Side to Side weight?

[Devin & Amy]

Hi all,
TomC mentioned something in another post which got me to thinking.
Is it possible to use the Cat scales and weigh a bus side to side. I have a fear that I may be a bit heavier on the left and am curious as to how much.
Is the trim on a seated coach usually pretty close? How close?
If it's out, how far can you go til it affects the coach?  How dangerous?
This is something I have seen written about for the conversion process, but nobody ever explains it in quantities, limits.
Thanks.
Devin

[HighTechRedneck]

I am interested too if anyone knows of specifications or studies on it. 

Personally, I believe in doing what you can to balance side to side load, but if the side to side weight difference is less than 1000 - 1500 pounds, it won't be critical or probably even noticed by the bus or driver.  Consider an in service coach.  I've never been in one, whether transit or 1000 mile run, where the driver said, "I need 5 people to switch sides of the aisle."  The figure I've seen used for average person on a bus is 150 pounds.  So 5 people would be 750 pounds.  Shifting from one side to the other would change the balance by 1500 pounds.  And I've seen transits where the seat arrangement was more than 5 seats out of balance.   

I don't take that as license to go crazy and put all the weight on one side, but wth 36,000 pounds of bottom heavy weight, there is room to be flexible to suit your needs.

[Stan]

Many of the production motorhomes leave the factory with little or no margin before hitting max GVAW. Piling all your groceries on one side could overload a tire or axle in that case. You would have to try really hard to overload one side (one corner) in a  MC-9 conversion. The leveling valves compensate for more or less weight on each side to hold the body level relative to the axles. Just use a little common sense in your layout of heavy items.

People converting 2 axle transits have a different problem with trying to stay highway legal on axle weight. Transit  buses run on private (city owned) roads and commonly exceed public highway weight limits.

[D+C4106]

Devin,  I just hag our 4106 on the scales this week.   Total weight 25360#.   Drivers front 4820# (with me in the seat & Onan 10 KW just behind the drivers wheel).  Curb side front 4620# (without a passenger).   Drivers rear  8500#   (2- 8D's and most of 8- 6 volt batteries).  Curb side rear  7980#   (waterheater).  I had  it to a local grain elevator for the weighing, they did 5 separate readings, total cost $5.   My water and waste tanks are across the width so that is evenly distributed, but I will try to relocate some of my batteries now that I know the weights!  But even without a passenger the front is only 200# different, that surprised me the most, considering the Onan.  Hope this helps,  Denis

[RJ]

Devin -

IMHO, this is not something to worry about.  Look what Denis discovered when he weighed his coach.

A coach chassis is so "overbuilt" for RV use that this type of issue is really a moot point.

Just build/modify it intelligently.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[tekebird]

unless your entire buildout/conversion is made of lead or depleated uranium

[white-eagle]

if you go to one of the area RV rallies or to Escapade or something like those, there is an RV safety group that will be there with scales similar or same as used by the DOT enforcement people.  they weigh each sides dual and bogey, then the front on each side, check your tire sizes, ask for your specs on the bus and tire then tell you what you need to do as far as overweight on axles, wheels and/or tires.
they also provide information from whatever tire company you have, in my case Michelins.

Cost is about $50, but those doing it seem to know what they are talking about. one fo the couples/teams just retired and i helped them weigh about 80 coaches at their last 2 rallies.

my Eagle was ok side to side, but i've got about 22k on the rear axle which is about 4k over, but still under the capability of the tires.  my bogey is only abut 7k when it should be 10k i think.  overall, i wasn't over my 38k gvw, but i was at 36.8k which is closer than i thought it would be.