In the beginning CM was very supportive of my purging process. That was 2 weeks ago, and now he’s starting to get a little edgy because I’m dragging my feet. The other day when I asked him if I could bring 3 more books (I admit, they probably weight about 20 lbs by themselves.), CM says, “Sure if you want to destroy the engine.” Destroy? Seriously? I scowl at him and say, “Today the engine, tomorrow the WORLD!!”
CM is REALLY concerned about weight in the RV. There is this thing called Cargo Carrying Capacity or CCC. Basically, it’s how much weight the RV can pull before you start damaging the engine. This measurement has already accounted for full water tanks, gas tanks, 2 people that weigh 150lbs., and everything that comes standard in the RV.
Our CCC is about 800 pounds. It seems like a lot at first, but it goes quickly. I think it’s generally accepted that the clothes on your back weigh about 3 pounds, 5 if you’re wearing denim. We’re big on jeans around here, so with all of us that’s 20 pounds of clothes a day. 140 pounds for a week’s worth of clothes. I’d say that we all have at least 2 weeks worth of clothes. That’s already 1/3 of our CCC.
Books are really eating up our CCC, so the other night CM and I decided that we had to reduce the kids’ books by half because they weighed too much. We randomly picked groups of 2 books and we had to get rid of the one we liked the least in each group. We were going like gangbusters for the first 15 minutes and then we lost our steam. Next thing I know, we were just going through books and not getting rid of any.
How much do you think everything in your house weighs? What if you had to narrow it down to the things that matter?
June 29th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Weeding through possessions can be the hardest part about making the transition to the full-time RV lifestyle. And books- leaving them behind? That hurts!
Overloading an RV does cause more wear and tear on all systems and lowers fuel mileage. So CM is right to be cautious. Often buyers forget to look seriously at the CCC at the time of purchase.
Once you get it all settled, then you can follow the rule many RVers do: bring in something new, something old has to leave. And every six months or so, go through everything and get rid of those you haven’t used.
Good luck!
Jaimie Hall Bruzenak