By Cheri Sicard
The team from Keep Your Daydream makes an excellent point in the video below about RV height clearance.
Quick! What is the height of your RV? Do you remember?
If you don’t remember the height of your RV, the time to recall is not when you are about to go under a low-clearance bridge!
It’s a simple but good tip, just in case you ever forget your RV’s height. Keep a placard posted in your vehicle with the height of your rig. That way there will be no question when approaching a low-clearance bridge whether you can clear it or not.
What? You don’t know the height of your rig? No problem. Go now and get a tape measure. We’ll wait. Then watch the video demonstration of how to measure. Then go right away and measure your rig, make a note of it, and keep in your vehicle!
To do this you will put the tape at the top of the roof and measure down. Make note. The rig in the video measured 10’3” to the gutter, then another 3 inches to the roof.
But there’s more. You also have to account for the height of the A/C or other items on the roof. In the video that added another 14 inches. When they added it together, the Keep Your Daydream rig measured 11’6”.
The demo ends at about 7 minutes into the video. The rest is a travelogue and glimpses of the family’s life on the road, which may or may not be of interest to you.
##RVDT2192
10′ 6″. Look before going underneath anything.
Height measured in feet plus inches, meters, and meters plus centimeters! The measurements are on a 3×5 card taped to the driver’s sun visor!
I measured the height of both of our travel trailers by laying an 8′ 2×4 on top of the air conditioner with it overhanging the outer wall and then added 6″ to account for bumps or an added layer of pavement. I also measured the lengths and widths and wrote all of this on a card that I taped to my sunvisor.
A 2×4, level, tape measure and my wife to get exact height. Used a label maker to make labels in feet and centimeters with height plus 6 inches, width, weight. Also use a truckers GPS with all the same parameters entered in it.
10 feet 2 inches – it was in the specs, but I measured it in the 1st week of ownership. I will creep with a spotter into a self-wash bay listed with only 11 feet clearance, but in general, won’t drive under anything listed as less than 12 feet.
Some 5th wheels are very close to the 13’6” maximum allowable height of a vehicle on federal highways, that’s with the RV level. If you’re tow truck is a 4WD it will sit higher than a 2WD the factory uses for dimensions. If you’re towing with the 4WD you need to measure your height ready to travel. It’s not pretty when a bridge cleans your A/C off your roof. Not only will it ruin your day but your vacation also.
I tow RV’s for a transport company here in Elkhart Indiana, to me, regardless of actual height, every unit I pull is 13’6″. So, if the clearance isn’t 14′, I don’t go under it. Period.
Most if not all experienced RVer’s know their rig height as measured from the factory. Some have had to enhance/replace the anemic undercarriage support that typically comes from the factory. I’ve had to replace my leaf springs with stronger versions. This lifted the RV about an inch+. It’s not much but given the consequences of underestimating, I recommend a re-measurement on a flat level surface. Better safe than sorry.
13′ 3″ is the height of our RV. Thank you, Cheri!
Knowing where I intended to park my new RV, I told the salesman the final condition of the sale depended upon the exact height of the very unit we had decided upon. He found a rather level spot on their driveway and checked the air in the tires. He then got a fellow with ladder, a long straight edge and level, and dropped a tape measure to the ground. My wife and I witnessed the entire show and my specifications met. Don’t be timid. If that salesman wants to close the deal, he can earn it. Very nice guy and cooperative and we have since seen him at a couple of RV shows and to my surprise he still remembers my face and name.
Who could ever forget you, Kelly?🤔 Just sayin’. Have a good evening/night. 😀 –Diane