We found the gem of all highway gems EVER!! Thanks to my awesome Trucker Path App!
I-80 in Wyoming. Exit 34. On the north side of the highway there’s a huge truck parking lot. Allen had a good point that it’s probably where they put all the trucks when they close the highway because of snow… There’s a FREE scale! 

We’ve been wanting to weigh our whole set up for some time now but the CAT scales at truck stops always seem so confusing. Plus the ones we see are always in busy parking lots. They cost an unknown amount of money. And they are just overall intimidating, I think anyway. But I’m not a trucker.

This one was perfect! There was one truck in the lot when we pulled in. But other than that we had the whole place to ourselves. So we went ahead and jumped on the scale. I wrote down some numbers, then got confused, then got some help from a Facebook group I’m in, and reweighed everything. 

First we did the truck without the camper. We weighed the front axle only. Then the rear axle. (Add those to get the total truck weight: 9,060lbs)

Then we hooked back up and weighed the rear axle of the truck with the camper. (Subtract the rear truck axle empty to get the pin weight: 4,260) Then the camper axles. (16,240)

Add the total weight of both the axles of the truck with the camper to the camper axle weight and you get a scary total.

Drumroll….

We are overweight by about 1,000lbs for what the GVWR is on our Grand Design Momentum 385th. It has a GVWR of 19,500. We are 20,680lbs.

The axles are fine, they can take 7k lbs each. (These are what we are on our way to Lippert to have checked out on Friday.) All the extra is in the nose aka the pin weight (how much the bed of the truck carries). We are also carrying about 1,000lbs (110 gallons of fresh water and 25 gallons of fuel for the generator) in the camper tanks that we don’t always have with us.

I’m so glad we know now. It’s more than we both expected. But, knowledge is power, right?!

We live and travel in this camper full time. ALL of our stuff is in 43 feet of camper. Tools, clothes, dishes, small appliances, food… A motorcycle. Everything!

So for all that to only weigh 5,000lbs, I don’t think it’s too bad!

If you get a chance, I say do it! Find out what your life weighs!