handye9 wrote:
When manufacturers calculate "max towing capacity", they do it without aftermarket accessories, passengers, or cargo. They also advertised that max tow weight with two key words, often missed by consumers. Those words are "UP TO".
RV manufacturers are also guilty of advertising misleading information. They advertise trailers with their unloaded (dry) weights, along with some low hitch / tongue weights. Some of those hitch / tongue weights don't include a battery or propane, both of which add weight directly onto the tongue. They also don't tell you, tongue weight is not a constant number. It goes up and down during every trip.
Your estimate of 500 lbs for stuff loaded in the trailer, could be a bit on the low side. Just filling a 30 gallon fresh water tank, adds 240 lbs. If you got in a situation where you had to tow with full black / grey tanks, you would have 500+ lbs right there. The average load (dishes, flatware, pots and pans, bedding, camp chairs, BBQ equipment, flashlights, batteries, groceries, water, etc) is about 1000 lbs. Average tongue weight runs 12 -13 percent of loaded trailer weight. Some trailers, based on their floor plan, or how you load it, can be a little higher.
On your tire / loading sticker (on drivers door jamb), there is a number for "max occupant / cargo weight" (AKA payload). That is the truck's capacity to carry everything and everybody you put into, or onto the truck. The weight of added hitch equipment and trailer tongue weight are counted as cargo weight, on the truck. Any aftermarket accessories, you may have added to the truck, are counted as cargo weight.
With these numbers and percentages, you can calculate how that trailer matches up with your truck.
Take your payload number and subtract 100 lbs for hitch equipment, subtract you family weight, subtract aftermarket accessory weight (if you have any), and subtract any cargo that you would be carrying in the truck. Whatever is left over, is payload available for carrying tongue weight. If you divide that available payload by .13, that will give you a ball park number of what loaded trailer weight would put your truck at it's max capacity.
Give yourself some wiggle room. Allow for those tongue weight fluctuations and the possible unexpected guest or cargo. The closer you are to going over weight, the more unpleasant your towing will be.
You're looking at a trailer that will be close to 6000 lbs when it is ready to camp. Does it fit with your set up, only you can make that call. Do some of these calculations, and see where it falls.
Ah...So it's better to look at the GVW of the trailer...how heavy it CAN be (not how heavy it is unloaded) as a baseline.
Thanks. Y'all have been entirely helpful
