Finally bought a U500

[chrismc]

Install on-board air and use one of these.
http://www.ingersollrandproducts.com/IS/Product.aspx-am_en-33503

Whoa! Consumes 58cfm at max load?! That's a heckuva on-board air system.

 

[bigmellon]

Get that beast home yet???

BTW - You can tap the onboard air system to run air tools. Not 50+ CFM but it will run more than my home compressor.

Figure out what that thing in the middle console was yet??

 

[charlieaarons]

Thanks, I wish it was 9900lbs. With the bed I believe it's 16,700. I don't know what the cab chassis weighs. Almost all of the U500 in this country are 33,000 GVWR. I didn't really appreciate the high GVWR until I started to run the numbers. It allows the capability to carry the heavy liquids to stay out without resupply: beer, water and fuel. I really like that I can consider 200 gallons each of water and fuel while keeping the GVW under max.

Every other option I look at was weight constrained. The U500 is volume constrained. Actually this constraint would make a hard sided popup the best choice. I just don't know if I want to add that complexity to the build time.

From what I've seen a hard sided popup with the bed is above the kitchen is a considerably bigger camper than a standard camper at the same length.

Anyone with a larger camper please add what has worked well and what you would change.

According to Unimog NA's weight spreadsheet my cab-chassis weighed 3800kg front/2400kg rear. Since it's now 4350 front and up to 8500 rear, that's a useful payload of 6650kg = 14663 lb.
The rear axle is actually plated at 9000kg and the tires can be overloaded to 12300 lb:
http://www.dodgroundtires.com/pdf/SAA_Letter.pdf

Charlie