Hitch weight

Capeteacher wrote:
He said the hitch weight listed already adds in battery and propane. Agree or disagree.

Disagree. Any new trailer I've purchased has included only the weight of empty propane tank(s) in the factory stickered dry weight of the trailer as propane itself and any battery (or batteries) are added later by the dealer. Regardless, surely you realize that any trailer's average gross tongue weight will be considerably more than it's brochure listed dry tongue weight once loaded & ready to camp. I typically average ~ 625 lbs of gross tongue weight with my own Freedom Express 192RBS which had an advertised factory dry tongue weight of just 392 lbs. Good thing too, as that 625 lbs represents an average gross tongue weight to average gross weight of ~ 13%, right where it should be.

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
Welllllll either way consider
If you believe they counted it, was it one propane tank, or two, and were they empty or full, and the same for the batteries.
The manufacturers of the trailers are no different than the dealers on this. They want to open their trailer to as many prospective buyers as possible, hence the advertising from manufacturers that nearly all trailers, and many 5th wheels are 1/2 ton towable.
Until you can put it on a scale, errr to the side of caution.

I am being as cautious as I can, asking a lot of questions which sometimes confuses things more. Thanks

Take the gvwr of the trailer and figure 15% of that figure for tongue weight. That way your TV will be plenty adequate and likely not too far from real weights. Just my humble opinion.

RedRocket204 wrote:
Agree with what Scott said. Easy way to look at it is listed dry trailer weights generally don't account for battery and propane. Do the math on the dry trailer weight at ~ 10 or 11 % and see if that is what is listed as the hitch weight.

But the glaring issue here is that listed hitch weight is always going to be lower than the actual wet/loaded hitch weight. And, a hitch weight at 10-11% of the loaded trailer weight could very well be marginal for a stable tow. The hitch weight may be needed to be increase to make that trailer tow stable without any sway event under normal towing conditions.

If I understand what you are saying a too low hitch weight can cause trouble as well as too much..
Storing stuff in the front of the trailer will increase hitch weight, correct?

Welllllll either way consider
If you believe they counted it, was it one propane tank, or two, and were they empty or full, and the same for the batteries.
The manufacturers of the trailers are no different than the dealers on this. They want to open their trailer to as many prospective buyers as possible, hence the advertising from manufacturers that nearly all trailers, and many 5th wheels are 1/2 ton towable.
Until you can put it on a scale, errr to the side of caution.

All weights given by TT manufacturers are....estimates, guesses etc. A reasonable tongue weight for a DRY 3,000 pound TT is 390 pounds at 13%. That leaves you 110 pounds for the hitch and everything else...water is particularly heavy...on this estimate of a light TT. Not enough truck. What's your payload? What do you carry in the Xterra?

Agree with what Scott said. Easy way to look at it is listed dry trailer weights generally don't account for battery and propane. Do the math on the dry trailer weight at ~ 10 or 11 % and see if that is what is listed as the hitch weight.

But the glaring issue here is that listed hitch weight is always going to be lower than the actual wet/loaded hitch weight. And, a hitch weight at 10-11% of the loaded trailer weight could very well be marginal for a stable tow. The hitch weight may be needed to be increase to make that trailer tow stable without any sway event under normal towing conditions.

Some do and some don't. According to some in the industry, it is supposed to include things you cannot remove, like battery and propane.
Problem is they lie about real hitch weight so you can expect it to be much higher than they claim.
Mine is more than 400# over the stated weight.