carringb wrote:
I easily use up all 3,000 pounds of my trailer's carrying capacity. Its' not even hard to to. For one, it carries over 850 pounds of water. And 80 pounds of propane. About 160 pounds of batteries. Clothes, food for a week, camping gear, rock climbing gear, ski gear, mountain biking gear, a case of wine and 3-4 cases of beer, and I'm maxed out.
My last two trailers had nowhere near enough CCC. My Weekend Warrior had a 12,000 GVWR but weighed 11,000 empty and had an 18' garage. My 29' Jayco had a 7500 # GVWR, and I had to pack all luggage in the bedroom to avoid overloading its puny 3500# axles.
Don't forget the spare tire that nifty PVC sewer hose holder and tray along with the sewer hose and fittings, water hoses, an extra or two extension cord maybe even a 35' 30A one, and couple of coax cables for the TV, those wood leveling blocks and planks to put under your stabilizers. Then comes say a qt. of simple green (~2bs), and the list goes on. Like you even with just the two of us I have managed to use all my almost 2500lb cargo capacity, but I also carry a full NORCOLD MFT-40 freezer that comes in close to 130lbs full, my sherline scale (another 2lbs), etc., etc.
Personally, I would recommend one estimate about 1200lbs base then about 100 to 150lbs more per person. I wouldn't plan for under say 1500 for a family of say 4 as a fairly safe estimate. Now if you start throwing in cases of beer, etc. that would be extra.
Now one thing I do is I always run across the scales at my first fuel stop after filling up on each road trip so I know starting out EXACTLY what I weigh so there is no guessing on my part.
Larry
