tow question

Ron Gratz wrote:

plasticmaster wrote:
The sticker inside my truck door says "Combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed 1638#".

The specs for the possible new camper says UVW 6935#, GVWR 9500#, and dry hitch weight 855#.

Typical trips are me, my wife, and 2 kids with bicycles, firewood, cooler, etc. in bed of truck. Tanks in the camper are always empty. Please let me know if I've left anything out.

The "payload" value of 1638# is your controlling factor.

Your best estimate of the total weight of occupants and cargo (including the weight of a WDH) must be subtracted from the 1638#.
The remainder is the maximum allowable vertical load which the TT can impose on the hitch.

The load imposed on the hitch is equal to the TT's loaded tongue weight minus the amount of load transferred to the TT's axles by the WDH.
This transferred load might be equal to about 20% of the tongue weight.

You'll have to do the estimating and the calculating.
For example, lets assume the total weight of you, your wife, 2 kids with bicycles, firewood, cooler, WDH, etc. amounts to 938#.
You then are limited to a vertical load of 1638-938 = 700# carried on the hitch.
The maximum allowable tongue weight would be 700/0.8 = 875# (assuming load equal to 20% of TW is transferred to TT axles).

Assuming a TW% of 13% means the maximum allowable loaded TT weight would be 875/0.13 = 6730#.
Unfortunately, your possible new camper has an empty weight of 6935#.
Your current TT, when loaded and with WD applied, probably comes close to exerting a vertical load of 700# on the hitch.

You might want to consider loading your TV and TT as they would be loaded for camping and taking them to a scales to find out how close you are to the TV's GVWR with your current TT.

Ron

I disagree with Ron's calculation of tongue wt allowed by subtracting the amount of dead tongue wt (i.e. TW measured on something like a Sherline TW scale) that will be redistributed to the TT axles. IMO the TW limit specified for either the vehicle or the receiver using a WDH is not just what is applied to the TV, but the total dead tongue wt.

Of course I also believe that the wt. of the WDH system along with any cargo added after the WDH system has been initially set up should also go against the TW specified limits for both the vehicle and the receiver. This view has varying supporters and non supporters with IMO no clear universally agreed to standard.

Larry