Potential TT owner looking for advice

Bottleofsmoke wrote:
Hello,
Well - I've ended up here looking for impartial(ish) advice after getting thoroughly fed up with salesmen. (No surprise there!) I'm hoping to tow with a Subaru Ascent Premium, 5000 lbs towing, 500 lbs hitch limit, or possibly a Kia Sorento trim with same stats. Every salesman has said "Yeah, no problem," without actually looking anything up. I won't even get into the incorrect details given me, such as the '5500lb' tow limit of a Kia i was assured of by one genius. (No such thing, of course.)

So, in my perfect world, I've been looking at a 2019 Jayco Hummingbird 17FD with a GVWR of 3750 lbs and dry hitch weight of of 325 lbs or a 2019 Jayco Jay Flight SLX 7 184bs which as a GVWR of 3950, and a dry hitch weight of 400 lbs. (My inexperienced TT instinct is telling me this second one is too close to the limit.)

Am i pushing the limit too much here? R-pods I like are lighter, for example.

And one last question. There are very few TT dealers in my town, and only one salesman that was reasonable, patient, and didn't show us trailers we obviously weren't interested in - he sells Jayco. I could buy from further away, many other dealers are approximately 2 hours away, but i assume this is a pain when it comes to warranty issues, advice etc?

John

As already said, just about all SUV's are going to be limited by tongue weight before any other limit.

Unfortunately, dry tongue weights aren't very helpful, and it seems like tongue weights are always heavier than what they are calculated/guestimated to be. Add to this the fact that TT's become more stable the more tongue weight you add to to them, and you start to see the issue. Further, the WD hitch/sway control is also part of your hitch weight, and they aren't light. Add to that the propane tanks, battery, etc. and you can see why tongue weights are going to be the first limit you hit by a long shot.