Berkshire gvw

Phil57 · 07-21-2012, 06:51 PM

I'm a little confused on what Forest River was thinking when the set up the Berkshire 390RB 340. As I look at the front axle weight it is 10410 lbs drive is 17500.
I have normal camping stuff clothing groc. full fuel quarter tank fresh quarter tank lp. And I had almost full gray and black tanks. I stopped to get weighted and front is 11040 rear 17720 total is 28760. I'm 850 lbs over weight with a normal load on board. The worse is I'm over 630 lbs on the steering axle. Towing a enclave that weighs around 4900 I will be over about 800 lbs. I know I didn't buy the biggest baddest MH but really what am I missing here we do not have a full basement and have done nothing to the MH that would add weight. I will be talking to FR Monday AM to see exactly what I am supposed to to do here. I can't aged 800 lbs and still have anything left to camp with. If it was the Enclave pushing us over weight I would understand and would not be as concerned but most of my issue is on the front axel. Anyone have any ideas?

Dave_Monica · 07-21-2012, 07:56 PM

I don't understand why you would be driving around with full gray/black tanks...that's 866 lbs there.

The towing of the toad wouldn't impact of the MH's axle weight unless you're towing using a dolly instead of 4 down in which case the dollies tongue weight would be on the rear axle. The limit of the toad is the MH's GCWR which is 5000 lbs more than it's GVWR.

Dave

Phil57 · 07-21-2012, 08:22 PM

Thanks Dave I traveled with full black and gray tanks becouse I could not get to the dump easily on Sunday and Friday we were heading to a full hook up and decided to dump then. I dumped my fresh tanks so compensate for that and considered it a close wash. I like to have some fresh water with me and some times I need to carry a full tank when dry camping. It seems like that's not to much. I understand the toad weight being part of the GCWRand the toad will work fine. I weighed the MH with out the toad. So I guess the answer is carry min fresh water and deal with that. I almost never have anything but empty gray and black.

Phil57 · 07-21-2012, 08:39 PM

Does anyone know the unloaded weight of the Berkshire 390RB 340hp. On line it is listed as TBA.

Dave_Monica · 07-21-2012, 08:58 PM

Phil...there's no sticker that refers to cargo carrying capacity including fresh water for your Berkshire?

Dave

Phil57 · 07-21-2012, 09:30 PM

Dave not that I'm aware of I have the GVW listed at 27910. I was wondering what the empty MH off the lot weighs. I would like to know how much "stuff" we have put in that we felt we couldn't live with out. If I bought a new coach today I would take it to the scales before I put anything in it. All the FR web site says is TBA.
I can live with the water issue and you had a good point about the B&G tanks and I always run empty. I just thought that I could run with more fresh water. I just need to decide on priorities in regards to loading. I am at a rally with a local chapter of FMCA and most everyone I talked to had a much larger cushion between the weight of their MH and there GVW

tmmar · 07-22-2012, 09:57 AM

Do you have tile floors or linoleum/carpet? The tile will add a lot of weight and cut down on your carrying capacity. That is one reason that I am happy I didn't get tile.

Phil57 · 07-22-2012, 10:17 AM

I have tile floors. It would be nice to know what they weigh and if that makes the GVW that tight because of that why would FR offer that as a option?

tmmar · 07-22-2012, 11:19 AM

Each chassis has a specific weight rating and I think that FR just puts in each coach what they feel the customer is looking for. As long as it doesn't go over the chassis manufacturers specs when it leaves the factory, they leave it up to the customer to deal with the GVW and only carry what they can up to the specified weight limit. JMHO.

Superchief · 07-22-2012, 04:34 PM

Phil57,

I understand your frustration. I have the same unit and I was surprised the first time I had it weighted. I was over. I dumped fresh water to get close. I then took out some items that I had loaded. Reweighted and was a couple of hundred pounds under. I keeping looking for more information on how Forest River loaded it out and did they increase the weight carrying capacity over what Freightliner posted, i haven't found anything. I have driven 10,000 miles in the past year with the unit and have not had any issues. I believe I am a couple hundred pounds over at times. I continually monitor the tires pressure and temp and have continually been fine. I would like to know what answer you get from Forest River.

tmmar · 07-22-2012, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superchief

Phil57,

I would like to know what answer you get from Forest River.

I would be that FR doesn't give you any satisfactory answer. JMHO!

Phil57 · 07-22-2012, 08:15 PM

So just for grins and I had 9 dollars burning a hole in my pocket I stopped on my way out of Ionia at the same scales. Empty B&G tanks 2"of fresh water almost empty no cooler drank all the adult beverages and no ice. What ever food we eat while there for 3 days and my steer axel weight went up from 11040 to 11120 max is 10410 ?
The drive axel went down from 17720 to 17380 max 17500? GVW down from 28760 to 28500 max 27910 still over 590 lbs. I have almost nothing in this coach. No extras no mods . I am going to go through everything I have in there and make sure we need it but I don't think that is going to make a huge difference. I feel that even though I love the MH that I made a big mistake in buying a MH that I obviously didn't understand. All of the folks we were with this weekend had no issue with weights. They were sure I was wrong until I pulled pulled the spec sheet and the scale printout and they still said I needed to call FR that this was impossible to be that close on weight. They looked at what I had loaded and could not believe that I could be over. All of there coaches all DP and one gasser had a much higher GVW than I had. I thought that buying a FL chassis and a Cummins motor was enough but if you are new to this you better look way past the brand names and look at what you are really buying.

Phil57 · 07-22-2012, 08:21 PM

And you are correct I do not expect a satisfactory answer.. I did here that Monaco put out a coach some years ago with the same problem and stood behind the product. They took the coaches in and made mods to the tires and suspension and braking system to increases the GVW. Not sure about that but that was the campfire talk. If that is true what would the tire size do in making more GVW?

Phil57 · 07-22-2012, 08:50 PM

Is anyone on the Berkshire forum going to Goshen. I was not planing on it but am reconsidering it. I wonder if there will be a chance to get some of the answers we are looking for at the rally?

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