New to tt's help with weight....

no yes

Nope. Dry weight is a brochure number from the first trailer they designed. It is meaningless.
Your tongue weight is going to be about 12% of the trailers loaded ready to go weight. If you want to know if you can pull a trailer, take its GVWR and use that. Evenmif you never hit that number you will at least know the worst case.

Say you and I have identical TTs but you bring everything including the kitchen sink and all tanks full. Me, being a minimalist, take nothing but two sets of clean clothes, no food since I eat out and travel with no water. Our "complete" weights would then differ substantially. Correct? So adding the dry tongue weight to the dry TT weight would be useless. Weight your TT fully loaded on a scale for you, not me. I know my loaded wet weight...from a scale - more than 1,500 lbs under max. Then weight the trailer tongue. I like 13%. Others are different.

Thank you both

Dry weighs are what the trailer weighed as it left the factory. The hitch weight is part of the total trailer weight. It is measured separately because that part of the trailer weight is actually carried by the tow vehicle. It normally runs between 10 and 15 percent of the trailer weight. Average is about 12.5 percent. Below 10 percent, can cause handling problems.

Besides the towing capacity, you also need to be concerned with your tow vehicle's capacity to carry (payload). On your drivers door post (sometimes on door itself) there should be a sticker that shows tire and loading information. Look for a number for max occupant / cargo capacity (AKA payload). That number is the capacity you have for carrying aftermarket accessories, people, pets, cargo, weight distributing hitch (if needed), and trailer hitch weight.

The trailer will not stay at dry weight. It will gain weight with battery, dealer installed options, and propane, before it gets off the dealer lot. The average consumer will add 800 - 1000 lbs of dishes, pots and pand, camping gear, bedding, food, and water. Ten to fifteen percent of this weight, will also add to the hitch weight.

If you're looking at 5600 lbs dry weight, loaded for camping, you'll probably see 6600 lbs loaded weight, with about 825 lbs of hitch weight. With 100 lbs added for a weight distributing hitch, your tow vehicle would need enough payload to carry the weight of all the people, pets, cargo, aftermarket accessories, and 900 to 1000 lbs from the trailer.

The trailer mfg dry weight plus the mfg CCC (cargo carrying capacity) should be the trailer gross weight (gvwr).
Always use a trailers dry weight and GVWR to get you close to what the trailer may weigh when you load it.
Some trailers that size may have a 1200-1500 lb CCC and others that size may have a 2200-2500 CCC.


As one poster says a 5600 dry weight may be 6600-7000 lbs when loaded for a long stay.

Skysnav wrote:
I am completely new to travel trailers and I would love assistance understanding how to figure out the weight. If a trailer says dry weight is 5,600 and the dry hitch weight is 575, would I need to add the two together to get the complete weight before trying to pull it or is the hitch weight already added into the trailers weight? I would appreciate any advise on this.

The answer is YES, The tongue weight is part of the 5600lb. It is just that the tongue weight will be carried by the TV once you hookup.
Do remember. As mentioned. BOTH weights will rise as you load the TT. You will add any where from 500ls to 1500lbs+. Depending on how you camp or RV.

Some on this forum like me only add 5 or 600lb. On the other hand. some married Lucy, and carry everything they can stuff into the trailer, and add more than 1500lb. (Lucy collects rocks)

You want the UVW. Unloaded Vehicle Weight. Thats what the whole trailer weighs as it leaves the factory. Dry brochure weights are a good starting point, but not the actual leave the factory weight. Close enough for figuring purposes.
From the UVW you then subtract the tongue weight.
So if a trailer has a 5600 lb dry weight then you subtract the tongue weight from that. Say 575 lbs. So now the weight on the trailer axles in dry weight minus the tongue weight. 5025 lbs. So only 5025 lbs is sitting in the axles, while the 575 lb tongue weight is sitting in the tow vehicles hitch.

You're still towing the whole 5600 lbs though.