Trying to find this floorplan

mrdorkdar, " Dry weight is only 3800. I was thinking with a propane tank and batteries maybe 4200? That’s not bad right"?



As people are saying, the dry weight is a really a meaningless number because there is no industry standard to where a manufacturer weighs an rv.

You need to look at the gross weight rating and that's the number where most people roll at.

Because its easy to over pack , the bottom line is have the TV control the TT not the other way around. You have to be extra careful using an suv.

My TT's advertised dry wt was 4200# with a TW of 525#.
When I bought it new I went to a scale without any personal gear. I sat on a scale at approx. 5500#, unknown TW at that time. I had 6 gals in the water heater and 5 gals in the water tank, plus twin 30# LP's and one grp 31 deep cycle on the tongue.
Once I loaded it for a trip I sat at 6500# with 850# of TW. My TW went up to 950# when I added a tongue mounted bike rack and 2 bikes . I towed with a 2016 1500 max tow GM pickup and I felt it was a good match for my TT.

I am new here, and not really a "weight police" member. However, our tow vehicle used to be a mid-size unibody SUV with a towing capacity of 5000 pounds. Similar to the Atlas. Our camper has a dry weight of about 3200 pounds and a GVWR of 4500 (Starcraft BH19.... a lot smaller than the trailer you are looking at). We never towed it with water and always packed very light, but it was still pretty darn close to that towing limit.

I would recommend not going over 2800 pounds or so and keep it to a 7' wide trailer with an egg design.....IF you are planning on keeping this car. The mid-size unibody SUV's are not meant to really tow, and do not underestimate the added drag that a hardside trailer. Our car really got pushed around and struggled horribly with inclines. We always stuck to camping within a few hours of home.

We did it, but went into the situation with our eyes wide open. We were willing to suffer with what we had because we had a distinct plan to live with it for a couple camping seasons and then trade our car in for something bigger.

Something like this would get you a bed and a couch; you'd just need to put the bed up and down each day if you planned to use the couch. Check out video of some of the Forest River murphy beds. I am not sure about this particular lines, but all the ones I've seen have a great non-folding system that is easy peasey. We are leaning towards a murphy for our new trailer and I've tried them out myself on the Rockwood Mini-Lites and they are a breeze.

https://forestriverinc.com/rvs/travel-trailers/flagstaff-e-pro/E19FD/3557

Something like this is probably pushing the weight, but with the eggshell design and a much smaller footprint you'd be in a better spot. The u-shaped dinettes are very roomy.

https://forestriverinc.com/rvs/travel-trailers/r-pod/RP-195/4588

This Jayco has the layout you like with the bed in the back, but just a standard booth dinette. 7' wide though and under 3000 lbs.

https://www.jayco.com/products/travel-trailers/2020-jay-flight-slx-7/195rb/

Also, think about what shortcuts in quality of materials are being made to get a trailer THAT big down to that weight considering almost every other 25' trailer with a slide you will find is going to be at least 1200 pounds heavier.

PAThwacker wrote:

mrdorkdar wrote:

PAThwacker wrote:
Most camping trailer I’d pull behind a unibody fake suv with zero off-road attributes is a 10 foot popup camper.

Somebody’s in a bad mood....

3 pages worth of people saying too much for your CUV.

People aren't saying this just to rain on your parade. You asked for advice, and experienced RVers are offering it. You seem fixated on the dry weight of the camper vs. your tow rating. The dry weight is a fiction, and as I mentioned above, while your Atlas would probably tow a 5000 lb boat OK, a TT is a much more challenging load.

mrdorkdar wrote:

PAThwacker wrote:
Most camping trailer I’d pull behind a unibody fake suv with zero off-road attributes is a 10 foot popup camper.

Somebody’s in a bad mood....

3 pages worth of people saying too much for your CUV.

richardcoxid wrote:
A friend of mine that has been in the RV repair business for over 30 years told me-

Now these are not hard and fast figures, there are to many variables (WB of tow vehicle, distance from tear axle of the TV to the hitch ball, distance from the TT hitch to the TT axles, location of the tanks etc) to use the rule of 1/3rds, say that you have a LOADED tongue weight of 900# when the WD hitch is adjusted it will transfer ABOUT 300# to the TV front axle, ABOUT 300# to the TV rear axle and ABOUT 300# to the TT axles.

Which just goes to show that just because someone can fix an RV doesn't mean they understand how a WD hitch works. The amount of weight transferred is a function of the spring bars. It has nothing to do with the actual tongue weight. Tongue weight could be zero, weight will still be transferred.

Huntindog wrote:

richardcoxid wrote:
A friend of mine that has been in the RV repair business for over 30 years told me-

Now these are not hard and fast figures, there are to many variables (WB of tow vehicle, distance from tear axle of the TV to the hitch ball, distance from the TT hitch to the TT axles, location of the tanks etc) to use the rule of 1/3rds, say that you have a LOADED tongue weight of 900# when the WD hitch is adjusted it will transfer ABOUT 300# to the TV front axle, ABOUT 300# to the TV rear axle and ABOUT 300# to the TT axles.

True,, but it all still counts as TW.
There is no free lunch

See the first post in this thread.

A friend of mine that has been in the RV repair business for over 30 years told me-

Now these are not hard and fast figures, there are to many variables (WB of tow vehicle, distance from tear axle of the TV to the hitch ball, distance from the TT hitch to the TT axles, location of the tanks etc) to use the rule of 1/3rds, say that you have a LOADED tongue weight of 900# when the WD hitch is adjusted it will transfer ABOUT 300# to the TV front axle, ABOUT 300# to the TV rear axle and ABOUT 300# to the TT axles.

mrdorkdar wrote:
So nobody knows of any other floorplan around this weight that has the dinette, couch, and separate bedroom?

There are but all are heavier and as previously stated the one you're looking at is too much for your vehicle. Your suv may have a 5k tow capacity but when not able to utilize a WDH it is not a 5k tow capacity for a travel trailer...it is 5k for like stated above maybe a boat or a utility trailer that is about it. I will def agree with the 10ft pop up statement as I wouldn't tow anything bigger with that SUV as you NEED a WDH to properly control the SUV and trailer that is 5k...without the WDH you will be in a world of hurt....sorry but it's the truth