Weight Limit 1985 Presidential 26 Holiday Rambler Class C

natashascribe wrote:
I've already got the spot for it, the entire living room was emptied and the cupboards are way up high. My dog crate is right there at the moment but he can move haha. Kind of thinking of turning the passenger seat area into a built in dog cratish thing with some storage or something.

It'll be next spring probably until the RV is ready to move. It had a bed and bath side by side in the back. I turned the bed into an L shaped desk/office area. I have to build a frame for the couch. I want to redo the bathroom. Lots of stuff! One step at a time lol.

Everything I've done thus far, I've done wrong and had to undo and redo haha. But I'm learning haha!

My hat is off to you for your determination. I hope your piano fits inside and gets bolted directly to the chassis frame. You'll have to report back (with pictures) how it turned out. I think you might just be the first person ever to install an upright piano in a motor home.

I've already got the spot for it, the entire living room was emptied and the cupboards are way up high. My dog crate is right there at the moment but he can move haha. Kind of thinking of turning the passenger seat area into a built in dog cratish thing with some storage or something.

It'll be next spring probably until the RV is ready to move. It had a bed and bath side by side in the back. I turned the bed into an L shaped desk/office area. I have to build a frame for the couch. I want to redo the bathroom. Lots of stuff! One step at a time lol.

Everything I've done thus far, I've done wrong and had to undo and redo haha. But I'm learning haha!

The weight may or may not be an issue, you won't know until you roll it across a scale. You're going to be doing extensive modifications to the interior anyway, so any cabinetry, etc you may remove to make room for your piano will partially offset the weight.

If you pull this off I can't wait to see the pictures. Short of cutting a hole in the side, how are you going to get this thing on board? I can't picture a full size upright fitting through the side door of a C. If you do get it on board, like others have said think about the inertia in the event of a crash or sudden stop. You'll want to secure it with hardware that can withstand at least 3 times the weight of the piano. To achieve this you may have to secure it to the chassis frame. The walls won't handle much.

Good digital pianos are not real ones; I very much understand that. I in fact have a (old and slightly decrepit) baby grand in my living room. However, the better digital pianos nowadays with some of the graded weighted hammer actions come remarkably close, in my opinion. For that matter, as you undoubtedly know, there's a good bit of variation in how different acoustic pianos play.

Besides the obvious tuning issues, I'd be worried about the vibration causing no end of minor difficulties with the action, bits of it working loose or getting out of position or generally needing a good bit of regulation with each tuning. If you know how (or are willing to learn how) to do tuning and such yourself that would probably work out to be a substantial savings in money. At any rate, if you start out with a very good upright it will not remain a very good upright for very long, I suspect.

If you do put an acoustic piano in the motorhome, try to have its weight as centered left to right as practical. If it's against an outside side wall, it'll be quite a bit of weight that's not balanced, and that tends to be problematic. Also for sure make absolutely certain it's well secured. It would be advisable to avoid having it in the back as there's more bouncing there than towards the middle.

It would probably also be a wise idea to make sure it fits through the entrance door, which is usually quite a bit narrower than most house doors. Sometimes large items (such as a replacement fridge) are put into or out of an RV through a large window opening, after removing the window, if they won't fit through the door, but a piano won't fit through most RV windows.

Please do give a little more thought to a digital piano. It would be a whole lot more practical in this case.

natashascribe wrote:
A digital piano is not an option. Too many years and too much training to ever use one. It's a different instrument.

I would play it enough that tuning it every time I move is definitely in the normal and necessary time frame.

This isn't a $20,000+ grand. Sadly the piano market has gone down a ton, so a very good upright I could live with can be found in the $500-$4000 range, depending on who's selling.

GVWR is 11,000
GAWR front is 4200
GAWR back is 7400

I remember having to subtract one number from another when calculating when we were looking at RVs, but I don't see a second number and that was ten years ago. (Idk how time flies so fast.)

If I need to work towards buying a different RV, that is an option. Buying a digital piano is not lol.

I know, I know, a digital piano is not the same as a real one. Still I feel it is the right instrument for the application. Have a nice real piano at home, and a digital one for the road. Just think how you will feel coming home to your "real" one.....something to look forward to as your trip is ending.

Don't forget the "safety" factor too.

Now that you know the GVWR (11,000), you need to weigh your rig. Subtract the actual weight from the 11,000 and that's what you can carry.

A digital piano is not an option. Too many years and too much training to ever use one. It's a different instrument.

I would play it enough that tuning it every time I move is definitely in the normal and necessary time frame.

This isn't a $20,000+ grand. Sadly the piano market has gone down a ton, so a very good upright I could live with can be found in the $500-$4000 range, depending on who's selling.

GVWR is 11,000
GAWR front is 4200
GAWR back is 7400

I remember having to subtract one number from another when calculating when we were looking at RVs, but I don't see a second number and that was ten years ago. (Idk how time flies so fast.)

If I need to work towards buying a different RV, that is an option. Buying a digital piano is not lol.

DrewE wrote:
I would start looking into digital pianos. Beside weighing about 575 pounds less, it would actually stay in tune and keep working properly after bouncing down the highway.

That was my thought on both of DrewE's replies.

A real piano in a motor home could never stay in-tune. I advise to consider a decent digital piano with weighted & sensitive keys.....and it will be easy on your house battery too given how little power they require. If you already own the piano and want to keep your investment down, research new quality digital pianos on-line, then search Craigslist for a older used one.

If you want to keep your cost way down, there are many digital keyboards that were sold at big-box stores, the nicer ones have weighted and sensitive keys. The most obvious drawback to them is they don't have a full set of keys.

Your options are near endless with a digital piano or electronic keyboard. None will challenge the load of a motor home, all will work off your on-board power with ease, they will stay in-tune, and they are easily transported in and out from the motor home. If you are creative, you can integrate a keyboard into the cabinetry of your motor home as not to loose much storage.

One serious safety concern with a real piano is during an accident. The weight of any real piano will rip out from every type of mounting you can think of. It will be a 600 pound projectile headed your way. Not so with an electronic piano.

I would start looking into digital pianos. Beside weighing about 575 pounds less, it would actually stay in tune and keep working properly after bouncing down the highway.

As Farmboy said, there's a sticker on the driver's door that gives the vehicle and axle weight ratings. Then, you can take the RV someplace with scales and get it weighed, and see how close you are. Unused payload is rarely in copious supply on class C motorhomes, but there is quite a bit of variation between barely any and some.

Your gonna have to come up with a little more info. Look on the door jam for a sticker .