Considering GVWR of trailer with high carrying capacity

[josephc]

(Sorry if this ends up being a duplicate. I thought I posted it but when I checked back it wasn't posted, so I'm trying again.)

The condensed version of the question is: is it bad to have a trailer whose GVWR is higher than you can legally and/or safley tow, even if it has the same dry weight as other trailers with GVWRs you’re OK with (just due to having a much larger carrying capacity)? Details below.

My family is in the market for a new travel trailer, and one problem we're running into in deciding what we want is figuring out what we can safely and legally tow. Specifically, we're unsure if we need to consider a trailer's GVWR when deciding if it fits within our GCWR, or if we should consider what it actually weighs when we end up loading it up and taking it to the scales. A lot of advice seems to suggest we always consider the trailer's GVWR, but this has led to some confusion on our part.

The main cause for confusion is the fact that some trailers have carrying capacities in the low 1000s of lbs, while others have carrying capacities in the 3000lb range, and everything in between. We've looked at some trailers that have greater GVWR than heaver models, and it seems strange to disregard a lighter trailer simply because the maximum possible load is higher. If two trailers have identical dry weights, and we load them up identically, but one is rated to safely carry 2000lbs more than the other, if anything I'd think I'd feel MORE comfortable towing the one that has that extra capacity since the axles and frame would be well under their rated load instead of strained to the max.

Case in point: my current favorite trailer is the Forest River Salem Hyper-Lyte 29BHHL (link). Dry weight is 6273lbs, but with 3172lb carrying capacity the GVWR is ~9445lbs. That GVWR plus our tow vehicle’s curb weight alone almost maxes out our 16000lb GCWR, before even considering the weight of our family, pets, etc. in the tow vehicle. However, we’ve considered other trailers with a similar dry weight but which only have ~1500lb carrying capacity. If we consider that load, the weight would be at 7773, which is much more reasonable for our tow vehicle (Yukon XL 2500). That case leaves us with 1813lbs GCWR after considering the tow vehicle and loaded trailer, and assuming 12.5% tongue weight of ~970lbs that leaves us with ~1230lbs of payload, which is in the range we’re comfortable with. Safety-wise, I’d say this trailer is as good if not better than similar trailers with the same dry weight but lower GVWR. Legally, though, is there a problem with this situation?

[SoundGuy]

josephc wrote:
My family is in the market for a new travel trailer, and one problem we're running into in deciding what we want is figuring out what we can safely and legally tow. Specifically, we're unsure if we need to consider a trailer's GVWR when deciding if it fits within our GCWR, or if we should consider what it actually weighs when we end up loading it up and taking it to the scales. A lot of advice seems to suggest we always consider the trailer's GVWR, but this has led to some confusion on our part.

It's not a trailer's GVWR that matters but it's GVW - what it weighs fully loaded & ready to camp. Sometimes GVW ends up being close to GVWR, in which case one could simply use GVWR as a basis for calculations. However, in many other cases CCC is so great that one would have to carry a ridiculous amount of junk for GVW to come anywhere near GVWR so it would make no sense at all to use GVWR as a guide. The most common reason for is that axles, suspension components, tires, etc, aren't selected for just one model but rather a series of models in the same lineup - it's just more cost effective for the manufacturer to do it this way, buying a trainload of the same sizes that will be eventually be used on a variety of trailers they build. The result is that a trailer weighing say 3500 lbs dry could easily be wearing the same set of axles as another model weighing say 5000 lbs dry, or 6000 lbs, or whatever. Case in point is my own Coachmen - short 19' couple's model has the same axles, suspension components, tires, etc, as much larger, heavier models in the same lineup. It has well over a ton of CCC, far more than other models in the same lineup and far more than similar models from other manufacturers - for example the Starcraft Launch 21FBS which is the exact same layout, actually a foot longer, but has a CCC of only 1200 lbs. Reason - axles, suspension components, tires, etc, selected for use by that particular manufacturer, for whatever reasons. Regardless, you're always better off with as much CCC as you can get whether you're going to actually use it or not. In my case, even in the worse case scenario where I'm carrying content in the tanks, my trailer still weighs at least 1000 lbs less than it's GVWR - LOTS of buffer, which in turn means less stress on all those components. :B All that said, what you should be basing your calculations on what you can safely tow is by far what your tow vehicle's payload capacity is as you'll run out of that long before you'll get anywhere near it's GCWR.