Is my Ford Escape worthless for fullfilling my dream? :-(

Hi Gaia,

GaiaGoddess wrote:

So the only real way to tell what you are carrying and/or towing is to drive to one of those weigh stations you see along interstates?

Well it's certainly the easiest and most accurate way: if you want to know how much something weighs, put it on a scale. But don't take it to a "weigh station" on the side of the freeway, take it to a CAT scale (CAT scale locator) or something similar

. Weigh the entire rig (be sure to put each axle on a different section of the scale), pull off the scale, unhitch, then weigh just the tow vehicle. You can then derive everything you need from the results.

GaiaGoddess wrote:

What if the nearest one is 2 or 3 hours from you, that can't be safe to just throw it all together and guess before you can even know for sure if it's safe!

And if it's not safe, it's too late because odds are you already own the trailer. That's why it's so important to understand how it all works so you can come up with some reasonable estimates ahead of time.

The tow vehicle itself is easy enough to weigh on its own. Throw your gear into the tow vehicle and head to a scale (recycling centers and scrap yards typically have scales, too).

For the trailer, I would estimate like this:

trailer GVW = trailer GVWR
tongue weight = 15% of trailer GVW

Add the tongue weight above plus another 100# for the hitch itself to the scale reading of the tow vehicle. If this total is under your tow vehicle's GVWR, you should be fine for carrying.

-- Rob