B190 Enthusiasts

With a build weight of ~9000 lbs, how are you supposed to carry anything in these rigs? That's the max payload for the van, adding water would seem to put you over the axle ratings.

kstills wrote: ↑

Tue May 31, 2022 7:12 am

With a build weight of ~9000 lbs, how are you supposed to carry anything in these rigs? That's the max payload for the van, adding water would seem to put you over the axle ratings.

Are you sure? Is that from the door sticker? I don't recall any of the other stats, but I know the combined weight rating for mine is 15k lbs.

skater wrote: ↑

Tue May 31, 2022 7:14 am

kstills wrote: ↑

Tue May 31, 2022 7:12 am

With a build weight of ~9000 lbs, how are you supposed to carry anything in these rigs? That's the max payload for the van, adding water would seem to put you over the axle ratings.

Are you sure? Is that from the door sticker? I don't recall any of the other stats, but I know the combined weight rating for mine is 15k lbs.

Lol, no I'm not sure. Carrying capacities and total capacities are some funky figuring to my mind. Axle capacity for the E350 from 1996 was ~3k front and ~6k back, for a total of ~9k (9.5, to be specific). The combined capacity, which I take to be van plus trailer is 15k. Empty weight of the 1996 E350 was 4680, thereabouts, with a carrying capacity of ~4500lbs. Apparently, from what folks have found out from weighing their rigs, the build of the B190 comes in at around 9k.

Leave the dog at home, I suppose.

Seems I'll have to rig up a trailer with my new battery bank if I want to stay legal wrt weight. To be clear, folks here (in the past) have overloaded the dog snot out of their rigs and haven't seemed to have had issues. But I'm not going to go that route unless it's forced on me.

Turns out I was wrong, so a first time for everything.

Door sticker is 4200 for front axle, 6084 for rear axle for a total of 10284. If the rig is 9k, thereabouts, that leaves plenty of room for supplies and towing a small trailer.

kstills wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:30 pm

Turns out I was wrong, so a first time for everything.

Door sticker is 4200 for front axle, 6084 for rear axle for a total of 10284. If the rig is 9k, thereabouts, that leaves plenty of room for supplies and towing a small trailer.

Okay, good to hear. I was a bit concerned when you said that, and I couldn't believe that would have been an issue, but I haven't had the chance to look at mine to check.

I've been watching a lot of videos about that Roadmaster active suspension, and that seems like another bit of kit that will improve loading capacity. I spoke to a rep, and they aren't allowed to say it will increase loading capacity because of all the other issues associated with going overweight (braking and steering being two biggies).

But it will definitely reduce the load on the rear tires, which is what I'm most concerned about. You'd either have to go to a lift with bigger tires to provide a safety margin when towing, or install these. 400 bucks is a great deal for peace of mind.

kstills wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 2:22 pm

I've been watching a lot of videos about that Roadmaster active suspension, and that seems like another bit of kit that will improve loading capacity. I spoke to a rep, and they aren't allowed to say it will increase loading capacity because of all the other issues associated with going overweight (braking and steering being two biggies).

But it will definitely reduce the load on the rear tires, which is what I'm most concerned about. You'd either have to go to a lift with bigger tires to provide a safety margin when towing, or install these. 400 bucks is a great deal for peace of mind.

Innnnnteresting. I've been kicking around the idea of talking to one of the air suspension companies about using one of theirs with individual controls for each corner. I figure, if I can use that to level the camper even just a few inches one way or the other, it'll make life a lot easier when setting up. Sites that are off level in both directions are the most frustrating when using blocks to level the B190, because you end up with a huge stack under the lowest tire. So even if the air suspension doesn't get it level in every site, it should make it a lot easier to finish off using the blocks.

Yep, I've seen a lot of folks go to the air bags and end up using them in the way you're talking about.

Would bottle jacks or those x shaped jacks work for leveling? Should be enough jack points under the Evan to accommodate a few jacks, no? Plus, I'll need them in case of a flat anyway.

kstills wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 03, 2022 10:03 am

Yep, I've seen a lot of folks to to the air bags and end up using them in the way you're talking about.

Would bottle jacks or those x shaped jacks work for leveling? Should be enough jack points under the Evan to accommodate a few jacks, no? Plus, I'll need them in case of a flat anyway.

Bottle jacks would work. The X-shaped jacks, check their usage - a lot of those stabilizer jacks are not intended to lift the camper, but only to stabilize it and reduce the bouncing around from people walking around inside it. They'll break under a heavier load than that.

I'll point out that setting up either of these jacks is going to be a pain each time, especially if you take the van on an excursion a few times during a stay somewhere. And you still might need blocks to bring the height up enough to use the jacks.