Newbie Seeking Some Information

[billybronco]

I'm interested in purchasing a small travel trailer. I would like to know the best place to look for a (21'-23') small, lightest weight, dual axle. I know there are plenty of light weight single axle trailers but I don't feel comfortable pulling a single axle long distances, like across the country. Seems when they put the dual axle they load it up with stuff to make it a lot heavier. I have a Jeep GC Overland max tow capacity 6200 lbs. I would like to keep my GVWR at 5000 lbs or less. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Uncledave54]

billybronco wrote:
I'm interested in purchasing a small travel trailer. I would like to know the best place to look for a (21'-23') small, lightest weight, dual axle. I know there are plenty of light weight single axle trailers but I don't feel comfortable pulling a single axle long distances, like across the country. Seems when they put the dual axle they load it up with stuff to make it a lot heavier. I have a Jeep GC Overland max tow capacity 6200 lbs. I would like to keep my GVWR at 5000 lbs or less. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

I am pulling a Forest River Microlite 21 fbrs with a Jeep GC also.

Ya might want to check it out,

[billybronco]

Although small at only 19' the Winnebago Micro Mini 1706FB has some impressive numbers, at least what I'm looking for. I don't want something to live in, just to get out of the weather and sleep in. Planning on doing some events out west where its best to stay right on the grounds.

Dry Weight 2980
GVWR Weight 7000
Hitch weight 300

This is a dual axle trailer

If I'm careful how I load it up should be able to keep GVWR 5K or less

[azrving]

Its an age old rv mistake or problem of ending up needing a larger tow vehicle. Be very cautious or you may be very disappointed if you are not in a position to throw large sums of money out. Put a hitch on it and rent or borrow something to test pull and get a feel of what you intend to do. You may not duplicate the frontal area of an rv by pulling a tandem axle utility trailer but you will know what the weight feels like. It will be worse when you throw the frontal area in. If you do it and it seems ify then it will be a royal pita if you travel far. It will just about always end up weighing more than you expected. Believe me I did it and it costs a lot to make changes. Be very careful, especially if you have no room to change vehicles. Its one thing to tolerate pulling a pita set to a local or not to far away destination but if its sucks and you want to travel far you will be worn out and absolutely hate it

[campigloo]

My first one was a large popup. It pulled ok but it also yanked on the truck every time it hit even a small buckle in the road. Not only is it annoying but it’s bound to be hard on the tranny. More than that though is when you have a tandem axle you can have a blow out or flat tire and keep rolling until you find a safe place to pull over. Most of the reason to use a wdh is to not over stress your hitch and especially to return weight to the front wheels. This has a major impact on how the truck steers and how it BRAKES! Personally I’m not nearly as worried about how it pulls the trailer as I am about how it stops the trailer.
Happy travels!!!!!

[Hannibal]

kellem wrote:


What your missing is how misleading UVW is as it doesn't include Propane tanks, battery, any of the tanks contents, a mounted WDH and every item you stock into trailer.

What I've found on every trailer I've owned is the final weight will be much closer to GVWR and nowhere near the dry weight or UVW.

You got that right! Our advertised 710 lb TW turned into 1,071 lbs within the first couple of trips. It sure tows nice.

The first trailer that comes to mind with the OP’s query is the Winnebago Micro Mini 2106 FBS. Full size appliances and tandem axles in a smaller package.

[Boomerweps]

Single axle? Wolf Pups are mostly under 4000# GTWR with a single 3500#GAWR & the rest carried as tongue weight. So far, it travels well.
The second axle on a small trailer adds greatly to the TT CCC & GTWR but also adds about 500-700# to the dry weight.
My personal towing weight capacity goal is to preferably keep my tow at 2/3 or less the TV tow rating. That allows me the power to pull hills much easier and keeps the tongue weight down from robbing too much of the TV CCC. Note: goals are not always met 😉

[billybronco]

Exactly, seems most dual axle rigs (except the bed pop outs which I don't want) have a dry weight over 4K lbs. Once you load it up I'm sure its easy to exceed 5K lbs - water alone is about 275 lbs, holding tank?, 40 lb gas bottle or two, then all your stuff including food. Besides that what's in the tow vehicle? So I need to start out with a dry weight under 3K

[kellem]

SpeakEasy wrote:

billybronco wrote:
I don't think I'm going to find a dual axle under 5K GVWR,

Not sure why this is necessary. For analysis and illustration: my trailer has a UVW of 4337 and a CCC of 1527. So, if I'm understanding things correctly the GVWR would be 5864. Which I take to mean that if I loaded it to capacity I would be exceeding your 5000 lb desired max. However, I have discretion about how much to load it. If I load it with 663 lb I'll be at the 5000 lb, yourself-imposed max. Just because the trailer CAN carry more doesn't mean it has to.

What am I missing here?

-Speak

What your missing is how misleading UVW is as it doesn't include Propane tanks, battery, any of the tanks contents, a mounted WDH and every item you stock into trailer.

What I've found on every trailer I've owned is the final weight will be much closer to GVWR and nowhere near the dry weight or UVW.

[SpeakEasy]

billybronco wrote:
I don't think I'm going to find a dual axle under 5K GVWR,

Not sure why this is necessary. For analysis and illustration: my trailer has a UVW of 4337 and a CCC of 1527. So, if I'm understanding things correctly the GVWR would be 5864. Which I take to mean that if I loaded it to capacity I would be exceeding your 5000 lb desired max. However, I have discretion about how much to load it. If I load it with 663 lb I'll be at the 5000 lb, yourself-imposed max. Just because the trailer CAN carry more doesn't mean it has to.

What am I missing here?

-Speak

[billybronco]

I don't think I'm going to find a dual axle under 5K GVWR, so let's talk about this another way. To try and take my one axle fear away.
I would like to hear from folks who pull or use to pull long distances a single axle travel trailer 19-22 feet with a small suv or light truck? What was your experience, were you comfortable doing so, did you do mountains? Tell me about the pros and cons, thanks

[Jebby14]

kijiji, craigslist, facebook marketplace.

pay attention to payload it will be your limiting factor. my first setup was a v8 grand Cherokee pulling a 19 foot prowler. it was heavy for the jeep even though I had all the power in the world.

post your payload (off your door jam) and tell us how much weight will be in the vehicle (family/gear) and I'll run through your numbers with you.

[billybronco]

Thanks for the information, I will spend some time on RVTrader.com I'm definitely looking for used, I'm sure there are plenty to chose from. I want to start out small and cheap to see if this is something we really want to do. I'm hoping to use my current vehicle to tow with. I'm sure there are pro's and con's no matter what why one goes.

[BarneyS]

I would take a close look at the Venture travel trailer models in the length you are wanting. They have a lot of good features including a large shower in the rear bath and the use of the murphy bed up front which gives you the advantage of a full bed and the sofa at the front of the trailer. They also have a continuous one piece roof that runs from the bottom front to the bottom rear of the trailer. It should be less prone to leaking at the seams than normal TT roofs.
If I were in the market for a small TT, they would definitely be on my short list.
I also agree on the recommendation to use a WD hitch.
Barney

[SpeakEasy]

The best place to look? I'd say RVTrader.com. You can set filters to screen out trailers that don't meet your criteria. You haven't said whether you're looking for new or used. Most used units on the market are probably listed in RVTrader. Many new ones are as well. However, if you're looking for new, there are dealers that don't list there. You're on your own to find them in your area.

-Speak