RoyBell
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38' toy hauler suggestions
Debating trading my 320G in vs upgrading the axles for the capacity we need. In the meantime, can anyone suggest a possible toyhauler with the below requirements. 40' overall or less. dedicated garage 12'+ 8K lb axles Half bath in the back My first go-to would be the Momentum 351M. It's approximately 40' long (advertised as 38.5' though), but comes with 11' garage. That extra 12" makes a big difference on ATVs and SxS options/how to load. It's also pretty dang expensive. What other brands fit the above categories? I am limited to 40' or less due to my storage spot.2.8KViews0likes5CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
This was the result of rearranging weight around in the camper and removing approximately 100 lbs of stuff not needed, as well as 80 lbs of fuel from the fuel cell (10 gallons worth).Had the same 80 gallons of fresh and cycle as last time. Removed 320# off the trailer axles. Put roughly 300 lbs back on the pin. Putting 1500 lbs of water & cycle now only removes 10% of that weight, 150lbs, from the pin vs 500 previously. Steer axle went up since I weighed with the wife and dog this time. I would the results are positive and pretty much what I figured. The heaviest items- Spare tire, grill, fuel all removed from the very back of the trailer and put towards the front helped quite a bit. As well as some of the other items such as tools and a 40 lb wagon. With that being said, I am going to look into upgrading the axles and brakes over the winter to 8K lb just for the peace of mind.895Views0likes0CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
schlep1967 wrote: RoyBell wrote: schlep1967 wrote: If the manufacturer had put the front axle behind the back axle, you would not have this problem. This is most likely a classic example of the salesman telling the design guy what the customers are looking at. High published empty pin weight makes smaller truck owner move away from these trailers. So they design them to shift the weight back when empty. That works fine, unless you use the same frame on a toy hauler where you add 1,000 or more to the rear. And now you have the OP's problem. Looks like you would have to travel with no water or fuel until you get close to your destination. Or maybe empty water tanks and water jugs up front to help offset the weight of the SxS in the rear. It's only an 11' garage (10.5' usable) so you aren't putting a lot of vehicle in the garage anyways. I would also argue that a lot of this was my own doing with the options. I got the 3rd AC in back (100 lbs), the glass doors instead of pulldown screen (80-100lbs), power awning on the rear (80?) extra side awning (80?), slide toppers (minimal and not any behind the axle). So that's at least 350lbs of "stuff" I added to the rear of the camper which is obviously taking away some CCC in the garage. I don't need to travel with 75 gallons (or full 115gal) of water either. I just always filled my tank on the old camper so I do it out of habit. Also, I can re-arrange stuff as well. Right now I have light stuff like the camper chairs under the front bed, which is the most forward storage I have. I can put my spare tire up there, or both spares (I ordered an extra that stayed in the garage), my tools, spare parts, etc. that I seldom use are in the passthru storage which can be moved to the bunk storage. I have a table top on the rear hapijack that is for the garage, but we have not used it once. I can pull that out and save 25 lbs off the rear. The table for the sofa was too big the one time we used it, so I bought a little side table. Another 20lbs. Other stuff we don't need can come out of the camper. Extra pots/pans, cups, electric griddle, etc. All this little stuff will add up. If I can, I will get this all done in time for Friday. I will then re-weigh with the cycle to see how the weight moved around. The problem is if you remove any weight from in front of the axles your pin weight will just get lighter. Moving weight from back to front is what you need, and I see you doing that with some stuff. But if you move 300 lbs from back to front and then remove a different 300 lbs from the front, you are gaining very little in moving weight to the pin. I am removing weight over the axles (kitchen area) and distributing weight to the furthest forward storage. With that being said, I am looking into possibly upgrading the axles to 8K lb units. It does not appear as costly as I would had thought. Looks like possibly 3-4K to get them installed, which, to me, is pretty cheap insurance to make sure I am not overweight.897Views0likes0CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
lincster wrote: RoyBell wrote: lincster wrote: JIMNLIN wrote: Some old members may remember this but several years back we had a Rv.net member who I think had a tri axle TH ?? with the same problem. His rig was a handful with the garage loaded. He worked with his trailer mfg and the solution was for them to reposition the axles under the unit. I've had this done by a big rig trailer repair shop on a tri axle GN stock trailer. Another option is 8k axle upgrades if moving things around fails. IMO NHTSA screwed the pooch with their GVWR rules change in early '00s. They issued a NPRM for CFR 571 rules change regarding setting a rv trailers GVWR. Consumer groups were pushing rules changes to same as a commercial trailers/motor vehicles with the sum of the axle ratings as its GVWR. However they caved in to RVIA push to allow lower axle rating than the units GVWR. They saved a few bucks. All my commercial class trailers GVWR has always been the sum of its axle rating. This. I agree. OP, your toyhauler is of poor design in location of everything. Water tanks should always go above or slightly in front of the axles. This is more a limitation of trailer length and 2 axles vs 3. There are 2 black tanks, 1 gray tank, at least 1 water tank, 1 fuel tank. There's only so many places to put that stuff. I would argue it's a better design since it's easier to fill up water and fuel at a campground than it is to dump black and gray. Therefor you can carry heavier cargo since the waste tanks are in the front. Fill up water and fuel at a campground is what you base a "good design" on? Wow. I will again state what I did earlier, glad I have a triple axle trailer with a 1 ton dually. I don't worry about where I put stuff or what I haul. Full water, empty water, full fuel, empty fuel, it all tows the same for me. Good luck. That's fantastic that you have a 1 ton and triple axle mansion on wheels. I don't want a 45' trailer. Not sure why you keep coming in here and bragging about it?? I will state again, I had size limitations based on my preference of indoor storage at my office AND I did not want a 40'+ camper since you start to limit yourself on campgrounds and places you can fit. I got exactly what I wanted and I came for suggestions. Life is full of compromises. A 45' triple axle has plenty of drawbacks. Filling water and fuel at a campsite after unloading the toys is the least of my worries if I can't even get into the campsite since I have a trailer too long. My only issue here is the axle capacity. That's it. Quit making this out to be more than it is.896Views0likes0CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
schlep1967 wrote: If the manufacturer had put the front axle behind the back axle, you would not have this problem. This is most likely a classic example of the salesman telling the design guy what the customers are looking at. High published empty pin weight makes smaller truck owner move away from these trailers. So they design them to shift the weight back when empty. That works fine, unless you use the same frame on a toy hauler where you add 1,000 or more to the rear. And now you have the OP's problem. Looks like you would have to travel with no water or fuel until you get close to your destination. Or maybe empty water tanks and water jugs up front to help offset the weight of the SxS in the rear. It's only an 11' garage (10.5' usable) so you aren't putting a lot of vehicle in the garage anyways. I would also argue that a lot of this was my own doing with the options. I got the 3rd AC in back (100 lbs), the glass doors instead of pulldown screen (80-100lbs), power awning on the rear (80?) extra side awning (80?), slide toppers (minimal and not any behind the axle). So that's at least 350lbs of "stuff" I added to the rear of the camper which is obviously taking away some CCC in the garage. I don't need to travel with 75 gallons (or full 115gal) of water either. I just always filled my tank on the old camper so I do it out of habit. Also, I can re-arrange stuff as well. Right now I have light stuff like the camper chairs under the front bed, which is the most forward storage I have. I can put my spare tire up there, or both spares (I ordered an extra that stayed in the garage), my tools, spare parts, etc. that I seldom use are in the passthru storage which can be moved to the bunk storage. I have a table top on the rear hapijack that is for the garage, but we have not used it once. I can pull that out and save 25 lbs off the rear. The table for the sofa was too big the one time we used it, so I bought a little side table. Another 20lbs. Other stuff we don't need can come out of the camper. Extra pots/pans, cups, electric griddle, etc. All this little stuff will add up. If I can, I will get this all done in time for Friday. I will then re-weigh with the cycle to see how the weight moved around.895Views0likes0CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
lincster wrote: JIMNLIN wrote: Some old members may remember this but several years back we had a Rv.net member who I think had a tri axle TH ?? with the same problem. His rig was a handful with the garage loaded. He worked with his trailer mfg and the solution was for them to reposition the axles under the unit. I've had this done by a big rig trailer repair shop on a tri axle GN stock trailer. Another option is 8k axle upgrades if moving things around fails. IMO NHTSA screwed the pooch with their GVWR rules change in early '00s. They issued a NPRM for CFR 571 rules change regarding setting a rv trailers GVWR. Consumer groups were pushing rules changes to same as a commercial trailers/motor vehicles with the sum of the axle ratings as its GVWR. However they caved in to RVIA push to allow lower axle rating than the units GVWR. They saved a few bucks. All my commercial class trailers GVWR has always been the sum of its axle rating. This. I agree. OP, your toyhauler is of poor design in location of everything. Water tanks should always go above or slightly in front of the axles. This is more a limitation of trailer length and 2 axles vs 3. There are 2 black tanks, 1 gray tank, at least 1 water tank, 1 fuel tank. There's only so many places to put that stuff. I would argue it's a better design since it's easier to fill up water and fuel at a campground than it is to dump black and gray. Therefor you can carry heavier cargo since the waste tanks are in the front.895Views0likes0CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
schlep1967 wrote: dedmiston wrote: schlep1967 wrote: This is why most toy haulers are 3 axle. I dunno about that. No, not 36.5 footers. The longer/heavier rigs have triple axles (like mine). Okay how about most toy haulers with dedicated garages that don't require putting your toys in the living room? Mine has a dedicated 11' garage. As stated before, I don't think there are any sub 40' trailers ( I was limited to 37-38') that are triple axle with dedicated garage. With 11' garage you are limited to how big a rig you can bring along anyways. Some of these SxS are extremely heavy for their length. I am about to pull the trigger on a 50" SxS, but then I started looking at the larger ones. They are almost twice the weight though.461Views0likes0CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
valhalla360 wrote: RoyBell wrote: I appreciate everyone's responses so far. Putting ballast on the pin would not be my first choice, just wondering if it would work. As well as wondering how much I am putting on the axles being a little low in the back. My pin is really light. Pin garage empty: 2,620 lbs (17.75%) Pin Bike+water: 2,140 lbs (13.16%) With the bike and water it tows absolutely wonderful. Without the weight, it sways a lot. I was restricted by length due to my choice of camper storage. As a result, I chose a double axle trailer under 38'. I knew there would be limitations but this model seemed to have the best CCC of the ones I looked at. Once on the scales, obviously I am having some issues with distribution. It's fine for my cycle and smaller sxs, which is what I will have to stay focused on. I will play around a little more, run less fuel in the cell. Move some weight around the best I can, maybe see if lowering the pin will help any. The factory spare is just in front of the axles, maybe I can move that to the front storage as well. Upgrading the axles seems like the best option, but not necessary if I can figure out how to distribute the weight. I'll keep everyone updated. Balast on the pin would increase the Percentage pin weight but wouldn't do anything for the overweight axles. You are WAYYYY light at 13% with the bike in the back and adding another 1500lb would only make it worse. It would probably drag you below 10% and I would worry about handling. I believe you are running up against the technical vs practical limits for CCC. Even with your Bike, it's questionable at 13% pin weight. It's odd that adding weight to the back and reducing pin weight is making the ride worse. Typically they higher the pin weight the better the towing experience. It's possible the manufacturer just mucked up the design with no practical way to utilize the garage to it's full rating. 13% is light, but it tows straight as an arrow with the 1500lbs. I have 3K miles towing up and down mountains like that no problem. And I would not be adding an additional 1500 lbs. I cant tow the bike and a SxS at the same time. And there is no limit on the garage for any toy hauler. Just CCC which includes weight in the rest of the camper.464Views0likes0CommentsRe: How do I move weight forward?
I appreciate everyone's responses so far. Putting ballast on the pin would not be my first choice, just wondering if it would work. As well as wondering how much I am putting on the axles being a little low in the back. My pin is really light. Pin garage empty: 2,620 lbs (17.75%) Pin Bike+water: 2,140 lbs (13.16%) With the bike and water it tows absolutely wonderful. Without the weight, it sways a lot. I was restricted by length due to my choice of camper storage. As a result, I chose a double axle trailer under 38'. I knew there would be limitations but this model seemed to have the best CCC of the ones I looked at. Once on the scales, obviously I am having some issues with distribution. It's fine for my cycle and smaller sxs, which is what I will have to stay focused on. I will play around a little more, run less fuel in the cell. Move some weight around the best I can, maybe see if lowering the pin will help any. The factory spare is just in front of the axles, maybe I can move that to the front storage as well. Upgrading the axles seems like the best option, but not necessary if I can figure out how to distribute the weight. I'll keep everyone updated.461Views0likes0Comments
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