Electric Wires for Break Question

Lwiddis wrote:
Family with ONLY 600 pounds of water, batteries and stuff? NOT likely, GDE.

I don't know where YOU are getting YOUR NUMBERS??

Trailer the OP linked is a 18 ft light weight hybrid trailer with a GVWR of only 3,500 lbs, advertised dry weight is 2,900 lbs. Giving them 600 lbs of cargo on the trailer.

Tanks are 28 gallon each, it isn't like they are EVER going to travel with ALL tanks completely full now are they? Would YOU? I wouldn't.

So, for grins lets say they filled their fresh water tank full, that is 246 lbs in fresh water.. Now while they are camping they DUMP both the black and grey BEFORE LEAVING THE CAMPGROUND.. PROBLEM SOLVED.

I NEVER leave a campground with grey and black tanks partially full or completely full, I DUMP THEM BEFORE LEAVING.

In reality IF they traveled with a full freshwater tank, they should have 354 lbs for food, clothing, pots, pans, silverware, dishes, bedding and perhaps a few electronics.. keeping in mind it IS a 18ft trailer and it folds in removing a lot of storage space that you would have with a full hard sided trailer, they WILL be hard pressed to put more than 354 lbs of stuff in that trailer.

And YES, folks CAN LEARN to travel light, it CAN be done.

Lliddis, I suspect that you are being rather silly, I suppose you feel they should be dragging this trailer with a 1 ton truck?

It is a 3,500 lb GVWR trailer, which at 15% TW the tongue would be 525 lbs, OPs vehicle has a towing rating of 5,000 lbs. Their vehicle door sticker gives them 1173 lbs of cargo capacity.

Now, to refresh YOUR math skills I will do this slowly..

1,173 (TV Cargo Cap from door sticker) - 525 lbs (15% TW of 3,500 lb trailer) = 648 lbs of leftover available cargo for the Tow Vehicle..

WELL within the capabilities of the Tow Vehicle manufacturers recommendations and in reality they could have 3 additional full sized 200 lb adults in the tow vehicle to boot!

IF they were looking at a trailer that had a GVWR of 5K or higher, I would not have considered that as a good idea.

Is it an "ideal" tow vehicle? I don't know, but in the end, the OPs trailer choice does happen to be well below the max specs of the vehicle.. I suspect the vehicle manufacturer knows a lot more about the vehicle they built and sold to the OP than you or I do.

And, yes, I am hypercritical when it comes to the ratings game, heck my F250 has 4,000 lbs of available cargo weight and I am only towing a 7,000 lb GVWR hard sided TT which is only 1/4 of the vehicles cargo rating at 15% tongue weight.. I suppose you think I have too light of a TV also?? :R

There are some on this forum that would not tow a small flat cargo lawnmower trailer with a semi-truck because it could be too dangerous. You are safe to go by the auto manufacturers recommendations, but it is a lot easier to tow that lawnmower trailer with a semi-truck if you are looking for the maximum amount of ease, as some on here are.

Maybe you can do the wiring yourself maybe you cannot. When I started I was asking the same questions, but did it all myself and it was easy, just you need to know what wires to tap into and where the "brake" wire is on your vehicle. It is usually a light blue and only a couple feet long originating from under the dash. It goes towards the back, but goes nowhere, so u have to find it then splice into it.

Controllers are $30 and up. If you will not tow much you can get by with a cheap "timed" one. If you will tow a lot and like nice things then get a $200 "sensor" type where the module senses the amount of braking you are doing and brakes the trailer accordingly. It is so much nicer. i have had both types and will never go back to a cheap one.

The other 2 of the 3 extra wires from the flat-4 to the 7-pin are reverse lights and a 12 volt charge to keep voltage on the trailer camper battery while you drive. You can get away without reverse or voltage, but legally you need to hook up the brakes, and especially the weights of TV and trailer you are stating... You will also need a working "breakaway" emergency brake control and to keep a charged 12 volt battery connected to it from the trailer.

time2roll wrote:
Double check the owners manual to see if there are any towing options required for the 5,000 rating. Otherwise with a 3500 GVWR trailer I call good to go. Get out and have some fun.

Don't push your vehicle too hard. If the transmission starts hunting for gears with frequent downshifting and upshifting it is best to lockout overdrive to run at higher engine rpm. OK to go a little slower climbing or descending hills.

X2!

Also, you WILL see a major drop in gas mileage.. Don't be too shocked when you get 8-10 MPG towing, pretty much the nature of the beast anytime you hook up any trailer to a vehicle. You will find yourself hunting for fuel stops more frequently.

Speed also factors into this, faster you drive towing, the worse the mileage will get, keeping your speed below 70 MPH will be helpful.

You will not be able to accelerate as fast off the line so you won't be winning any NASCAR races. It will take some time to find the sweet spot on starting from dead stop.. Hills will zap your speed and transmission most likely will be doing more downshifting so don't expect to keep 70 MPH on hills and mountains.

For descending hills or steep mountain roads, do not be afraid of downshifting your transmission manually to a lower gear and allowing the engine to control your speed. This will reduce the need to stand on the brakes as much.

Be very patient and pull into the right hand slow lane as much as possible and allow the "Roger Ram Jets" blow by. You will find a lot of folks in a hurry to get around what they perceive a slow poke, let them get around you.

Don't let knuckleheads behind you tailgating your trailer to push you going faster than you feel you are comfortable with.

Relax, don't push it and you will get to your destination without white knuckle syndrome.

Family with ONLY 600 pounds of water, batteries and stuff? NOT likely, GDE.

Double check the owners manual to see if there are any towing options required for the 5,000 rating. Otherwise with a 3500 GVWR trailer I call good to go. Get out and have some fun.

Don't push your vehicle too hard. If the transmission starts hunting for gears with frequent downshifting and upshifting it is best to lockout overdrive to run at higher engine rpm. OK to go a little slower climbing or descending hills.

MrDesjardins wrote:
I'm getting a mixed message :) One of you is saying it will be fine, the other is saying it is not :)

I can get to U-Hault and get the controlled brake with the 7 pins installed.

For those who think it is not safe, is that statement with the controlled brake?

Others did not look at the website you posted and are assuming you are looking at trailer with GVWR of 5,000 lbs.

The trailer you linked actually has GVWR of 3,500 lbs and as such will be considerably lighter tongue weight than say a 5,000 lb GVWR trailer.

And yes, if you are not comfortable DIYing the brake controller, UHaul should be able to do that for you.

Forgot to mention, have them connect the battery charging line also, your tow vehicle does not have that and it will be needed to help keep your battery on the trailer charged while towing.

Lwiddis wrote:
And your payload is 1173 pounds. Very low. Hitch weight and the hitch itself on 5000 pound loaded and wet trailer will be 700 pounds or so, leaving you with 473 pounds for people, stuff. Not safe.

OP is looking at a trailer that is 3,500 lbs GVWR, not 5,000 lbs GVWR.

Big difference between the two.

From the first post and I am hot linking the page that was in that first post..

https://www.rvusa.com/rv-guide/2013-jayco-jay-feather-ultra-lite-travel-trailer-floorplan-x17z-tr13211

For those that don't wish to look at the link, I am posting the specs below..

"Specs for 2013 Jayco - Jay Feather Ultra Lite
Floorplan: X17Z


Weight

Dry Weight

2,900 lbs.

Payload Capacity

600 lbs.

GVWR

3,500 lbs.

Hitch Weight

405 lbs."


If this IS the choice the OP is looking at, then there should be no issue with the available payload they have and is why I mentioned OP should be OK with it.

I commend the OP for looking at a lighter trailer than most folks would have, gives the OP some breathing room in capacity without the need to scale everything before putting it in the trailer.

wing_zealot wrote:

MrDesjardins wrote:
I'm getting a mixed message :) One of you is saying it will be fine, the other is saying it is not :)?

That's because they are all guessing at what your real numbers are. Best to read up about it yourself so you can run the numbers for yourself, without the guesswork. Clicky

Yep, best to read and understand all of this, do the math and decide yourself if this is a good combo...before doing any mods to the Kia.
Also check your manual to see if there are any restrictions for a weight distribution hitch.
Does the Kia have a transmission cooler? Heavy duty radiator?
May be hindsight, but you are much better off having a tow vehicle prepped from the factory for towing.

MrDesjardins wrote:
I'm getting a mixed message :) One of you is saying it will be fine, the other is saying it is not :)?

That's because they are all guessing at what your real numbers are. Best to read up about it yourself so you can run the numbers for yourself, without the guesswork. Clicky

I'm getting a mixed message :) One of you is saying it will be fine, the other is saying it is not :)

I can get to U-Hault and get the controlled brake with the 7 pins installed.

For those who think it is not safe, is that statement with the controlled brake?