Strykersd's 1971 C20 Brave

[strykersd]

While driving through Oregon I kept noticing unattended weight scales.  After passing a few I decided to stop and weight the Winnebago.  Here's the results.  Top number is weight on front axle, bottom number is weight on rear axle. 


3,000lbs up front and 7,650lbs out back to give me a total weight of 10,650lbs.  The only problem with that is that my VIN plate states that the max gross vehicle weight of 10,000lbs with a max of 4,000lbs up front and 7,200lbs out back.  So technically I'm 650lbs over.  I'm not stressing about it but it's good information to know.

I started putting more thought into the weight breakdown
-We filled up on gas soon before the weigh in.  My Brave holds 60 gallons of gas in the tanks and I carry an extra 10 gallons on the rear bumper for emergencies. Gasoline weights about 6lb/gallon so full tanks would account for 420lbs
-My girlfriend, myself and two dogs 530lbs
-we recently dumped our waste tanks and filled our water tanks so we had 30 gallons of water on board.  At around 8.33lbs/gallon that's 250lbs
-my motorcycle carrier and motorcycle are about 420lbs



My biggest take away from this is that I should be more weight conscious.  Maybe I should build a hitch on the front of my Winnebago and use that for carrying my motorcycle.  Every time I fill my water tanks I fill them completely and never use it all, so I'll try to be more water conscious when filling my tanks.  Has anyone else weighted their 70's era Winnebago?  If so how much did it weigh?

[strykersd]

I find myself teleworking 50% of the time this fall due to COVID so I've been doing more work to the RV in preparation for either another long trip or just weekend trips to the desert. 

While preparing for our last trip I tested our coffee maker (Nespresso) our on 1500 watt, modified sine wave power inverter.  The coffee maker wouldn't even turn on.  So I started casually browsing Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for a pure sine wave inverter.  I found a lightly used 2000 watt Xantrex PROwatt pure sine wave inverter for $250.  I bought that and turned around and sold my PowerDrive 1500 for $80.  Now I can finally use our coffee maker on the road!  I'm running out of real estate on the back wall of the RV. 



A big reason of why we bought the pure sine wave power inverter was that we need a microwave in the Brave.  After a long day of driving the RV or a long day at a racetrack or at the desert, sometimes we just don't feel like cooking on the stove or in the oven.  We decided on a Magic Chef Retro 700 watt microwave.  We liked the small size of the microwave and appreciated that it has analog controls instead of digital controls to help with power usage.  Turns out installing a microwave was a much larger job than I originally thought.  I had to take out the shelf inside the cabinet.  Change the single shelf into two different height shelves with a support in the center.  Enlarge up the cabinet opening.  Make a retainer to hold the microwave in place so that it can't fall out.  Then add a electrical outlet inside the cabinet so that you wouldn't see any microwave wires.  All in all I love how it turned out!  I still need to paint the metal retainer beneath the microwave and do something with the space above the microwave.  I'm thinking a custom spice rack.  My kitchen with the new microwave installed. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Sweet!

Kev

[Oz]

Wow, what an awesome trip!
Thanks for sharing!

[Wolgie]

Thank you for sharing. We have a 1972 Winnebago Brave and we are still trying to get her home so we can bring her to life. Did you have yours towed?

[strykersd]

Thank you for sharing. We have a 1972 Winnebago Brave and we are still trying to get her home so we can bring her to life. Did you have yours towed?

I've had mine towed once thanks to my AAA membership.  They brought a big rig with a flatbed and a more traditional tow truck to load it onto the flat bed.  Takes much longer for them to get you a tow, but worth every penny of that AAA membership.