Thanks all for the input. The only reason I was "guessing" at the payload was that every time I remembered my husband had the car. But, I finally looked and it is 1543. I had previously calculated what our payload was -- as much gibberish as I typed into the first post I can't believe I left that out. But, with rounding up on everything (our weights, the bike weights,bag weights, etc.) we have about 700 lbs left over. I had already included the hitch setup in the weight.
Based on the minimum recommended range (10%) we could go up to 7000 loaded. If we went with the most conservative estimates (15%) we'd be stuck with the camper we have now as it comes to about 4600. Considering that, to date, we have NEVER towed with anything in our water tanks and really don't have plans to (other than maybe having some water to wash up at a day bike race, but those are always pretty close to home and we wouldn't be towing nearly as much stuff in the camper for a day trip) I am comfortable with being in the 10-12% range. Not that we are at all set on that; just trying to balance all the wants and needs.
Don't forget, we've been towing with a Pilot so we are quite cognizant of the stress put on cars with this particular hobby and are very weight-conscious. Even the biggest trailer we are considering is going to haul like a dream compared to what we have been dealing with!
