So...now the Picnic is over, and I can turn my attention to getting ready for my three-month camping trip to the National Parks of Colorado (Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde), Utah (Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion), Arizona (Grand Canyon), California (Joshua Tree, Sequoia/King's Canyon, yosemite, Lassen Volcanic, Redwoods) and Nevada (Great Basin).
Ah...but this year...I'm facing a big challenge. When I bought my Escape Hybrid back in 2006, I was not the "skilled camper" that I have become today. So, I was thinking "technology" and not paying any attention to "towing capacity". But this year, for the first time, I'm going to be towing my new "Little Guy" Camper. And, as it turns out, the towing capacity of a Ford Escape Hybrid is...well...mighty limited. After a lot of research online, I discovered something called "GCVWR"...which stands for "Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating". It's the maximum weight of the vehicle + anything towed by the vehicle + passenger(s) + cargo.
So...I find the GCVWR number (in pounds) on the inside of the door of the Escape...and I start by subtracting out the weight of the Escape itself...then the weight of the Little Guy Camper...and already, I'm down to 188lbs. By the time that I climb in, minus any cargo, I'm already over the limit. Hmm...this is a real problem.
The problem is two-fold. First is the problem of "low end torque"...this is the power that the vehicle engine must generate to accelerate the vehicle, towed trailer, passengers and cargo from a standing stop to about 20mph. The Escape Hybrids little four cylinder engine has virtually no low end torque...so that power has to come from the electric motor. And...the greater the mass to be accelerated, the greater the strain on the electric motor. And the second problem is the capacity of the four cylinder engine to move a heavy mass at a high speed.
I have spent weeks searching the Internet for answers...and...the advice is all over the map. On one side are those who say that one should not exceed the GCVWR by so much as an ounce...to do so, they say, is to court disaster. On the other side were those who scoffed at the whole notion of GCVWR...it's only a "guideline", so you should be able to go way over the limit without risk. All of this "advice", mind you, was "theoretical"...no one actually tested how much, if any, you could go over the GCVWR.
I finally found one article, by a sailor from Key West, that offered some practical guidance. This individual, along with his wife, towed a 2500lb. sailboat, plus luggage, with a Ford Escape Hybrid from Key West, Florida to Vancouver, British Columbia for a race. And they traveled all that way, including over the Rocky Mountains, with no problems at all.
Now I finally had something that I could work with. Estimating the weight of the guy (say, 160lbs.), his wife (120lbs.), luggage (100lbs.), and the sailboat (2500lbs.), I calculated that they were over the GCVWR by about 2800lbs.
So...I figure that, if I limit my cargo to, say, 500lbs., I should be absolutely fine.
The problem, however, is this...for all of my life, I have been a notorious "overpacker". Before I retired, I used to travel to Europe a lot on business. If I was going for, say, a week, I'd take six suits, a dozen shirts, a dozen pairs of socks, a huge bag of toiletries, snacks, a laptop...you name it. I'd end up with two suitcases, each weighing in at close to 100lbs. I have been cursed by more porters, in more languages all over Europe as they struggled to lug my bags from the hotel lobby to my room.
And on my last two camping trips...to Alaska in 2008 and Glacier/Yellowstone/Grand Teton last summer...well...the sky was the limit. I'd leave with the Escape jam-packed, front to back, top to bottom...four cases of wine, a case of liquor, two 36-pack cases of water, a case of orange juice, a kitchen's worth of cooking equipment, warm weather clothes, cold weather clothes...and on and on.
But not this year...not this trip. Now, I have to "become" Col. Jimmy Doolittle. If you saw the movie "Pearl Harbor", you may remember that, several months after Pearl Harbor, Col. Doolittle got approval for a bombing raid over Tokyo. He was going to haul a fleet of bombers on the deck of an aircraft carrier, have them take off from a "short deck", fly them twice as far as their maximum range, and...even then...they'd have to ditch their planes in occupied China after the bombing run.
In order to accomplish this feat, Col. Doolittle required his crew to "gut" each bomber. They threw out every single ounce of unnecessary weight...seats, radios, weapons, food, bulkheads...everything had to go in order to get the weight down to the absolute minimum. In that way, and only that way, would they be able to carry enough fuel and bombs and take off from a "short deck" for a flight twice the length of the normal maximum.
Now, in order to meet my 500lb. cargo limit, I've got to evaluate (and weigh) all of my potential cargo. Two cases of wine instead of four (a case of wine, by the way, weighs 19lbs.), one case of bottled water, no cold weather clothes, one pot, one pan, etc. I've pulled most of my cargo together weighed it all...right now, I'm at about 480.5lbs.
I know that I can do this!
But...and this is a big "but"...there is no way to test my theory before I leave. I won't know until sometime late morning on Saturday...when I get to that first "pass" through the foothills of the Rockies east of Denver. That's when I will learn if I can make it over and through the Rockies...maybe I make it, maybe I don't.
More later. Plus, in this post...more "bonus" photos from the Summer Picnic.
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