CAT scales vs Goodyear tires

[KEliasz]

Went on very first outing with Georgetown 351. Stopped at cat scales on way to lake George. Scales said steering weights just over 7000lbs and rear at over 12000lbs. Goodyear tire load chart only goes up to 4600 for weights and recommends 110psi. Am I over weight? GVWR on sticker says 20500 lbs. I had the tires filled to 95. Dealer had the rears at 75lbs.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by KEliasz

Went on very first outing with Georgetown 351. Stopped at cat scales on way to lake George. Scales said steering weights just over 7000lbs and rear at over 12000lbs. Goodyear tire load chart only goes up to 4600 for weights and recommends 110psi. Am I over weight? GVWR on sticker says 20500 lbs. I had the tires filled to 95. Dealer had the rears at 75lbs.

Front axle weight is 7,000lbs so that means 3,500 lbs per front tires

Your rear axles is 12,000 lbs so that means each tire is 3,000lbs

Your Gross weight is 19,000 lbs
Your Georgetown GVWR is 20,500 lbs

No you are not over weight just use the figures I said per tire and do not use the whole axle weight

[KEliasz]

Ahhh ok. Thought the tire load chart were per axle

[Iggy]

I think if you just put 90 psi all around cold you will be fine.
No need to have different psi front to back.
90 psi is what I use and my rig is about the same weight as you.

[BillMFl]

Like Iggy I usually use 90 psi. But on my 1600mi trip to Maine last week I was loaded with extra stuff for our cottage and bumped psi to 95. Saw no difference in handling and had no issues. My tires are in their 5th year of use and at 20,000 miles the tread still looks great. Making frequent inspections of the sidewalls now. No signs of checking or cracking. Might replace fronts next year and rears a year after that.

[KEliasz]

I just broke 2000 miles and everything seems good so far. Surprisingly the alignment is pretty good from the factory

[jkoenig24]

Do yourself a HUGE favor. Find and pay the modest price to get a Smart Weigh done on your rig. Unless you do MAJOR changes, the onetime fee will give you all the information you'll ever need for that set up and, because you'll have a precise weight, the Smart Weigh techs will be able to tell you EXACTLY what psi your tires need. Escapees RV Club and the RVSEF are two groups who this service. MUCH better than guessing with a CAT scale receipt.

https://www.escapees.com/knowledge/smartweigh

RVSEF - RV Weighing & Safety Education

This (tire safety) is actually one of the MOST important aspects of RVing and, is largely overlooked. JUST DO IT!

[pmsherman]

Weighting on a CAT scale as you did will give you axle weights but doesn't give you any information about how your rig's side to side weight distribution works out. Iggy's calculations assume that the weight is evenly balanced left to right but that's not always the case.

Individual wheel measurements are the best way to get these numbers. When I first started taking trips in my 2911 Georgetown, I hunted for a CAT scale that was not elevated and that I could drive onto with only the curb side wheels on the scale. I had the rig weighed twice; once with all four wheels on the scale, the second with only the right side wheels on the scale. I was able to compute the left side numbers by subtracting the right side from the total. The biggest difference was 50lb of weight on the front tires.

FR recommended inflating all tires to 80psi. I've worn out a full set of tires, getting a little over 80k on the rears and 60k on the fronts. As the tires wore down, the wear pattern indicated that 80psi was a little bit underinflated so I bumped it up to 85psi. I suspect that 90psi wouldn't have significantly impacted wear and would have helped a little with gas mileage. Keeping the tires properly inflated also got me their full life without any blowout issues. The front tires were replaced at less than 20k miles because the front end was very very badly out of alignment when delivered. I had the alignment done a year after purchase at a shop in Elkhart, the first place I could find that had the facilities to do the alignment and that FR would cover under warranty. FR also replaced the front tires under warranty.

Phil