I've been trying without sucess to find out how much stuff I could put in one of these without overloading it. I'm looking real hard at getting one, it's in great shape and in my (limited) price range. So far, it looks like it grosses out at 28k, makes sense, but am I really seeing combined axle limits of 29000? Only half a ton of cargo? That seems like an awful small margin. If I go look at it, I'll try and find a truck scale, because I can't seem to find out what this rig weighs and have no interest in only having a few hundred pounds of freeboard.
That's always the best idea before buying a new to you coach. Full fuel, water, and propane tanks, empty black and gray, with normal occupants. Weigh each axle.
Welcome to the forum.
You have asked a great question, and back in January some of us had a long thread about just the same thing, about U280's and weights. Read this to catch up:
Towing (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=17050.0)
About mid way down the first page, a U280 owner tells what he found when he loaded and weighed his coach. Go to reply #13. Their seems to be a huge amount of load capacity with a U280, for stuff or towed items, with a gross of 30,000#.
Good luck with your search, you are heading the right direction. Again welcome to the slippery slope of Foretravel ownership.
The GVWR of 28K means that total gross weight is 28K. Based on your description, I expect that the GAWR are 10K front and 19K rear. The most conservative rating in each case should apply. That means you could load to 19K on the rear axle, but you would be limited to 9K on the front axle. Conversely, you could load to 10K on the front axle, but would be limited to 18K on the rear. A proportion based on GAWR would be a preferable distribution.
I expect you would have ample cargo capacity, but you should weigh. We have weighed our coach three times at truck stops. Cost was about $9 each time. We weigh with full fuel, full propane, full fresh water, empty waste tanks, food, clothing, "stuff," people, and dog. We have plenty of capacity for more stuff.
That U-280 will only weigh about 24,000 # totally empty, perhaps less (i.e., empty fridge, cabinets, bays, grey and black tanks), so you really will have close to 2 tons of CCC. My 280 weighs about 27,500# fully loaded for a 3 month trip. Bays full, full fresh water tank, full propane tank, cabinets and fridge full. The 28000 refers to Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (capacity).
That's more like it. I'll weigh it anyhow, but it's good confirmation Foretravel wouldn't sell a big rig with that little freeboard. OTOH the P30 chassis I used to have was more than likely overloaded before I fueled it and climbed aboard. Thanks for the help.
The sellers made me an offer I can't refuse. I'll be bringing the insepction checklist found here (most comprehensive I've seen anywhere BTW, good job) to go look the thing over hopefully this weekend.