How many Pounds do you suppose a Weekend actually Weighs?

[thirtydaZe]

The topic on weight, payload, towing, etc absolutely fascinates me for whatever reason.

I was surprised last night upon returning home from the grocery store. In a plastic bag i had 8 bone On chicken thighs, 1 large ribeye, 1 Fillet, a package of mashed potatoes, a quart of ice cream, and a bag of frozen corn. Relatively heavy bag. I put it on the scale when i got home to find it was 11 lbs.

This got me thinking. Minus other meals, this is basically supper for 3 (2 adults, 1 child) over a weekend, so lets say you pack 33 lbs, or say 50 lbs in food. Of course you need enough beer, caffeine drinks to get by so that could be another 100 lbs.

50 lbs of water is another 417 lbs.

clothes, for a weekend, do you bring 100lbs of clothes for 2 adults and a child?

then there's everything you keep on board at all times, the obvious big consumption of weight.

All in all though, when they give you dry weight of 11,962 and gvwr of 14,962. What in the world does 3,000 lbs of "stuff" actually entail?

[Mike_LeClair]

Well, lemme see - We pack so many clothes in the cheesy clothes closet that the POS rod for hanging clothes pulled right out of its well stapled in place hangers. The dresser, crafted by Amish trades folk, collapsed the side of the closet wall that it was hung on, we carry an extra fridge and freezer (both small, of course), then of course I carry enough tools with me to fix whatever breaks down on the trailer while we are moving from winter to summer locations. What me, weigh the thing, no thanks, just something else to dwell on or worry about.

Cheers

Mike

[FlatBroke]

Couple of years ago I got rid of "just in case" items that had to weigh a ton. Now I got more room for krap I don't need. 🙂

[CavemanCharlie]

In the winter , when I'm board and dreaming about camping, I go through my Travel Trailer and unload all the unnecessary junk I ended up with in the last season of camping. You would be surprised at the c*** I find in there and wonder why I'm still carrying that.

For example , I just thought today about a book I read early in the season and was wondering where it was. When I got to looking it was still in the TT.

I'm just a weekend camper. I always have extra socks and underwear in the TT. I also have sweat pants and shorts. Other wise for clothing I just grab a change of clothes and go. For food, I usually just take the first nights food stuffs. Then I go to store the next day and get more. I come back home with more food ; and beer ; then what I left with.

(P.S. I can't believe that this site does not let you use the C word. My parent friends and their 10-12 year old kids are OK with that one. lol ) To each there own. No worries

[myredracer]

At first I thought the thread was going to be about how much weight you gain from eating too much food on a weekend camping trip... :S

When I got our new TT, I weighed it at a scale right after I picked it up from the dealer. After allowing for 2 propane tanks and battery added by the dealer, it was 190 lbs heavier than the UVW sticker says that it should be when it left the factory. I suspect the discrepancy is due to the options we ordered like solid surface countertop and electric awning for ex. but just don't know.

I weighed each and every mod & upgrade I did, and that came to 119 lbs. That included the weight of the WDH snap-up brackets and Reese DC arms, Dexter equalizers & wet bolts, shock absorbers, water filtration & regulator, built-in vaccuum, 2nd TV and a few other things.

Then I went to a scale again and weighed our TT all fully loaded up for camping for two including food. That added another 555 lbs.

The grand total of the additional weight on top of the factory dry weight is only 864 lbs. Some people say that additional weight is typically at least another 1500 lbs, but I do not know where they get that number from and is way off from what I found. Urban myth I would say.

The thing that does not make sense is that the factory lists the NCC as 1563 lbs, yet when I did the final scale weighing, we were about 200 lbs under the GVWR. A full tank of fresh water would put us over the GVWR. Or if we loaded up for a long trip somewhere, same thing. The factory NCC is way off what it actually is. Factory listed weights are smoke and mirrors and are pretty much meaningless and are cooked up to make a particular camper look more towable. They're also inconsistent between manufacturers due to lack of industry standards. Dry weight vs actual is like the RV industries dirty little secret and they all play the game.

We also got screwed by the factory dry tongue weight of 518 lbs. We ordered a WDH with 800 lb rated spring bars thinking that would be plenty. However, the trip to the scale showed that the actual tongue wt. (fully loaded for camping) was nearly 1,000 lbs. Could not get the 800 lb bars to work properly and ended up ordering 1200 lb bars which made a huge difference. Makes me wonder how many owners are towing with under-sized spring bars.

[rhagfo]

Helimech wrote:
Food and beer don't count toward weight:B

Well my waist will respectfully disagree with you on that point! :B :B :B

[2012Coleman]

Seems like the only way to figure it out is to weigh it as it's going into the TT. It would be interesting to find out, but time consuming.

[GaryWT]

Yes some things add up quick. We are always looking at what we have and at some point will need to clean things out like paperwork. We have all the paperwork that came with the trailer plus 3 years of campground maps and brochures etc. we don't carry water in the tank but do have bottled water. Our grill goes in the truck along with a few other things like extra chairs. We do carry a few things that we rarely us like an ez up but I am not ready to take it out. Back to the op, steaks and things will add weight one way but hopefully not both ways...

[Cloud_Dancer]

Rice, beans, corn tortillas and tea. Survival mode is fairly light. It's just not how I roll, that's all.

[thirtydaZe]

I pack Bud, and not of the light variety.

All that stuff a lot of weekenders bring, we thought was fun on our first camper. Now i bring an extra pair of shorts incase. Walking shoes and the sho s ill be wearing. Our grill is a jumbo joe. Smoke from the fire zaps bugs. Seems now my 2 year old is hogging all my payload....

Really, i want to get away from town and neighbors, and i dont want much clean up on departure day. My real curosity is when we go for 2000 miles, 12 nights, how much am i beinging then. However that wasnt my question to begin with.

[AmericalVette]

Geno92308 wrote:


I suggest packing light beer.

Now that is funny~!! :B

[Geno92308]

I know my camp chef stove is my weight hog. After adding the cast iron grill, grill box, and assesories it's about 100 lbs, propane is delivered by the stock tanks.

I suggest packing light beer.

[Helimech]

Food and beer don't count toward weight:B

[2gypsies1]

I think weekenders carry more weight than they think. They carry all kinds of outside 'decorating' items, the big grill, all kinds of sport/play equipment, coolers, shade canopies, bug zappers, toys, etc. Full-timers don't carry all that misc. stuff - just the necessities for living day to day.

[dave54]

When we bought our new one and unloaded the old one I was amazed at how much redundant stuff I had hidden in the nooks and crannies. Do I really need THREE spare water filters? Three containers of bungees? Two spare 50' extension cords? I figure if I have not needed a 'just in case' item in the last 10 years I can safely stop carrying it.

I should weigh all the redundant and unneeded items I removed.