looking to purchase first TT
I just bought a 2003 Chevy Tahoe with quite a lot of miles,130,000, (due to need for paying cash). I got it so I can finally finance a travel trailer. Have been looking at TTs under 27 feet long. The ...
Forum Discussion
Always use the trailer GROSS weight since nobody camps in an empty trailer. Also, most of them are several hundred pounds heavier than the brochure dry weight when delivered. My brand new empty trailer was almost 600 pounds heavier than the listed dry weight. The trailers 1500 pound cargo rating quickly fell to a little over 800 before a pillow or loaf of bread was put inside.
The same is true of tow vehicles. Yours should have a sticker on the drivers door sill that talks about tire pressure and cargo weight for that truck, not one like it in a brochure. And every pound of weight other than the driver,(150 pounds), and a tank of gas that you put in the vehicle counts against that number. Yours is probably around 1400 pounds so if you have a 200 pound driver and 2 150 pound passengers then you have 1050 pounds left for tongue weight, the weight of the hitch itself, dogs, coolers and anything else you take in the tow vehicle with you.
A reasonable percentage of tongue weight is 13%. You can go a little lower but when you get close to 10% the trailer becomes much less stable. At 12 or 13% a 7000 pound trailer will have a tongue weight of 900 pounds plus 85 pounds for the hitch and the 350 pounds for the driver and 2 passengers and you have about 200 pounds left before it has reached the absolute maximum it was designed to tow 130,000 miles ago.
Will it do it? Without question. Will it be safe? In the hands of an experienced driver who knows what to expect when towing, yes. For a first time tow driver, probably not the best idea anyone ever had.
I would try to keep the gross trailer weight to 5000 pounds or less and not put any weight other than passengers in the tow vehicle.
The same is true of tow vehicles. Yours should have a sticker on the drivers door sill that talks about tire pressure and cargo weight for that truck, not one like it in a brochure. And every pound of weight other than the driver,(150 pounds), and a tank of gas that you put in the vehicle counts against that number. Yours is probably around 1400 pounds so if you have a 200 pound driver and 2 150 pound passengers then you have 1050 pounds left for tongue weight, the weight of the hitch itself, dogs, coolers and anything else you take in the tow vehicle with you.
A reasonable percentage of tongue weight is 13%. You can go a little lower but when you get close to 10% the trailer becomes much less stable. At 12 or 13% a 7000 pound trailer will have a tongue weight of 900 pounds plus 85 pounds for the hitch and the 350 pounds for the driver and 2 passengers and you have about 200 pounds left before it has reached the absolute maximum it was designed to tow 130,000 miles ago.
Will it do it? Without question. Will it be safe? In the hands of an experienced driver who knows what to expect when towing, yes. For a first time tow driver, probably not the best idea anyone ever had.
I would try to keep the gross trailer weight to 5000 pounds or less and not put any weight other than passengers in the tow vehicle.
