10/4/14 Louisiana State Fair, Shrevport, LA

Our last day working in the booth has arrived!!  I was up at 6:30 just putting around waiting for 8:00 to roll around to leave for our first weighing at 8:30.  I ate breakfast, then took Jemma for a walk, then started Jami's coffee.  We chatted for a bit and then I left to go set up our weigh site.  I decided to take Jemma with me today, we know she's bored to tears here so I didn't have the heart to leave her alone in the RV today.  Today we only have 3 weighing's to do, 1st 8:30, 2nd 9:00 and the 3rd one for 10:00 called me to let me know he would be late.  I told him to call me about 30 minutes before hand and I would be ready.

Our Weigh Site

The first one showed just a little early, but I was ready for him so I pulled him onto the scales.  Everything looked great, his side to side balance was perfect and he was way under on all his weight ratings.  And he had the perfect amount of air pressure in all his tires!  It's not to often we weigh people and see the RV's this perfect.  The only recommendation I could make was to tell him "keep doing what your doing" :)


The next weighing arrived right on time so I pulled him onto the scales.  Ummmm, something is wrong with this one.  The driver side front tire was carrying just over 7,200 pounds and the passenger front tire only 4,200 pounds.  That's a really big difference.  To make sure I had not made any mistake's I pulled him off the scales, reset them to zero and re-weighed him.  Same!  I then pulled him off again and switched the scales to make sure there wasn't a problem with a scale.  Same thing again!  Lastly to make sure there wasn't an issue with the asphalt (asphalt is really old and rough) I put wood boards on the ground then put the scales on top of them.  Same thing again!  Now I know for sure there is a problem.  I called Walter (My Boss) and explained the weight numbers to him to get his opinion of what the problem could be.  Before I made the phone call I did check the RV to make sure there wasn't anything that heavy near that front tire which there wasn't.  Walter explained to me, which I then explained to the RV owner, That being the RV is a older unit, (1997) it's possible that either there is a leak in the air suspension OR they may need the "Ride Height Valves" adjusted, especially if that's never been checked or done before.  This RV was exceeding every weight rating it had, GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating), both front & rear GAWR (gross axle weigh rating) and the most dangerous of all exceeding the tire rating on that driver side front.  Very dangerous situation.  I made sure he didn't leave without understanding everything and the safety concern.  He was very grateful and sounded like he was going to address the problem as soon as he was able.


Once I had the scales loaded back in the truck I drove to the vendor building a relieved Jami for a bit.  We had another person sign up to get weighed and 2 others that may just show up tomorrow if were still there when they pull out to leave.  So we have a total of 17 weighing's, but we will only have to do 13 on Sunday since we've already weighed a few.


The last person to be weighed today called and said he would be at the weigh site at 11:45, so Jami took over the booth and Jemma and I went back to the weigh site and got set up.

Jemma in the back of the truck while waiting for RV to get weighed

We got him weighed and everything looked really good.  He had way to much air pressure in his tires so he showed me how his valve stems are pointing the wrong way.  Sure enough, they were pointing in which he said made it very hard for him to adjust his air pressure.  He said that he saw some valve stem adaptors that would make them point out at the vendor building.  It was just after 12 which is when the vendors close today and begin packing up so I told him he could leave the RV right where it is and I would drive him to the vendor building in hopes they would let him in.  Sure enough he was able to get in and get what he needed to make changing his air pressure much easier. 

Jami and I then loaded all our booth stuff in the Toyota and headed out to get some lunch and fill the Toyota with gas for tomorrows travel after we finish weighing.  We got that done and went back home so I could then take the GMC dually to a gas station to fill it.  With below a half a tank in the truck plus our 51 gallon auxiliary fuel tank empty I used my "Gas Buddy" app on my phone to find the lowest price.  The lowest price was $3.49 a few miles away verses $3.89 just outside the fair grounds.  I drove to the lower priced station and filled it up, just over 74 gallons which saved me $29.  I love that app!!!!!  Once home I jumped on the computer to do some work and enter in some receipts.


Jami made dinner so we sat down to eat and watch TV.  Once we finished dinner we both took showers and settled in for the night.  Before going to bed we took Jemma for a walk and noticed how many RV's have left today.  I'm sure a lot of them were vendors, but many were rally attendee's.  Tomorrow we'll be up early preparing for the 13 RV's we have scheduled to weigh, the first one is scheduled at 7:30.  Then once were done which should be before 12 we have to travel about 90 miles to "Rocky Point"  campground which is a COE campground in Texas.  We're getting excited about going to a COE, most of the COE campgrounds we've been to are awesome!!!