Weight Of Junk

Gladewater, Texas

There is an interesting discussion going on at the Escapees forum. A new Rver is trying to figure out how much weight to allow for per person for the things they will be taking with them. Several folks feel that at least 2000# per person for additional junk is a good number. WOW that is a lot of junk to spend money carrying around. Comfort Castle carries all my clothes, food and a small amount of “personal items”. My excess junk is a two man tent, a couple of self inflating air mattresses, a bicycle, golf clubs and a roof rack for the truck in case a boat was to re-enter my life. Once last year a summary of the JUNK was added up and then my necessities like the food and clothes added in . The GRAND TOTAL came to around 600#. With the Castle empty weight of about 5000#, and the JUNK at 600#, my rolling weight is under 6000# normally.

With full waste and fresh water tanks you could add another 800#. It would be a first to have full waste tanks for more than a couple of hundred yards to the first dump station. Usually the fresh water tank has no more than twenty gallons in it for on road use. Toilet use, washing lunch dishes and things like that. My normal usage is well under three gallons a day, so the twenty gallons would give me an easy three to four nights plus three travel days before a re-supply is needed. The thought of having to pay for moving an extra 1500# or more of junk down the road is not pleasant.

Part of my planning is providing room for more solar panels and batteries. A solar panel assembly only weighs about thirty pounds. The batteries that are in the plans weigh about 75 pounds each. So now it is up to two hundred pounds additional stuff. But it is only plans for if they style of my life changes. For now, all that weight and expense can wait until the actual NEED happens. The more time this team is on the road, the more the smaller, lighter RV is appreciated.

There is snobbery in the RV world. Some folks with bigger, but not necessarily better, rigs some times seem to wish my little rig was not near them. So obliging them is good. They go around visiting pot lucks and listening to the same stories over and over while the body fat accumulates. Comfort Castle goes to places there rigs cannot consider going. The OFM walks, rides and enjoys little used trails or locations. And that makes all of us happy.

During the mid day rainstorm, a hit counter that does not seem to gather private information was found and installed on this blog. It might be fun to see how often the blog is visited. The installation was very easy and accomplished on the first try. A few iterations were required to get the appearance desired, but it is in business now. Too bad this was not done at the first. Oh well, if you keep your mind open eventually you will learn something. Or as my dad was fond of saying “A blind hog will find an acorn now and then”.

Unfortunately a bad migraine hit about four pm and interrupted my efforts at trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.