Goza's Wanderings and Wonderings: RV Weight and The Truman Library

Location: Blue Springs Campground; Lee's Summit, Missouri (elev. 910 ft)

I pulled out of the casino campground about 9:00 am and crossed the state line into Missouri about 5 minutes later. I hadn't realized I was that close. My plan was to stop at a Flying J Truck Stop just outside of Joplin, Missouri to fuel up, get weighed at their Cat scales and get a wash at the Blue Beacon next door. Well, two out of three ain't bad. As I was on the scales getting weighed, I counted the number of 18 wheelers waiting in line to be washed. It looked like two lanes, six trucks deep. I wasn't going to wait that long for a wash job, so I just fueled up, got my weight ticket ($11.50) and headed north.

I remembered to get a picture of the Casino campsite.

The last time Freedom and Liberty were weighed was back at the FROG rally in August of 2014. I was anxious to see the difference.

The CAT scale ticket. $11.50 for a certified weight seems very reasonable.

The steer and drive axle weights are Freedom's axles. The drive axle is also carrying the pin weight of Liberty. Freedom's carrying capacity is far greater than anything Liberty can throw her way, so to simply things, the critical number is the trailer axle weight. The CAT scale weighs both trailer axles at the same time instead of separately like I had done at the rally. The CAT number of 8,000 pounds averages to 4,000 pounds per axle which is the rated load of Liberty's trailer axles. The rally weight from 4 years ago had the combined axles at 7,550 so essentially, Liberty has gained 450 pounds. Part of that is some extra fresh water I was carrying. I estimate that water weight to be about 200 pounds so I need to try to figure out the extra 250 pounds. I'm not overly concerned with it since I'm within range and feel comfortable about the weight.

Some people were asking questions about the new tires on Liberty. They are ST tires, which stand for Special Trailer. Basically, you have passenger tires, light truck tires (LT) and special trailer (ST) tires. I was told years ago, the ST is just like LT except it has stronger sidewalls to resist curb scuffing. Lot's of people run LT's on their trailers and like most things in the RV community, it is open for discussion as to what's best. I run ST's. To give an idea about Liberty's tires. She originally came with ST tires with a load rating "C", 6 ply, max 50 psi, with a carrying weight of a little over 2,000 pounds. After about 6,000 miles of traveling, I got worried about the original tires due to a small leak and the horror stories I had read about tires made in China. I changed them out for Goodyear Marathon's which, come to find out, were also made in China. This time I upgraded and went with load rating "D", 8 ply, max 65 psi, carrying weight about 2,500 pounds. These lasted about 30,000 miles before the blow out. The new tires are Goodyear Endurance with a load rating of "E", 10 ply, max 80 psi, with a carrying weight of 2,800 pounds. But remember, Liberty's axles are rated at 4,000 pounds so 2,800 pounds per tire is greater than the axle rating, so the axle still controls the weight. Whew,,,,,, that was long winded.

The most important information on the tire is it's birthdate. Actually, it is its "birthweek". After the DOT number, you will find four numbers. On these new tires, it is 1518. That means the tires were made in the 15th week of 2018. You have to be careful of some tire dealers who try to pass off older tires to unsuspecting customers. The age of a tire is just as critical as the number of miles on the tire.

The trip to Kansas City was uneventful which is good with me. It was all on I-49 and although it was bumpy in places, I didn't hear a lot of cussing coming from Freedom. I haven't found out where those cuss words come from inside Freedom. All I know is I travel alone but sometimes I hear a cuss word. Those dang Ford engineers,,, yep.

This campground is a county owned campground on the edge of a Corps of Engineer built lake. It's a nice campground that is laid out a little funny but, it's OK. My site is level and I have one tree that provides afternoon shade which is needed since they are having a little heat wave here. The daytime highs are mid 90's but luckily the humidity is only in the 50 to 60 percent range. Unfortunately, I only have 30 amp service for Liberty. That means the water heater is on gas and I can only run one AC unit at a time. Well, I can run both of them, but it puts me right on the 30 amp limit and the outside breaker will flip sometimes. So, I've been getting by with only one. It also means I need to turn the AC off if I want to use the microwave or coffee pot. It's not totally necessary but if the microwave is running and the AC starts up it may flip the breaker. The site is also electric only, meaning no water. You have to fill up your fresh water tank before getting to your site. I arrived with almost a full tank of fresh water so I was good to go.

My campsite with shade tree

A small portion of Blue Springs Lake.

There were two things I wanted to see in the Kansas City area. One was the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence which is just slightly outside of Kansas City proper. I visited it yesterday and it was an enjoyable couple of hours.

I won't go into a long history about his life and Presidency but will only hit a few highlights. He was the only President that was in combat during World War I. He was a last minute choice for VP on FDR's fourth term. The Democrat party knew FDR would not survive his fourth term due to his failing health. They were right and within weeks of being sworn in, FDR passed away leaving Truman with the Presidency. He won a term on his own so he essentially served for 8 years. A few of his highlights: He made the fateful decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan to end the war. He was instrumental in forming the United Nations and used the UN to fight the Korean conflict. He was the first to recognize Israel as a country in 1948. He stopped the communists from taking over Turkey and Greece (Truman Doctrine). He rebuilt Europe and Asia with the Marshal Plan. He helped create NATO.

There is just too much to go through about his life and times. The library does great job of putting it all together and in perspective. Like so many times during the history of the U.S., he was the right man at the right time.

Well, I need to be going to see the second thing I came here to see.