When we were at driving school, we got our rig weighed at a truck scales near Denton. That gave us the weight on the front axle and the back axle. I had read about a "SmartWeigh" system that was available via Escapees, down near Livingston, TX, so we decided to get weighed there to understand what the weight was on all 4 wheels. We called the day before to ensure we could get an appointment and made an appointment for 8am on 9/26.
They had a worksheet for us to fill out before getting weighed. There are so many pieces of data on the physical tire that I have never paid attention to before! We were to arrive at the weighing location with full fresh water tank and fuel tank, and empty grey and black water tanks (full fuel is "normal" at least once each day; full fresh is not very normal, but it is common to have 1/4-1/2 full fresh plus some in the grey and black, so full fresh would help to simulate that). We were to get dates and weight ratings off our our tires.
Normally, on passenger tires, the determination on when to replace them is determined by the tread on the tires. For RVs, I think because they use heavier duty tires (truck tires) and because they are driven short distances compared to how those tires are designed to be used, the determination on when to get new tires is by the age of the tire - 7 years is as old as you want them to be. The previous owner had replaced the tires when her husband passed away in 2011, and the unit had only been driven from the tire shop to where it was parked (about 30 miles) since they were put on. But, again, the issue is not the number of miles, but the age. On the tire, there is a manufacture date -- wwyy - the week number followed by the last two digits of the year.
Here is a picture from when Dwayne did the inspection in Virginia:
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| Picture from Dwayne |
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| A close up of the DOT part with the date |
The date on the tire indicated 1211, meaning they were manufactured on the 12th week of 2011. You are supposed to check every tire, because tire dealers may not give you all new tires; on our rig, the two front tires have the DOT stamp on the outside surface of the tire, but, of course, the two tires on each side of the rear axle have the DOT stamp on the surfaces that are facing each other. Regardless of how I used the mirror and light, or tried taking pictures with my phone, I just could not get the date off of the rear tires. We're hoping that they have the same date rating as the front ones!
There is also a max load for "single" and "dual" and a "Load Rating" on truck tires.
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| Max load single... 4080 lbs, Dual ... 3860 lbs |
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| Load Rating F |
I don't know why a tire can carry more weight by itself than in a dual, and I'm not sure what the load rating means - but those were all values we were to have for our weighing.
We were also going to have the Jeep weighed - as a tow vehicle with all 4 wheels down, it does not contribute a "tongue weight" to the motorhome, but, there is an overall carrying capacity limit for what the motorhome can carry+tow, and we wanted to be sure that we were not exceeding that. I was surprised to find out when I closely examined the Jeep's tires that they also had a manufacture date (or, at least I could find it on two of them -- the other two may have it but were turned toward the inside and I didn't do any contortions to try to determine those dates!).
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