Towing with Chevy Avalanche will it be safe?
It seems the more I research this topic, the more confused I get. here's the rundown: 2004 Chevy Avalanche 1500 4WD Curb weight 5700 lbs GVWR 7,000 looking to get a LivinLite Bearcat 16fk w...
Forum Discussion
First off, welcome to the forum! That's a nice trailer and you shouldn't have trouble pulling with your Avalanche. You have discovered the "hidden" limitation of towing an RV....it's not the truck's tow rating, it what it's rated to carry.
Typical trailers have a tongue weight between 10% and 15% of the trailer weight, ideally around 13%. Any less than that and the trailer can get unstable and start to sway. BUT, how the trailer is loaded will affect its final weight and balance. The garage space in a toy hauler is behind the axles, so that any weight that you load in there will effectively lighten the tongue. To compensate for that, manufacturers build THs intentionally tongue heavy so that when you load toys in the garage, the resulting final tongue weight will still be heavy enough to keep it from swaying.
Your tongue weight empty is about 21%. The minimum you would want would be 10% of 3100 = 310 lbs. Let's say you loaded 2 Harleys or quads or whatever...this unit has a net carry capacity (NCC) of almost 4000 lbs...looking at the picture of the trailer on the website, some of that weight wopuld be over the axles, but the further back the weight goes, the more it offsets (lightens) the tongue.
If you load the rig right to its 7000 lb GVWR, you may have to add some water to the fresh tank (ahead of the axles) to bring the tongue weight back up.
So don't look at the tongue weight as it sits, you need to think about how you will load and use the trailer. If you do load it to say 6400 lbs, then 10% of that would be the same 640 lbs of tongue weight. If you never plan on adding toys but carrying fresh water for boondocking, that will make your tongue weight very heavy. If you add in full propane and 2 batteries, you could be at 800+ lbs with no toys in the back to offset the load.
Regarding the Avalanche, 7000 lbs is about the max you want to tow with the 1500 series platform. The 5.3 is a strong engine, but the transmission and rear axle won't hold up over the long haul if towing too heavy. Better to focus on managing trailer wight to stay under or close to GVWR rather than adding airbags or helper springs to carry more weight.
As was stated, the job of a weight distributing (WD) hitch is to level the truck and trailer. If you hitch that trailer to your truck, the truck will sag in the back, and with the nose pointed in the air, you will have reduced steering traction and blinding people with your headlights.
The WD hitch uses spring bars to level the sag at the hitch, allowing the truck and trailer to sit level. It does nothing to increase the capacity that the truck can carry.
Typical trailers have a tongue weight between 10% and 15% of the trailer weight, ideally around 13%. Any less than that and the trailer can get unstable and start to sway. BUT, how the trailer is loaded will affect its final weight and balance. The garage space in a toy hauler is behind the axles, so that any weight that you load in there will effectively lighten the tongue. To compensate for that, manufacturers build THs intentionally tongue heavy so that when you load toys in the garage, the resulting final tongue weight will still be heavy enough to keep it from swaying.
Your tongue weight empty is about 21%. The minimum you would want would be 10% of 3100 = 310 lbs. Let's say you loaded 2 Harleys or quads or whatever...this unit has a net carry capacity (NCC) of almost 4000 lbs...looking at the picture of the trailer on the website, some of that weight wopuld be over the axles, but the further back the weight goes, the more it offsets (lightens) the tongue.
If you load the rig right to its 7000 lb GVWR, you may have to add some water to the fresh tank (ahead of the axles) to bring the tongue weight back up.
So don't look at the tongue weight as it sits, you need to think about how you will load and use the trailer. If you do load it to say 6400 lbs, then 10% of that would be the same 640 lbs of tongue weight. If you never plan on adding toys but carrying fresh water for boondocking, that will make your tongue weight very heavy. If you add in full propane and 2 batteries, you could be at 800+ lbs with no toys in the back to offset the load.
Regarding the Avalanche, 7000 lbs is about the max you want to tow with the 1500 series platform. The 5.3 is a strong engine, but the transmission and rear axle won't hold up over the long haul if towing too heavy. Better to focus on managing trailer wight to stay under or close to GVWR rather than adding airbags or helper springs to carry more weight.
As was stated, the job of a weight distributing (WD) hitch is to level the truck and trailer. If you hitch that trailer to your truck, the truck will sag in the back, and with the nose pointed in the air, you will have reduced steering traction and blinding people with your headlights.
The WD hitch uses spring bars to level the sag at the hitch, allowing the truck and trailer to sit level. It does nothing to increase the capacity that the truck can carry.
