rrohrer wrote:
Towing is a complicated beast. First get the numbers specific to your escape. Open your driver's side door and look at the door jam for your sticker. There should be numbers like- UVW, GVWR, GCWR etc. GVWR=gross vehicle weight rating, uvw=unloaded vehicle weight. take gvwr-uvw and you get payload. example gvwr 6000lbs-uvw5000lbs= 1000lbs of payload. payload is how much weight you can put in/on the vehicle. example 1000lbs payload-girl 120lbs and gear 280lbs= 600lbs left. In the case of towing an rv this is how much tongue weight plus hitch weight you can have on your camper. RV's can have heavy tongue weights compared to other types of trailers. This is one reason why you may not be able to tow an rv that weighs 3500lbs as advertised. the tongue weight could be too heavy. Lets follow the above example and say we have a hitch that weighs 100lbs so we subtract that from the left over payload of 600lbs and have 500lbs left. that's how much our hitch weight can be. rv specs will give you the dry hitch weight. i.e. as you put stuff in the camper the hitch weight will go up too. it should generally weigh about 12 percent of the trailer weight. example dry hitch weight for 2000lb trailer equals 240 lbs. now load it up with stuff to 3000lbs and the hitch weight is now coming in at 360lbs. this would work cause we have 500lbs payload left. following me so far?? i will add part two in a few minutes ---breathe...
All these numbers are making my head hurt! haha! I am HORRIBLE at math so sorry I can't follow all this, plus i'm discouraged and in a bad mood and need to take a break from thinking about this for a while. :-(
