Before I shave 200#,s off...

[Victory402]

I'm right at about 220#'s overweight on my rig. Some of you would laugh at such a small amount, but I have a small 7' coachmen on a Ford Ranger. Add to the fact that I'm new at running a TC makes me extra cautious.

I'm already 1/2 tanking it and removed a bunch of misc stuff but still around 220#'s over.

I have some other ideas to reduce weight and wanted to ask for some of your input to help me along.

1. Replace stock mattress with an air mattress. aprx 40# reduction.

2. Remove air conditioner (wife not crazy about this one). aprx 90# reduction

3. Swap out 20# lp tank with a 11# lp tank. aprx 15# reduction.









Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Victor

[noteven]

Victory402 wrote:

Good job victor! Be careful of running your truck battery down though.....

Which leads me to my next question.
Can anyone recommend a top shelf truck battery?

Lithiom Ion

if you plan to eliminate dedicated camper battery power:

Essential one battery campin' accessory

[sabconsulting]

It is really fascinating to see how much weight you have managed to remove in only a few items - it really goes to show.

If we were hiking we would soon be removing unnecessary weight from our back-packs, but with truck campers it is all too easy to not bother applying the same logic. I guess our thinking tends to be "heck, the truck and camper are heavy anyway, no point worrying about the weight of an extra frying pan / tool kit / LPG bottle / ...".

It is really useful that there is a great range of lightweight stuff for sale for the hiking market that you can take advantage of.

Keep up the good work and keep up updated with the stuff you remove and weights of it.

Steve.

[PatStab]

Get your wife on premarin and stop the hot flashes, she will feel better shortly and you will both be happier and can likely lose the AC.

I've taken it 20 years and will not stop, never had a hot flash. Just
a suggestion.

[whizbang]

You are doing exactly the right things. Think like a backpacker --- weigh everything. What you can't remove, carry in the cab as far forward as possible. A busted axle will ruin your trip. 200# over is a lot on a Ranger or half ton.

I'm not a fan of air mattresses. Perhaps a lighter foam mattress? I was going to suggest a smaller table. We used a cutting board. But, you're already done that. Looks like you remove the jacks as well.

[Victory402]

Good job victor! Be careful of running your truck battery down though.....

Which leads me to my next question.
Can anyone recommend a top shelf truck battery?

[btggraphix]

Boatycall wrote:

billtex wrote:

If I were 200# over weight I would celebrate.

If I was 2,000#'s overweight I'd celebrate.....

When I am under 20,0000 pounds I celebrate. It's all a matter of the zero's 😉

Good job victor! Be careful of running your truck battery down though.....

[Victory402]

Thank you Ken,

If I decide to start ripping stuff out the oven and stove will go first and I already have a coleman stove. Just not sure i need to go that deep yet.

Moving the spare to the cab will help since I'm under on the front axle.

Hauling water and food in the cab will help some too.

[Boatycall]

billtex wrote:

If I were 200# over weight I would celebrate.

If I was 2,000#'s overweight I'd celebrate.....

[campingken]

You could remove the dinette table and use lighter TV trays. If you remove the stove and oven you could replace it with a portable Coleman stove that uses propane canisters. You would also be able to use it outside.

[Victory402]

Ok, I started with the easy no brainer reductions:

1. Swap 40 lbs of propane tank to smaller 20lb tank. 20 lbs
2. Swap 36 lb bed mat for foam board. 32 lbs
3. Remove 16 lbs of AGM batteries & use truck battery 16 lbs
4. Remove misc box of junk 17 lbs
5. Replace 8 lbs of cooking pots to 1 aluminum pot 6 lbs
6. Remove coffee pots and broiler pan, use aluminum pot 7 lbs
7. Remove extra sleeping bag 5 lbs
8. Swap 16 lb table for light plastic 5 lb table 11 lbs
9. Swap can foods with freeze dried food 4 lbs







Total reduction with simple practical easy changes: 118 lbs

[btggraphix]

beemerphile1 wrote:

Victory402 wrote:
Yep, the a/c has to stay for wife, she is going through the mentalpause and her comfort this summer is top of my list. If it were me alone I would jerk out the a/c in a heart beat...

How much does the wife weigh? :B

We'd like to keep the OP among the living contributors to the forum. He'll need a 'mental pause' to consider wisely before answering or the lost weight will be the driver I'm afraid 😉 and not just by being removed from the truck.

[beemerphile1]

Victory402 wrote:
Yep, the a/c has to stay for wife, she is going through the mentalpause and her comfort this summer is top of my list. If it were me alone I would jerk out the a/c in a heart beat...

How much does the wife weigh? :B

[btggraphix]

A couple of good new ideas.....I did not think about the intake manifold/exhaust manifold or other powertrain options.... Yeah, it's all up front and perhaps costly, but some performance benefits and could be significant weight reduction. Any aluminum parts you could add would be helpful...aluminum water pump(?no idea)....lightweight fan....lighter weight exhaust(?)....maybe some others. It sure would be on a V8....does that have a V-6?

The spare wheel left behind at home is an interesting one too. I thought about mentioning it but held my tongue. I do the same. I don't even OWN a spare 19.5" wheel. The guy I bought it from drove to South America and back with no spare, just a patch kit and good compressor. Amazing. I wouldn't go THAT far, but traveling around the US, especially with a dually where I could limp with 5 good wheels/tires I just don't worry about it. That is a pretty good hunk of weight.....but.....with only 4 wheels it might be too risky for backwoods/backcountry travel. At the very least, up front, or in the rear seat area like Steve shows would be a help.

I'm also not so sure about the ratings assuming 100% usage and going over "once in a while is OK" thought. I talked with my dealer when I had to replace my entire brake system (well, at least all the wear parts plus one or two calipers) at 60-70K and said "WTH, how come I only got that many miles?" He told me that with my truck (and it may be different with "commercial" type trucks) that GMC only figures your duty cycle to be 50%. In other words, 50% of the time you will be fully loaded and 50% of the time you are closer to empty. This makes sense for work trucks and delivery truck etc.....on the way back you'll be empty, right? So at 50% duty, I might have gotten 100K+ on the stock brakes. My camper is on nearly 100% of the time, plus I am at the 100% GVW of a 5500 basically all the time (that's the number for all my components EXCEPT the rear springs.) If I had to guess, the engineer's that are concerned about shaving every last bit of dollar out of the parts used, also may figure a 50% duty cycle of 100% of GVWR. Yeah, there is some CYA and legal involved, but the engineers are pushed to make the vehicle 'cheaper' to make the most money too.

[Victory402]

Yep, the a/c has to stay for wife, she is going through the mentalpause and her comfort this summer is top of my list. If it were me alone I would jerk out the a/c in a heart beat.

I searched for 13 months before I purchased this tc. It's basically wallpaper on foamboard.

[rooney77]

I don't know how you guys go without AC. The AC is the reason I got into truck camping to begin with.