I'll work remotely of course, making sure my taskings get done as expected.
Day 1 found me cruising down the I-25 Super Slab. As I approached the city of Monument, I noted that the right inner dually tire was losing air! Not good. I called Martha and she told me there was a Les Schwab Tire Store in Monument, CO.
I pulled in with only 51 psi remaining on the leaking tire. The tech unmounted the tire and tested it in the water tank, no leaks. Huh.
We attached the valve extension I'd been using, put it back under water, no leaks. WTF.
So, they reinstalled the tires onto Uma, the URRV and advised me not use the valve extension. I put the TPMS sensor directly on the inner tire's air stem, without an extension and pressure held as I drove south! Sigh.
Next stop was the truck scales located two exits down on I-25, the operator didn't seem to know what he was doing in terms of explaining the results but I figured it out for both of us.
Figures are, with a full tank of fresh water and full fuel tank:
Front: 3860 lbs
Rear: (Duallys): 8080 lbs
Trailer: 1380 lbs (Max capacity is 2000 lbs with the trailer weight being 300 I think).
Total: 13320 lbs
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) for the RV is 14050 so I'm good in terms of overall weight.
The Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR) for the front axle is 4600, so the existing weight is good.
For the rear axle, the GAWR is 9450, so weight is good on that axle as well.
Thanks to RichardM, who knew of a website to calculate optimum PSI based on actual weights, I got this chart:
So, it looks like if I keep every tire at 65 PSI, I should be good to go!
Next stop was Camping World in Fountain, CO, just south of Colorado Springs and bought a pair of valve extensions that I may try over the next few weeks, assuming they hold air of course!
Got to Springer Lake, New Mexico and set up camp shortly before sunset started. It turned out to be a pretty good sunset:
Day 2: Magdalene, NM
I caught what I thought was a mild sunrise the next morning:
After breakfast and packing up for the road, I left the area around 9AM. The rest of the day would prove boringly free of mechanical issues and air pressure issues as I slogged my way past Albuquerque, NM and headed south still on the I-25 Super Slab.
I lost time checking out two BLM sites, the first one near Socorro, NM was a bit sketchy and lacked decent sites so I skipped it even though it had good 4G LTE signal.
The second site, known as The Box Canyon along NM Highway 60 proved too small for the URRV.
The third site was in the nearby Cibola National Forest and while I did find a spot, there was no cell service so I couldn't use it.
I motored onwards to the town of Magdalena, NM which is close to the next day's target, the VLA or Very Large Array. More on that in the next post.
I found myself a pullthrough spot at a somewhat run down RV park in town but had electrical power for $25 so counted myself lucky. I did, in all this, miss what turned out to be a pretty nice sunset but them's the breaks I guess.
4 comments:
Sounds like a great trip! I’d still check tire temperatures regularly right after stopping. If the are running warmer than you’d like, add air. And periodically measure and record tread depth across the tread. Then you can tell if the pressure is too low or too high.
Thanks RichardM, been monitoring temps and they’re all within 12 degrees of ambient temperature at highest. The left duallys now run warmer than right duallys so might add air to them, presently running them at 75 like the right side duallys. The trailer tires and the steering tires are below ambient temperature most of the time!
Maybe the generator on that side makes it a bit heavier.
"The plan is to spend the next 4-6 weeks on the road..." you must be kidding, Dom. Who do I have to kill to come along...? Have a wonderful time "out there", and please send us some snippets from your trip.
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