We left Amarillo right around 9am and ended up stopping almost immediately on an exit because the rear awning arm wasn’t fully folded. It turns out that the awning isn’t rolled up properly since it was a bit windy when I retracted it. I secured the awning arm with a couple of zip ties. Once we get a non-windy location, I’ll straighten out the fabric. We stopped again a couple of times due to wind noise from the windshield. The first time, I just added more Gorilla tape as the existing tape must be over two months old. The second time, I couldn’t find any reason for the noise. The tape was in good shape.
We stopped at Alamogordo, NM, at the KOA after a 360 miles. No sewer but that’s fine. All I really cared about was plenty of electricity as it was 92°F when we arrived. The road climbed to over 6000’ today and the engine ran just fine. There was a crosswind from the north and by the afternoon, it was a quartering headwind from the southwest. Climbing up the hills with a headwind meant leisurely speeds and horrible fuel mileage.
I finally remembered to stop at a CAT scale. Used the iPhone app. A little sluggish but it worked fine. The weight of the coach is 32,120 lbs and the Prius plus dolly is 3,820. So the coach is still 2,200 under GVWR and 6,410 under the GCWR. Most of the available cargo capacity is available on the front axle, 1860 lbs. With a full-ish water tank and a partially full black tank, the available cargo capacity on the rear axle is only 340 lbs. If we switched to LiFePO
4 batteries, that would almost double the available rear axle cargo capacity. But we are way under weight so cargo capacity isn’t really an issue. The Prius is heavier than I thought…
This chart is from the Michelin truck tire site for the “H” rated tires we have on the front. Based on this chart, we need about 105psi in the front tires and only 85psi in the rear tires. This is cold inflation pressure. This is significantly lower than was we are currently running in the rear. The front tires aren’t that far off. Food for thought…
Nice to have measurements to determine real tire pressure. I usually got by the vehicle recs which are usually tire max, and probably more than necessary.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been meaning to do this for quite a while but just kept forgetting after filling up.
DeleteGood deal on the weight stop. That is almost exactly what we found. Despite being fulltime, we just don't have that much stuff. Is a battery upgrade on your to-do list?
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that the rear was almost at the max axle weight but then again, that’s where the driveline is as well as the water tanks and batteries. Solar is definitely on the list but batteries can wait until the existing ones wear out. Since we are careful not to discharge them below 50%, they should last quite a while.
DeleteAlamogordo - isn't that where the first nuclear device was exploded? Is there anything to mark it or is tourism off limits because of residual radiation?
ReplyDeleteIt’s right next to White Sand’s both the National Park and the miss legend range. So I suspect that it must be out in the desert somewhere.
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