Tow weight question - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Lyman · RV-Dreams Community Member

Tow weight question

VanMar · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lyman,

First of all, welcome to the forum. If you need info on RVing, this is the right place...as long as you get more opinions than just mine :)

I don't speak for everybody and I'm fairly new to this forum also. But I do know what the basic philosophy is concerning TV's. That is....it's better to have too much truck than not enough!

If the rig weighs 6742 dry(have you weighed it?), then your tv will most likely be overloaded by the time you put most anything in the trailer. Now, for my own personal experience. My half ton Chevy also has a 7000# tow capacity. We pulled a trailer with a 4800# dry weight in the SW Missouri Ozarks(lots of hills). The truck struggled up all but the slightest hills. I guess if you load it lightly and pull on flat ground, you will probably be ok. Does your trailer have good brakes? Mine did so I didn't have to worry about stopping.

Come back to the forum often. Keep us informed of your progress.

Vance

Lyman · RV-Dreams Community Member

It's the Everlite 30 kis I'm looking at. It would be several years before I could afford a new TV. That's why I'm thinking of this route. If I needed to tow it to the dealer it would be light. After I got the new TV then I would start putting things in it.

I would know the weight of the trailer because, now by law, the last thing done at the factory before it leaves is to weigh it and post the weight on the trailer.

The concern is getting it to the dealer if needed. Everything is flat, no hills to climb.

MandV · RV-Dreams Community Member

Our local CW puts the dry weight on a laminated 8.5 x 11 piece of paper and hangs them from the pin on fivers and the front of the hitch on TT's. Really nice big letters so you can walk by and see what they weigh without having to decipher the sticker on the front driver's side of the unit.

Edited to add on-topic: You should be fine. Give yourself some extra stopping room. Short trips on level ground shouldn't be a problem. My previous truck was a V-6 powered SUV with a 5000 lb. tow rating. We pulled my niece's car about 600 miles loaded on a U-Haul full car trailer. Combined weight between the two (trailer and car) was between 4500 and 5000 lb. Pulled it with no problems. Stopping took a bit longer but not bad. Even managed around 11.5 mpg (running without pulling, the vehicle would only ever get around 17 mpg highway).

-- Edited by MandV on Monday 20th of August 2012 10:50:42 PM

VanMar · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sounds like you would be ok.

I did not know the weight "out the door" was required by law to be on the trailer. Good idea, though. The kind of thing the industry should have come up with on their own. The DW and I dropped by Camping World down the road in Strafford on a Sunday to look around. Some of the new units, I think they were Cougars, had the weights posted by the door. No salesmen around, though...MO's Sunday blue law. They can't sell em so they don't show em!

Vance

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

You do fine with short trips. Like others have said be sure to leave room for stopping.

I towed a trailer for many years that was 3000 lbs over the rating for the truck. My biggest problem was in stopping. It would take some space to get it all stopped.