Typical "gear weight"
Hi, I am thinking of buying a travel trailer this year. Looking for something short and fairly lightweight due to the limitations of my TV. 2014 Ram quad cab express. The major limitation is going ...
Forum Discussion
Cicch95 wrote:I weighed our TT the day we picked it up from the dealer, after mods were done and then after it was fully loaded. Our TT is 29' o/a, has a 6800 GVWR and there is just two of us.
I was wondering for those of you have ever actually weighed your gear.
TT is 190 lbs heavier than when it left the factory (going by the sticker inside which is supposed to be the actual weight as it leaves the factory). The weight of our battery & propane tanks was factored into this.
Weight of all mods is 119 lbs. This includes shock absorbers, Dexter EZ-Flex upgrade, 2nd TV, water filtration and some others. This weight also includes the WDH snap-up brackets and cam arms (for Reese dual cam hitch).
The weight of cargo we loaded into the trailer came to 555 lbs. This includes sewer stuff, X-chocks, hoses, BBQ, kitchen utensils & other stuff, food, clothes, linens/towels, bathroom stuff, DVDs & books, tools, etc., etc.
The total additional weight on top of the factory UVW figures came to 674 lbs. If you hear some throwing out numbers like 1500 lbs and higher as being typical cargo weights without having weighed their TTs after taking possession and after weighing mods I think they can be way off. Longer trailers, bigger families, bikes, a generator can of course increase the total added weight. One thing that can really throw things off is towing with one or more full holding tanks. One tank of say 32 gal. will weigh 266 lbs. In our case, towing with just one full tank would put us over our GVWR which is not good. I would not trust a factory CCC rating, esp. if down around 1500 lbs or so. I think weighing a new TT on the way home from a dealer is a good thing to do and also after you have all cargo loaded in. Some manufacturers install axles and tires rated right with no spare capacity compared to the GVWR and then, some TTs weigh more on one side too.
Factory dry weights are meaningless and always go up. Tongue weight based on factory numbers typically works out to 10 percent. Can make some TTs seem appealing and do-able to the uninformed and newbies. Our tongue weight went from 594 lbs to around 950 lbs and ended up at about 14.5 percent of GVW.
