Dry weight vs. ready to go weight.

SoundGuy wrote:

Campfire Time wrote:
While I agree that people can load different amounts of weight, by using the GVWR as a guide you will never be wrong on sizing your tow vehicle.

Of course you can! :( Rigs spec'd with so much CCC that very few would actually use could convince one it's necessary to go up a category in tow vehicle, say 3/4 ton instead of 1/2 ton, when in fact it wouldn't be required at all with a reasonable cargo load. If a trailer's GVW, loaded and ready to camp, is comfortably within it's GVWR then fine, use the GVWR as a worse case scenario, but if GVW with a practical load is several thousand pounds below GVWR then it would be a horrendous mistake to use GVWR as a guide in determining which tow vehicle category would be necessary to safely tow that particular trailer. Good grief, no wonder so many newbies find the subject safe towing so confusing! :S

The big issue with your train of thought is you haven't and realistically can't provide any concrete numbers as evidenced by you subjective use of "comfortably within it's GVWR", "reasonable cargo load", "practical load is several thousand pounds below GVWR", etc. IMO is you don't have several thousand lbs "SLOP" in towing capability then you are probably not going to have a "GOOD" towing combination that is comfortable to tow more than a couple of hundred miles at a time.

Larry