Forum Discussion
AH64ID
May 21, 2014Explorer
I would stay away from the Anderson hitch, I haven't found a single person that gets any decent weight transfer with it. Light is only good if it works.
The wheelbase will be your killer. Try to stay under 25'. Have you looked at the Lance campers?
Rear kitchen models have lower tongue weight, but the dished and such get rattled if you travel on rough roads. The part of the trailer behind the axles get the roughest ride.
How many people are normally in the vehicle? How about gear?
Look at your door jam sticker. GVWR? GCWR? RAWR? FAWR?
If you want to get as close to possible as max load up the vehicle with all the people and normal travel stuff, and head to the scale. Stop for fuel on the way. Get the FAW, RAW, GVW and then compare to your limits. Your towing ability will be GCWR minus GVW, I would subtract another 10% as a buffer. Take that number and multiply by .15, that's the upper end of tongue weight. If the calculated tongue weight puts your rear axle over the RAWR, or is higher than the hitch rating then you need to backwards plan off the tongue weight.
When you find the max you can tow look for trailers with that weight as their GVWR, not their brochure weight. The shorter the trailer the easier it will tow.
Back to hitches, the equal-I-zer is very effective at weight transfer and sway control. On that topic the tongue weight is calculated before the WDH transfers any weight, I.e. the load bars unhooked.
The wheelbase will be your killer. Try to stay under 25'. Have you looked at the Lance campers?
Rear kitchen models have lower tongue weight, but the dished and such get rattled if you travel on rough roads. The part of the trailer behind the axles get the roughest ride.
How many people are normally in the vehicle? How about gear?
Look at your door jam sticker. GVWR? GCWR? RAWR? FAWR?
If you want to get as close to possible as max load up the vehicle with all the people and normal travel stuff, and head to the scale. Stop for fuel on the way. Get the FAW, RAW, GVW and then compare to your limits. Your towing ability will be GCWR minus GVW, I would subtract another 10% as a buffer. Take that number and multiply by .15, that's the upper end of tongue weight. If the calculated tongue weight puts your rear axle over the RAWR, or is higher than the hitch rating then you need to backwards plan off the tongue weight.
When you find the max you can tow look for trailers with that weight as their GVWR, not their brochure weight. The shorter the trailer the easier it will tow.
Back to hitches, the equal-I-zer is very effective at weight transfer and sway control. On that topic the tongue weight is calculated before the WDH transfers any weight, I.e. the load bars unhooked.
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