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How many Passengers?


big808

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going to go on a day fishing trip.2 hour drive to destination.my motorhome is the 500 model,rear dinette,seating inrear.my question is ,how much passenger weight can i put back there.im always nervous about weight behind the rear axel.

Edited by big808
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As Derek brought up, gross vehicle weight is everything. That of course means vehicle weight plus all that is loaded onboard, including passengers. I would weigh the vehicle as mentioned with all items expected to be carried, less the passengers for safety concerns. You don’t want to be heading to the scales at the truck stop, and find out on the way you are overweight and have the axle collapse with all those people aboard. After getting your loaded weight, find out what the difference is to reach your max GVW. Now just weigh the people you are planning to take with you on a personal home scale, then just do the math for each to see how many you can safely add to reach what your limit is. Have a nice fishing trip, and hope no one will be left out due to capacity.

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Try to load heavy stuff forward. I assume you have a full float rear axle.

You'll probably find that under normal operations, you over gross. Mine has a gross of 6,000 and I doubt it has ever operated below that. Normally, fully loaded with fuel, water, passenger its hitting 7,000

John MC

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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I am in the same boat as John. I am always over the GWVR of 6,000 lbs. My rig with all my stuff is somewhere around 7,000 lbs or slightly more loaded down with people. While some people think it is very careless to do this, it can be done in a safe manner provided you know what to do. There are precautions you should take if you are going to load it down like this...

1) Keep your speed SLOW (this will keep your tires & bearings cool)

2) Stop often and feel your tires, especially your rear tires where the majority of your weight is. If they are cool to warm, you're fine. If they feel very warm, you need to slow down more.

3) Put your hands on your hub caps of your rear axle and feel for warmth, same thing as above. Cool to warm you're good. If you can't hold your hand to it for more than a second, you have too much weight or you need to slow way down.

Also, make sure you have your axle bearings examined & greased annually to prevent heat build-up.

Timmy

www.timmystoyota.blogspot.com

Edited by Derek up North
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