full of water.

There is also a 150 CC Scooter in the back, car jacks, an air compressor, shop vac, additional rear TV, etc.

We had 360 lbs worth of two adults in the coach at the A-1 Freeman weigh station the other day.

When the smart car did not fit right, I gave myself the liberty to load 1,800 lbs worth of anything I want in the back thinking I was going to be hauling this car everywhere anyway.

The weigh station reported 14,052 somewhere about that.

IMO, the two hundred lbs of fuel I plan to load are just about all I would need to add at this point. Sure, future solar panels are an option, and so are more batteries, but at least for now I feel safe in the coach.

I'm not a particularly fast driver, and at this point in my life I'm never in a hurry to get anywhere. Driving 65 is comfortable and safe to me, and I have driven it about 200 miles in it's current configuration and it has been great so far.

In regards to distribution, I understand the importance, and my best guess is that I am right on, or slightly tail heavy. How much? I don't have enough experience to know. Again, at least in my mind, my full intention was to be hauling the smart car around. And I think I'm less than the 1,800 lbs of the car, and I have added several hundred lbs forward of the CG in batteries, solar panels and humans and 20 gallons of extra water.

You are right, the idea was to be innovative and take the best ideas out there and use the ones that made the most sense given a budget, time, and availability of materials. I'm the kind of guy that has to buy 5 types of a product to figure out which one makes the most sense. I also drill 5 holes before I figure out which one was supposed to be there.

That said, I'm overall very happy with what has come from the last month putting all this together. I have tested every system individually, and am comfortable with all the options I have available to me. The first trip will start with Austin to NOLA in a few weeks, then on to FL. :) WEEEEEEEE.