%#$&# salesman

anaro wrote:

John & Angela wrote:

anaro wrote:
I think both are at fault. The ultimate responsibility lies with the consumer...remember caveat emptor. That said dealerships need to stop selling tt based upon the somewhat fictional dry weight. When I bought my tt, I knew the tow max of my old armada. What I didn't understand was tongue weight, payload, gawr etc and how they pertained to me. I had dealerships leading me to believe I could tow an 8500 lb dry 34 ft tt with my armada (rated at 9100 lb and rated for 910 lb on the receiver). I knew better than to shop dry weight even though I was told by more than one salesman that gvwr didn't matter, dry weight is what you watch. I bought a tt that was under tow max by 2000 lbs loaded but over on payload. That was my fault not the dealership. I upgraded the tv. The truck dealership sold me a used F250 diesel like I asked. Again, I made a crucial mistake, I never double checked the payload sticker because it was a diesel, it can tow a pretty sizeable trailer no problem. We were thinking of a future 5er upgrade. Oops, this diesel has less than 1500 lbs available payload. No 12000 lb sabre for this truck although it is well matched to the current tt. These were mistakes on my part, not the salesmans part. The only thing I ever blame a salesman for is trying to undersell the true weight of a trailer. The tow vehicle is the responsibility of the owner.

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Goid morning. I'm confused on one statement in this post or maybe I am reading it wrong. Why would GVWR matter except to always try for the max. Kinda like buying a truck. If you have a choice of two trailers weighing roughly the same and one has a GVWR 1000 pounds more than the other why would you not buy the trailer with the bigger rating. It's a rating not a weight. I think encouraging people to buy trailers with low ratings can only lead to bad things. Same as a truck. And as far as dry weights being fictional, in recent years they are fairly close in the units I have scaled. JMHO I like a safety factor. I would rather pay a little more for a trailer that has a little bigger brakes and axles and consequently a little higher GVWR. Look at the dry weight, be reasonable and add realistic cargo numbers, then see if it fits into the tow vehicles capabilities. GVWR should only come into it as a bigger is better thing. An ARCTIC FOX 25 foot trailer weighs 6200 pounds but has a GVWR of 10,000 pounds. It would be nice to have a tow vehicle that pulls 8000 pounds for this trailer but you certainly don't need now that pulls 10,000 pounds.

while I get what you are saying and agree to some degree, we are talking about newbies. Most newbies have no clue about how much weight to account for in the way of gear etc. by doing calculations using the TT max gvwr they can help to make sure they don't exceed their tow ratings. on the other hand, if you take someone who knows (from previously scaled trailers or weighing every last item they will put in the TT) then you can calculate based upon using the actual weight sticker in the TT plus the weight you add to get a good idea of where you will stand (we have been doing this with 5ers). I say somewhat fictional dry weight because the brochure dry weight is rarely what it weighs when it is sold with propane, battery etc. The yellow sticker on the door or cabinet is the true dry weight before cargo.