hbillsmith wrote:
The Kodiak you picked can work but it'll depend on a couple of things. First, you'll need to be mindful of how you load the trailer. The car's actual payload can handle a lot in the back and still not take away from the 600# tongue weight. The MB has built-in auto-leveling and the Gross weights are sufficient. It's just the hitch's tongue weight factor that restricts you. So load your clothes and groceries in back the car and then put them in the trailer when you get there.
If you are to stay at 600# tongue weight and have that be 10% of the total trailer weight, that means you can't have the whole unit including tongue weigh more than 6,000#. Since the dry weight is 5,049 (Kodiak's are usually pretty accurate, but as the saying goes, a CAT scale is better). You should be ok.
One thing I would do (and it's what I did) is have a machine shop welder fabricate a rear receiver hitch on the trailer (Do Not just add something to the flimsy bumper). On that hitch you can load a bicycle rack, ice chests, or such to the tune of 150# to 300#. That weight on the back will reduce your tongue weight to get you down under 600#.
The caveat is you can't have the total trailer go over 6,000# and you want the tongue to be right at 600# so you have at least 10% or better to avoid sway (As before, the Anderson WDH is light and it's anti-sway is perfect for your car).
Thank-you for this recommendation. This is something that I am really considering.
