May 6: After a nice 2 day stay we packed up and left Illinois. Ever since leaving home I had been concerned that we might be overloaded. Lugging around two adults and two dogs and all their stuff, two 40 gallon propane tanks, all the camping gear (gazebo, chairs, grilll, propane firepit, electric cords, outdoor carpets, two lithium batteries, Satellite dish and stands) along with the dry weight of my four door Tundra and a 5700# unloaded Airstream need I go on. If you have ever joined a group for a hobby like camping, RVing etc you know there are hot button topics that gets online experts wound up, For travel trailers it is the size of the TV (tow vehicle slang). The Airstream vitriol usually centers around a 1/2 ton like my Tundra or a Ford F-150 etc versus a 3/4 or one ton dually and then there is the gas versus diesel and engine brakes debate. If this is making your eyes glaze over I get it. Buuuuutttt there is some truth to concerns about overloading a TV resulting in failure of the truck beside the road in the middle of nowhere or inability to stop in time or jackknifing or having a rollover as the too big trailer takes over and pushes the too small TV into trouble. And we were planning to go up annnnnd down some big mountains out west. So with my heart in my mouth not only about the weigh, would I have to leave the dogs beside the road along with all their stuff? The other anxiety was me entering into the domain of tractor trailer drivers who need the scales to be legal for their job versus me who might be in their way weighing my vacation mobile. Well with Jo’s help navigating around all the vehicles and one way exits I weighed the truck and got out of there before any complaints by truckers. And the weight of my truck was 7420# and the trailer 6100 # for a total weight of 13,520#. My max tow combined weight is 16,500#. The experts recommend to be safe you only tow at 90% max which is 14,850#. Good to go! Dogs are still with us.
Bill and Jo’s Road Trip 