Newbie question about towing weights
Hi We're looking at 5ers and wondering how to figure pulling weights. Which numbers do you use to figure whether your truck is strong enough? (I know it's a basic question, but I'm really scratc...
Forum Discussion
Luckily, we're minimalists. We have always been tent campers (my husband still prefers tent camping) and you don't get into the habit of having a lot when doing camping in cars. For instance, we don't envision having any gear in the truck bed. We think we'll put some food in the FW, some clothing in the drawers on board, and some linens and towels and toiletries as well. We'll probably use the campground showers/toilets most of the time as well.
This FW has been purchased PRIMARILY as a stationary guest house for our adult kids and their kids who visit us frequently at our WV farm in summers.
SECONDARILY, we plan to use it in our business for trade shows each spring. There, we won't bring a lot of camping gear: just basic weekend clothing and minimal foodstuffs.
The FINAL (and we may never do this) use that this RV might see is for a two-week to two-month stay in a warmer climate during the winter in years to come. That's iffy at present, and admittedly, I could see us packing way more gear for an extended snowbird-type experience.
Since the unit that we just purchased is under our rough-figured limit when lightly packed (empty weight is listed as 8,792; GVWR is listed as 11,450) that's over 1200 lbs of gear before we hit 10K #s, and I just don't think we'll get near that. Heck, I weigh 130 and my hubby right at 220#, and most of the time it will just be us on the road. So, I think we'll be okay, but we do plan to do due diligence, starting this weekend, in weighing and figuring as we pick up the new unit.
And I know... if we like it we might find ourselves using it more and packing more along. Well, if we need to, we'll have the budget to upgrade our truck since we bought this unit used at a great low price. :D
This FW has been purchased PRIMARILY as a stationary guest house for our adult kids and their kids who visit us frequently at our WV farm in summers.
SECONDARILY, we plan to use it in our business for trade shows each spring. There, we won't bring a lot of camping gear: just basic weekend clothing and minimal foodstuffs.
The FINAL (and we may never do this) use that this RV might see is for a two-week to two-month stay in a warmer climate during the winter in years to come. That's iffy at present, and admittedly, I could see us packing way more gear for an extended snowbird-type experience.
Since the unit that we just purchased is under our rough-figured limit when lightly packed (empty weight is listed as 8,792; GVWR is listed as 11,450) that's over 1200 lbs of gear before we hit 10K #s, and I just don't think we'll get near that. Heck, I weigh 130 and my hubby right at 220#, and most of the time it will just be us on the road. So, I think we'll be okay, but we do plan to do due diligence, starting this weekend, in weighing and figuring as we pick up the new unit.
And I know... if we like it we might find ourselves using it more and packing more along. Well, if we need to, we'll have the budget to upgrade our truck since we bought this unit used at a great low price. :D
