mtofell1 wrote:
One annoyance every time this comes up is the "just go by the trailer's GVWR" crowd. Honestly, that's crappy advice. A trailer's GVWR is determined by what a trailer "could" carry not what you will put in it. Take the dry weight and account for what you are going to put in it. Also, realize the dry weight may be without batteries, propane tanks and definitely is without water.
A very true statement. When we ordered our trailer, we upgraded the axles from 5000# to 6000#. This added a lot to the GVWR, without adding much to the dry weight of the trailer. We can carry 3600# of cargo, but at the last scale weighing, we were only carrying 1800# of cargo. Know your numbers. It can all be very confusing.
Even with the lower cargo weight of the trailer at the scales, my 2007 one ton dually was just 200# under GVWR. The truck had a lot in the bed though, so it was carrying extra cargo (firewood, bikes, hammocks, tools, pallet step).
Mark