Payload and build weight

[Tawdbb]

So I know that the curb weight and gvwr for the cutaway chassis don’t leave much payload capacity for a build, maybe 4-8 thousand lbs? Is that plenty for a full time boondocking build? How much does your build come to weight wise? I can calculate the weight of water tanks and guess at some accessories I may end up with, but before I start making spreadsheets, I’d just like to get rough estimates of what y’alls builds weigh when dry (empty water and auxiliary fuel tanks)thx!

[leadsled01]

4-8 thousand lbs. is a lot. I don't see a problem.

Originally Posted by Tawdbb

So I know that the curb weight and gvwr for the cutaway chassis don’t leave much payload capacity for a build, maybe 4-8 thousand lbs? Is that plenty for a full time boondocking build? How much does your build come to weight wise? I can calculate the weight of water tanks and guess at some accessories I may end up with, but before I start making spreadsheets, I’d just like to get rough estimates of what y’alls builds weigh when dry (empty water and auxiliary fuel tanks)thx!

[ol trunt]

That 8000#s you talk about would be equivalent to 90 wet third graders. How long is your bus? Is it actually a cutaway as in van cab with bus tacked on back or is it a dog nose on a heavy duty truck frame? What is the GVW and the CGVW per the factory? What does the bus actually weigh? Even 4000#s is a lot of stuff. As an example My bus is 22' long and is a dog nose. It is fully self contained and weighs in at 9,820#s. Empty (before build out and without the school bus body) it weighed 5,860 #s. It's GVW is 12,000 #s, CGVW 18,000#s. So my complete build out including the body is only 3,960 #s.
Jack

[Tawdbb]

I pulled the payload #’s from a website and I’m not sure it includes the bus body or not. I don’t have a bus yet, I’m shopping. It seems like 3-4000# is pretty standard payload for a cutaway bus from what I’ve seen on other’s busses. Given the dry weight close to 4000# of your build, that would be much too close for comfort the the max GVWR of most cutaways

[zelseman]

We have a 4 window cab and chassis and the rated GVWR is 10,000# After our build, water, fuel, wood build out, 4 bikes, 3 solar panels, 2 kayaks, we weighed around 9500#. Our GVWR is with load D tires and we run load E tires. We didn't really exercise much caution to weight when we built and we feel pretty good driving down the road.