itsjustjer wrote:
I understand what you’re saying and that’s fine.
#1 My frustration comes from the inability to calculate ANY weight to ANY certain degree seeing as how it’s impossible to know that any weight is actually accurate from the manufacturer.
#2 How has anyone ever purchased a vehicle and camper and known they’d be compatible if we can’t rely on payload numbers or tongue weight numbers from the manufacturer?
#3 There are a lot of campers I’ve looked at that state they have close to 3k lbs cargo carrying capacity.
#4 I’ve dragged out everything we had in our old camper and weighed it, plus weighed way more clothes than we’d ever bring realistically, plus so much more gear that we’d probably just shove in the camper to store it and probably never actually use.
All of that weighs about 650 lbs (I think it was 644).
I just rounded that up to 1k lbs because maybe we’ll want to travel with a tank of water sometime.
#5 Now there is a huge difference between adding an additional 1k lbs to the dry weight versus adding an additional 3k lbs to the dry weight.
#6 I’m all for over estimating (as you may have noticed), but over estimating by 2k lbs is kind of overkill considering everything else has been overestimated already.
#7 This is my problem with saying we’ll use the GVWR on a trailer. However, if we can’t rely on the dry weight to be even remotely accurate then how is it even possible for someone to know what weight they’re supposed to add their gear weight onto to find their loaded weight? That’s the frustration.
#1 You way over thinking which is why you are frustrated.
Manufacturers cannot "publish" exact dry weight numbers in brochures, the reasons vary but the gist of it is there are variations in configurations due to options and or materials.
Manufacturers publish numbers based on the IDEAL materials on basic models, add in options and variations of materials and those numbers have gone out the door.
What manufacturers do now days because they are now forced to do is they will weigh each unit before it leaves the factory. That weight is now required to be posted inside the trailer. There will be a paper with all the empty weight specs which will typically be inside a cupboard cabinet in the kitchen.
So, you WILL NEED TO GO FIND A DEALER WITH THE TRAILER YOU ARE INTERESTED IN to get the exact info you are asking for.
However, IF the dealer has ADDED ANYTHING those weight numbers are now out the door.
Complicating things a bit, typically propane and battery ARE NOT INCLUDED ON THE WEIGHT STICKER!
#2 Using the GVWR of the trailer WILL prevent this very issue you are complaining about. That IS why folks here are telling you to buy using the GVWR!
You cannot go wrong with the GVWR, it is that simple.
By trying to weigh out everything including counting the amount of potato chips you can haul you are leaving yourself with zero margin for mistakes.
#3 WHO CARES if you have 3K of cargo capacity of the trailer??? Ignore that and get on with life, be GLAD you have extra cargo capacity that you are not using.. There is NO RULE THAT STATES YOU MUST USE EVERY OUNCE OF CARGO CAPACITY.
I honestly love knowing that I have more cargo capacity than I need, in fact makes things a lot safer since now you have brakes and tires with EXCESSIVE CAPACITY THAT YOU ARE NOT NEEDING TO USE!
#4 Good for you, most folks simply do not have any idea what they are dragging along with them but in reality buying a trailer with lots of cargo means you really did not have to go over the top on this.
#5 WHY all of this obsession with trying to use up all of the cargo capacity? Having more cargo capacity means the trailer is starting MUCH LOWER WEIGHT. Lower weight is good, your vehicle will thank you for not dragging the extra 2K of weight behind it.
#6 For some reason folks seem to think they are getting less of a trailer when it has a much higher cargo capacity.
The truth is you are not.
I suspect a lot of the folks who have trailers with 1K or less cargo capacity are the ones who typically have a lot of axle and tire issues.. You are getting a lot more margin on tires especially and most likely will never need to upgrade the tires to stop excessive tire blowouts..
#7 You are making your life miserable by worrying about dry weights, buying a trailer based on the MAXIMUM GVWR the trailer can haul simplifies your life and having 2K or 3K cargo capacity means you should never ever need to use the entire capacity of the trailer.
In other words, gives you a big safety margin by not ever loading to the maximum GVWR..
Yes, there are a lot of folks on this forum who use the dry weights to justify their (poor or often bad) choice of buying a much larger and heavier trailer than they should..
I call it the "supersize" mentality..
DON'T BE THAT PERSON!
