First Travel Trailer, help us out!

Tongue weight changes with how much you load into your trailer and where you place it- in front of the axles or behind the axles. As stated, everything you put into your vehicle is weight and thus diminishes payload. According to Google gasoline weighs about 6 lbs/gallon so how big is your tank? Subtract that first, then the weight of people and everything else that is going into the car. Then you have the hitch and tongue weight of the trailer. Carrying any fresh water in the tank? 8.33 lbs/gallon for water. Not able to empty tanks sometimes before you leave a campground? The weight of the black and grey tanks contents count too. You can certainly manage most of these if you are mindful of it. Will that Jeep tow what you are looking at? Sure it will. Will it be easy to tow? Maybe not.

Kuwanger23 wrote:
So tongue weight of the trailer is 555lbs. The people will be no more than 500lbs at most. So that puts us around 1000lbs of the 1500lbs allowed. Is that correct?

I mean aren't you carrying everything in your trailer? So the only weight is people plus a couple items here and there no?

Nope.

Payload includes a tank of gas as well as any other rubbish you elect to haul along. The kid's books and toys, his car seat, maps and candy bars. The tank of gas is going to take 20 gallons at 7.5 lbs per gallon, call it 150 lbs. You will find you are a lot closer to maxed out on payload than you think.

But hey, welcome to the forum, and hope we can be of help to you here. (Remember the old joke about politicians as well as salesmen: "how can you tell if a politician/salesman is lying? His lips are moving."

Prowl around here and you will find many instances of salesmen telling folks with light trucks they can haul impossible loads. There are legions of folks with 1/2 ton pickups who've been sold 40+ foot monstrosities their truck can barely drag off the lot. And many more who discover they've bought too big a trailer the first time they try to climb a hill, and overheat on the way up in spite of cresting at dangerously slow speeds on the Interstate.

Kuwanger23 wrote:
I mean I know they are salesman, but so far we have been to about 8 places looking around and they all say our vehicle is perfect for the weight class we are looking to tow

Salesman are there to sell. That's it. Most will tell you what you want to hear so to move their units. It's rare to find a dealer who will tell you that it's "not safe to tow this trailer with your current vehicle; you shouldn't buy it". My selling dealer at least was honest with me and explained that "some people are comfortable towing with a 1/2 ton, others are not". I was in the market for a 35 foot TT.

All the advice given above is very well articulated. If you're new to this like I was 3 years ago, heed the advice and listen to those who have real world towing experience. I met a new Keystone Bullet owner at a campground last year who was towing with your vehicle. His trailer was a 28' pull behind. We struck up a conversation as he had the same brand as me. This was his maiden voyage with it, outside of pulling it home from the dealer. Said he had a few white knuckle moments already and was already in discussions with his wife in finding a more appropriate TV. He seen my Ram 2500 Megacab and asked me more than a few questions about it.

Suffice to say, listen to those who have been there, done that...and not the salesman trying to offload his 'SUV towable' trailer. One of the main reasons people sell their coaches (outside of upgrading or downsizing) is frustrations with towing. I was almost one of them during my first season. Now I enjoy the pull.

So tongue weight of the trailer is 555lbs. The people will be no more than 500lbs at most. So that puts us around 1000lbs of the 1500lbs allowed. Is that correct?

I mean aren't you carrying everything in your trailer? So the only weight is people plus a couple items here and there no?

Payload is everyrhing you put inside on or behind your Jeep. By behind I mean tongue weight.
If you really want to know. Load your family and everything that you would carry for a weekend and drive across a set of scales. My guess if you do you will find your available payload, or hitch weight will be around 300 pounds. There is no way on heck I would consider towing that much with that little. Years back we had a Tahoe, whixh was way more than your Jeep, DW, me and a 100 pound dog. We pulled a 20 foot 7000 pound loaded TT and guaranteed I would not want more. It was at its comfortable limits. Now Im not a newby, having towed trailers for close to 40 years, so please take the advise given. Get a bigger tow vehicle or start looking at small hybrids or tent trailers. You will be much happier at the end of the day.

The payload is 1500. But that isn't for towing. That is just for cargo which would only be people no? I am new to this.

I actually had this conversation on another forum and the people there couldn't get over the Jeep fact of the post and we never actually got to talk about the reason for the post. I mean I know they are salesman, but so far we have been to about 8 places looking around and they all say our vehicle is perfect for the weight class we are looking to tow.

But like I said, we are both new to this whole towing thing. Either way, I am sure the Trailhawk is fine. We have the max tow package and lift kit on it.

So on to the subject on hand.

Need a little more information. What size engine do you have what is your axle ratio. Of the three choices not much difference let your wife chose style.

better look long and hard at payload. I suspect you are asking too much of the jeep. (I was a jeep guy and towed heavy with more than one of mine, I am in no way knocking jeeps as tow vehicles)

if you have the jeep I think you have ( http://www-5.jeep.com/en/jeep-capabilities/towing/#GrandCherokee4Tab* )

your payload is only 1050.

subtract the weight of you and your family and any gear in the jeep from that

then subtract the weight of your hitch (usually around 90 lbs)
that's a rough estimate of what's left for tongue weight (should be around 13 percent of loaded trailer weight NOT DRY WEIGHT)

as am example

1050
-500 (family remember that boy will grow and he has stuff)
-100 hitch
=450 lbs for the tongue

450/.13=3462 loaded weight. that's not much for a 25 foot camper empty let alone camp ready.