TSL
Well-Known Member
Hi all.
We have a popup / tent trailer we picked up last winter. Finally got it out for a short "maiden voyage" this past weekend to a local campground about an hour away.
My previous towing experience is with a small 8x5 utility trailer, so while this thing ( see picture attached ) is small compared to what many of you on here tow, it's by far the largest trailer I've towed.
Closed up it's 21 feet long and the loading sticker on it indicates 4400 lb GVWR and 1348 lbs cargo max.
There was a highway scale on the road so I stopped and weighed it. This was NOT a CAT scale, but an Oregon Dept of Transport maintained road side scale.
I weighed each of the three axles, then unhooked the trailer and weighed the truck again. Here's what I got :
With trailer : Front axle = 3450
Rear axle = 4350
Camper axle = 3200
Without Trailer : Front Axle = 3700
Rear Axle = 3500
If I'm doing the math right ( please correct me if I'm not ), my gross combined weight = 3450 + 4350 + 3200 = 11000
While my truck only weight = 3700 + 3500 = 7200
So my trailer weighed 11000 - 7200 = 3800 as loaded that day
Also, I think my tongue weight was Truck weight with camper ( 3450 + 4350 = 7800 ) - Truck weight without camper ( 3700 + 3500 = 7200 ) = 600
And 600 out of 3800 = 15.8%
Which I think is a little on the heavy side for tongue weight ?
You can see from the picture that the camper has a front deck so it's going to tend to be tongue-heavy I would think. We did not have a whole lot of stuff on the deck : 3 bicycles, a wheelbarrow of firewood and 4 camping chairs, and a few 12" lengths of 2x8's for leveling blocks ( which it turned out we didn't need, had a perfectly level site !) This camper does have a 35 gallon fresh water tank that sits forward of the axle. We did have it about half full on this trip. Didn't really need it, but partly wanted to test what it was like pulling it with water in the tank. The four of us in the family were in the truck while weighing and we had about a 3/4 tank of diesel.
Interested in any input on these numbers. I wonder should I be thinking about a weight distribution hitch ? Especially if I put much more stuff on that deck.
Also, that RSI SmartCap I have on the truck weighs around 200lbs, and I have a slide out kitchen drawer I built myself in the bed. I don't know what it weighs exactly, but I will say that it is not light !
I have ~ 1400lbs of payload on the truck per the tire and loading sticker. ( 1398 to be exact ). If I do in fact have 600lbs of tongue weight I'm pretty sure I do not have very much payload left ( if any ) when I add everything else up ( passengers, Smartcap, contents of the bed etc )
I found that the truck seemed to handle fine. It dropped to 6th gear on the hills, we climbed up from ~ 200feet to > 1000 feet elevation. My mpg dropped from ~ 24 typically for such a trip to just about 17mpg. (Reminder : I'm in the ecodiesel ! ) I kept the speed mostly in the 50 to 55mph range, occasionally up to 60.
We have a popup / tent trailer we picked up last winter. Finally got it out for a short "maiden voyage" this past weekend to a local campground about an hour away.
My previous towing experience is with a small 8x5 utility trailer, so while this thing ( see picture attached ) is small compared to what many of you on here tow, it's by far the largest trailer I've towed.
Closed up it's 21 feet long and the loading sticker on it indicates 4400 lb GVWR and 1348 lbs cargo max.
There was a highway scale on the road so I stopped and weighed it. This was NOT a CAT scale, but an Oregon Dept of Transport maintained road side scale.
I weighed each of the three axles, then unhooked the trailer and weighed the truck again. Here's what I got :
With trailer : Front axle = 3450
Rear axle = 4350
Camper axle = 3200
Without Trailer : Front Axle = 3700
Rear Axle = 3500
If I'm doing the math right ( please correct me if I'm not ), my gross combined weight = 3450 + 4350 + 3200 = 11000
While my truck only weight = 3700 + 3500 = 7200
So my trailer weighed 11000 - 7200 = 3800 as loaded that day
Also, I think my tongue weight was Truck weight with camper ( 3450 + 4350 = 7800 ) - Truck weight without camper ( 3700 + 3500 = 7200 ) = 600
And 600 out of 3800 = 15.8%
Which I think is a little on the heavy side for tongue weight ?
You can see from the picture that the camper has a front deck so it's going to tend to be tongue-heavy I would think. We did not have a whole lot of stuff on the deck : 3 bicycles, a wheelbarrow of firewood and 4 camping chairs, and a few 12" lengths of 2x8's for leveling blocks ( which it turned out we didn't need, had a perfectly level site !) This camper does have a 35 gallon fresh water tank that sits forward of the axle. We did have it about half full on this trip. Didn't really need it, but partly wanted to test what it was like pulling it with water in the tank. The four of us in the family were in the truck while weighing and we had about a 3/4 tank of diesel.
Interested in any input on these numbers. I wonder should I be thinking about a weight distribution hitch ? Especially if I put much more stuff on that deck.
Also, that RSI SmartCap I have on the truck weighs around 200lbs, and I have a slide out kitchen drawer I built myself in the bed. I don't know what it weighs exactly, but I will say that it is not light !
I have ~ 1400lbs of payload on the truck per the tire and loading sticker. ( 1398 to be exact ). If I do in fact have 600lbs of tongue weight I'm pretty sure I do not have very much payload left ( if any ) when I add everything else up ( passengers, Smartcap, contents of the bed etc )
I found that the truck seemed to handle fine. It dropped to 6th gear on the hills, we climbed up from ~ 200feet to > 1000 feet elevation. My mpg dropped from ~ 24 typically for such a trip to just about 17mpg. (Reminder : I'm in the ecodiesel ! ) I kept the speed mostly in the 50 to 55mph range, occasionally up to 60.
