F150 or F250
My husband and I have been looking for the perfect travel trailer for about 6 months. We found one two weeks ago and were so excited for our first family camping trip in a TT and not a tent. Before we...
Forum Discussion
Dankenbring wrote:
Look in trailer life magazine online in the tow ratings, this has a good selection of trans, engine options . And lots of years. I figure to leave 10% less capacity on vehicle to give some slack while going up hills.
Just looked and it says 7800 lbs for tow rating. But that is with empty truck. So add around 700-1000 lbs of people and stuff in truck so your down to 6800. But add more stuff in trailer and I bet you would be over.
I did a test on our fifth wheel. Between empty no stuff and nothing in truck including driver. We added over 2000 lbs when ready to leave on a trip. I checked this on a certified scale which is 1/2 mile from here.
You DON'T "need" or want to use anything published by magazines, there is no way that they can accurately predict the real world weights of vehicles or trailers.
The only accurate way is to read the manufacturers label on the tow vehicle which gives you the SPECIFICATIONS ON THAT VEHICLE. The manufacturers door sticker lists all the info you need and is based on the base weight PLUS ALL OPTIONS of said vehicle. The result is a cargo weight rating that you can take to the bank..
The trailer it is better to weight it in order to get the real weight but you can bet on the maximum GVWR that is listed on the trailer as your TOP MAX weight which the trailer can carry..
7800 lb "tow rating" by vehicle manufacturers usually assumes 10% tongue weight for bumper pulls in order to maximize the buying crowd.
The problem is 10% is the MINIMUM you want on the tongue and 12%-15% being ideal. In many cases 15% tongue weight will take away ALL of your available cargo rating and be over that by a good bit.
15% tongue weight of 7800 lbs is 1170 lbs so if you have say a cargo rating of 1500 lbs you only have 330 lbs of cargo left..
Put driver and one passenger into the vehicle and no other "gear" and no other items in the bed and you are now over weight..
I personally suspect the OPs trailer is more like 7500 "dry" (guessing roughly 2,100 lbs CCC) and with all their stuff loaded they are most likely 8,500 - 8,900 lbs..
