On Thursday, July 5th, I took Gyrtle for a spin and some truth-telling on the scale. I had the help of my new wonderful aide, Michael Ring. We even have a video of Gyrtle’s virgin voyage to the scales. Why don’t you watch this while I run out to my car and get the exact figures.
I’m back. Here are the figures:
My truck originally weighed 4680 lbs. on the front axle and 3200 lbs. on the rear axle for a total of 7880 lbs.. I don’t remember if the gas tank was full or not. That can make a difference of around 200 lbs. from full to empty.
When I weighed the truck together with the empty trailer the front axle of my truck stayed the same, the rear axle went up to 4340 lbs. (an additional 1140 lbs.) and the trailer axles were holding 2840 lbs. together. That makes the full weight of the trailer 3980 lbs. (nearly 2 tons) but only 3000 lbs. (1 and a half tons) on the trailer axles, leaving room for 4ooo lbs. additional on each axle. The axles are rated at 7000 lbs. each.
The new measures with the basic structure of my house on the trailer are: Front axle of the truck is 4900 lbs. (an increase of 220 lbs.), rear axle of the truck is 6060 lbs. (an increase of 2860 lbs. on the rear axle of which 1140 is the trailer and 1720 is the house). The trailer axles are now carrying 7760 lbs which is an increase of 4920 lbs. due to the house so I’m a little over halfway to my maximum load on the trailer. In other words, I have about 6000 more pounds that can go on the axles.
In terms of my truck, the GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) is 23,000 lbs. My current GCWR is 18,720 lbs so I still have 4280 total pounds I can put on my house in terms of my truck. If I end up over that (or anywhere over 4000 lbs.) I’ll have to get a bigger truck :), so I’m aiming for no more than 4000 lbs. I may still get a bigger truck.
My energy systems (4 propane tanks, a generator, 4 solar panels and 8 batteries) are about 1200 lbs, leaving me about 2800 lbs. for interior finishing and furnishing and my personal belongings. That doesn’t seem like much so I’m going to sell a major portion of my music (13 bins worth) and let go of a lot more books to start with.
That’s the skinny on the heavy. TTFN (Ta Ta for now)
Gypsy Turtle Journal 
Thar she goes! Not exactly aerodynamic, but rollin’ and lookin’ good! Hooray!
A beautiful home.
The trailer really needs a dually tow vehicle though for several reasons, weight load for one, increased road surface to tire footprint for braking and control at the rear end of the truck, and stability on the road in less than absolute perfect conditions.
It isn’t an easy consideration if it’s your primary vehicle as well as a tow vehicle. Dually’s are wide, making things like parking and drive throughs very difficult, the added cost of tires and service, but to balance that it will reduce the wear and tear on a non dually setup and vastly increase your safety while towing.
I would also very seriously look at the trailer brake system to ensure it’s up to stopping the weight of your house. Most trailer companies aren’t going to put their best components into a stock trailer, a custom made trailer stands a better chance provided you ensured to order the heavy duty commercial type trailer brakes.
One last thing to consider…load ratings are not calculated very scientifically. I don’t trust them completely and therefore tend to want things overbuilt…your axles are claimed to have 7,000 lb. capacities…i would only count on 5,000 lbs…and just because the axles are rated for it does not mean the wheels and tires are…with the weights you are claiming i would absolutely install a third axle for two reason, first to spread the load more, increasing capacity for snow loading on the roof, or added weight in the house. Second, it will ease the burden on the two existing wheels and tires, there’s a tremendous amount of weight on what appear to be 4 common trailer tires…this also worries me where safety is concerned…
I would search out a junk yard for commercial flatbeds and other industrial trailers and scavenge some thick steel high load bearing wheels and hubs, if not the entire industrial strength axle assemblies. You often see these flatbed tractor trailer low boy’s hauling around 25,000-35,000 pound construction equipment, that’s going to seem like overkill for some, but personally i’d rather be vastly over built than underbuilt.
Hi John,
You are right about the dually. I traded in the original truck for a Ford F-450, dually, diesel, 4 WD. I have a Scion Xa for my daily driving around. We’ve thought about installing a third axle, but haven’t tackled it yet. Thanks for all your input on this. So far I’ve only done short trips and everything has gone well.
Thanks again,
Robin