Expedition scale numbers

My suggestion would be to look at the first reply from last year from user popupcamping. Without having baseline figures ( truck by itself, and truck with trailer but no WD applied ) it's very hard to tell whether you are getting the optimum setup.

Three passes over the scales can be done in about thirty minutes total.

I probably moved about 60 lbs into the back of the truck and another 100 lbs to the front of the trailer. Roughly.

I also put on new tires (see my ramblings here) and the tall treads of the Revo2's may have been contributing a bit to the swaying feeling.

Be forewarned this is longish, I mostly am using this as a place to document my numbers and hopefully it helps someone!

Well I never managed to get to a scale and have the time to try out various hitch arrangements. So last trip out I tweaked the angle on the hitch and packed the trailer with a lot more to the rear. I also put nothing in the truck other than wife and 3 kids. Here are the new scale numbers (last year's numbers in brackets):

Front axle: 3102 lbs (2882)
Rear axle: 3762 lbs (4158)
Trailer: 5830 lbs (5302)

Truck Specs from door plate
FAWR: 3275
RAWR: 4128
GVWR: 7300
Max Payload: 1463
That makes the as delivered curb weight = 5837

Trailer dry weight = 4600 lbs

So with 6864 lbs on the truck that means we had 1027 lbs in the truck. I've calculated that I have 490 lbs of people and car seats, I estimate about 125 lbs of fuel at the time. That means the tongue weight was only 412 lbs.

The trailer was not handling near as well as before and was getting some sway which I am not used to as it never did that before. Clearly I had loaded too much to the rear of the trailer. So I moved some stuff around at the next stop and things settled down nicely. I would rather have done it right at the scale and got new numbers, but alas the kids were losing it by this point ;)

At least now I am transferring some weight to the front of the truck which I wasn't before. I still really need to get out to a scale and have the time to muck around without the kids.

Thanks you very much for all your responses!

After I posted this last night I did a bunch of reading in these threads:
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26303860.cfm
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/26391006.cfm

As you guys have said, I need some better numbers at the scale, and clearly I am overloading the rear too much (hence the squat). I checked the GAWR of the rear this morning and it's 4120lbs, so I am a bit over.

I'm going to head out to the scales hopefully this weekend and readjust the WDH and jack it up when I pry the bars up (as you guys describe)

Thanks again! Will report back soon.

- A

a-d-s wrote:


I am pretty happy with how it tows, my only issue is that the rear end sags a bit more than I would like. I've got 5 links on the bars and they take enough force to pull up that I don't think tilting the hitch further back would be a good idea.

Without the WD system being CORRECTLY adjusted it might as well be left off. Unless you have enough force that it REQUIRES you to raise the rear of the TV with the jack when latching up you are not putting much force on the spring bars. While I MIGHT be able to force the latches up without jacking up the rear, it would be a LOT more work than I'd care to do regularly. I raise the rear of my truck over a foot before latching up. Of course the slope of the drive way will depend on just how much is necessary. If you back down hill to a level trailer you probably will need to increase the amount you raise the rear but if you back up hill to a level trailer, probably won't need to raise it as much.

Imagine LIFTING the amount of weight your spring bars are rated for using the short lever (the latch up bar). Not likely you would have any success doing so with a pry bar only a foot or so long.

Agree with popupcamping. Need some more numbers. As far as the Expy, I have an 06 with tow package and here are the ratings:

Front Gross Axle Weight Rating: 3275 lbs. FGAWR
Gross Vehicle Weigth Ratiing: 7300 lbs. GVWR
Rear Gross Axle Weight Rating: 4328 lbs. RGAWR
Wheel Base: 119"
Tow Rating: 8600 lbs.
GCWR: 15000 lbs.

HItch Rating:

Weight Carrying: 6,000# Trailer Wt. 600# Tongue Wt
Weight Distibuting: 8950# Trailer Wt. 895# Tongue Wt.

I don't know about the dual cam but it looks like you could stand to put a little more weight on the front axle of the truck which would raise the rear end of it.

a-d-s wrote:
I am pretty confident that I am well within all the capacities.

I am not. What are the axle ratings and GVWR of the Expy?

they take enough force to pull up that I don't think tilting the hitch further back would be a good idea.

Not a valid reason. Without knowing the above, or the weights of the truck alone and truck/TT without WD applied, It appears as though you are not distributing enough weight to the front axle. The rear axle weight looks high, probably over the rating, and the sagging problem.

Drop the tongue on the ball, latch, then raise the tongue up with the jack to help snap up the WD bars, with or without the cheater bar/pipe.

you should have all the weights

truck alone
truck and trailer with WDH
truck and trailer without WDH