Towing questions (please bring wisdom AND patience)

Thank you in advance for even taking a deep breath and opening this post.

I want to look at trailers to tow with my 2018 SR5 Offroad CrewMax. I have read a lot of threads, online articles, watched tons of YouTube, and still I have questions.

From what I have calculated, my combined gross vehicle weight max is 16000 pounds.

My GVWR is 7200 pounds. I weighed my truck with me sitting in it and the normal assortment of accessories, and I weigh 6400 pounds.

So, if my newbie math is correct, and can accept a 600# tongue weight, and pull about 9600 pounds MAX. I would cut this number by 15% for a safer maximum guideline when I shop.

Firstly- do I have these numbers accurately sorted?

Next, what if I pull stuff off the truck when towing? I have a Diamondback and a crossbin that probably weigh 120 pounds.

When I use the RVTC app, removing those 120 pounds increases my towing capacity by about 1500 pounds!

Is that correct?

I know these are probably pretty basic questions.

I know guys on here will comfortably tow 10000+ and all is well. I personally will not take that approach.

FYI, my Tundra would pull the trailer with me only. Passengers and luggage will ride in our Tahoe.

Yes I will purchase a WDH.

I appreciate your help!

 

7200 lbs is the max weight that your truck and everything in or on it can be. That includes all passengers (just you if everyone else will ride in another vehicle), everything in the cab, everything in the bed and the trailer hitch weight. Looks like you have about 800 lbs of room now so a 120 lb tonneau cover and a 600 lb trailer hitch weight will pretty much eat that right up.

Remember that the trailer hitch weights the manufacturers provide are dry so that's without battery, propane, LDH or anything in the trailer or its tanks.

 

To add to the above, removing weight from the truck and onto the trailer (or off the truck in general) will definitely help. Remember, anything on the trailer has the weight split between the hitch and the trailer axles. Taking stuff you'd have in the truck, and putting it in the trailer (and the trailer maintaining the tongue weight % it needs) will let you carry more. For instance if you have a 15% tongue weight, and you take a 100lb item from the truck and place it at the CG of the trailer, that's only an additional 15lbs on the tongue--so you just saved 85lbs of payload capacity. The most "efficient" configuration is the truck is totally empty, and everything is on the trailer, and then as long as the trailer has the correct tongue weight % and that tongue weight doesn't over load your payload then you're golden.

 

So by removing the bed cover and storage bin, it sounds like my weight limit will go up 120#, for a total new payload of 920#.

If that is true, then a 600# tongue weight will be possible and within safe limits.

Please correct me if I am wrong- thank you for the response!

 

Tongue weight, and tongue weight percentage, is another concept I am unfamiliar with. Is there a good resource I can learn from?

And when browsing trailers, where do I find the min/max TW%??

And thanks for your response!

 

I just think its funny that you asked for patience while your name is Panicman?!?

 

I know!

... and note my avatar signature, the irony abounds!

 

The min/max percentage is just an industry standard for towing safely. The min/max percentage is always 10%-15% of the loaded trailer weight.

When you look at the manufacturers spec sheet for a trailer, they will list the UVW, GVWR, and the hitch weight (or tongue weight). The listed hitch weight is usually 10% of the UVW (unloaded vehicle weight). However, who tows an unloaded trailer when going on a trip? You have to add in batters, propane tanks, propane, gear, food, etc. Generally, you don't run a trailer at it's maximum weight, but you could. So you should calculate the tongue weight based on the GVWR of the trailer.

So lets look at real numbers. Take this trailer for example:
17MKE | Grand Design (granddesignrv.com)

It's UVW is 4674 pounds and the listed hitch weight is 480 pounds. 480 pounds is just over 10% of the UVW. So, that is the minimum setup. The trailer has a GVWR of 6395 pounds which means that you could load 1721 pounds on the trailer (GVWR - UVW). To be safe, you should figure that your tongue weight should be at least 10% of the trailer's GVWR. In this case 639 pounds (6395 * .1). However, based on how you load it and how it handles when towing, the tongue weight could go up to 959 pounds (6395 * .15). So, the real world min/max tongue weight range of this trailer is 639-959 pounds.

You can load the trailer so that you increase or decrease the tongue weight (by putting your items in the front or in the rear of the trailer). However, there are handling consequences for putting too much weight in the rear of the trailer and, therefore, lowering the tongue weight below a safe level.

See this video for an example:
Towing a trailer can be dangerous with the wrong weight distribution - YouTube

BTW, kudos to you for learning about this now instead of getting into a trailer that is not safe to tow.

 

Again, my thanks.

is there a way to calculate or measure actual tongue weight?

How does the status of the tanks effect the hitch weight?

 

You can buy tongue weight scales. Should be some recommendations in other threads here.

Having water in the tanks is like any other weight on the trailer. About 10-15% of it ends up on the tongue.

 

There is some good info on the site below on how to weigh your truck and trailer so you can understand and be sure that you are in compliance with weight limitations and distributions. As far as the effect of tanks, that obviously depends on where the tanks are on your trailer.

https://campaddict.com/reviews/towing/weight-distribution-hitch/