Check my math/sanity

I've got a 2014 dbl cab 2wd Limited. I want a travel trailer. I've never towed anything with any vehicle ever so I'm nervous. I have driven and used a 24ft motorhome so I have a pretty good idea of what RVing is like and what I want in an RV. I'm gravitating toward a Grand Design Transcend 200MK which is 25' long and with a supposed dry weight of about 5000lbs and GVWR of 7000.

I've put my truck with me and a full tank of gas on a CAT scale and its weight is 5540lb and my GVWR is 6900 so I have 1360lbs to play with. I figure worst case numbers are:
fully loaded trailer - 7000lbs transfers 15% to the hitch so 1050lbs leaving 310lbs
dog - 100lbs leaving 210lbs
Anderson Weight Distribution hitch - 60lbs leaving 150lbs

That's enough left over for a bed cover and generator, or a girlfriend. (Between the two, I'd lean toward the generator.)

That's definitely pushing it, but that's also making some very pessimistic and not terribly realistic assumptions about my loading. Based on what a lot of people on here seem to be getting away with maybe I shouldn't worry so much.

I figure more realistic assumptions are probably along the lines of:
Everything I can think of to bring with me weighs in at maybe 800lbs, add 200lbs for stuff I forgot and 550lbs of water in the tanks and you get 6550lbs anecdotealy, I'm seeing more like 12-13% getting transferred so that's about 200lbs more payload to play with. That's without even getting into the weight that the hitch transfers off my truck onto the trailer axles so maybe another 100-150lbs there.

Which means that I'm definitely okay and should never have to start a sentence with "I'm over on the numbers but I figure I'm fine because..." Right?

I've done a lot of research and that all seems correct but I'm keenly aware of how little experience I have and that there's a big difference between reading about something on the internet and actually doing it in the real world.

My intentions are to take longish trips with some parks and some boondocking. I love mountains so being able to go over the rockies is definitely on the agenda. Based on my experience with the motorhome I feel no desire whatsoever to drive anything this big any faster than 60-65mph.

You people here know way more than me so what do y'all think of all that?

 

I think you're in the right ballpark with that length/weight of trailer. If you can travel without water and fill your tank at or close to your destination, that will help too.

 

I would tend to agree, and kudos to you for doing your due diligence BEFORE getting the trailer.

Look for a Grand Design owners forum (I'd be willing to bet one exists) and post a thread asking owners of that particular model what their real world tongue weights are, what they tow it with, whatever else you want to know.

I'm on a Lance owners forum, and it's an invaluable resource. At least on the Lance forum, people are super welcoming and love to talk about their trailers!

 

Boom!

https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/index.php

https://gdrvowners.com/

https://rvforums.com/forums/grand-design/

 

Thanks for the reassurance. Definitely going to cross post this question on the GD forum. Hoping to get input from Tundra people here and GD people over there. I'd really love to hear somebody say, "yeah, I do exactly that all the time, no problems."

 

Looks like you have made some conservative estimates and kudos for starting with the actual weight of your truck. I would have no issues in pulling that trailer with a Tundra.

I belong to the Forest River forums for detailed discussions about my trailer. They are super, super helpful but I never mention that I'm pulling it with a Tundra. With 100% certainty I can tell you that someone will post "you're over your payload!" even though I'm not (I do have to be careful though, and have none to spare). On there, the Tundra is often referred to as "more engine than truck."

Not sure if others have had the same experiences on RV forums, but that's mine.

 

2,000# between net and gross. Must be nice. Yeah, watch where you place everything and try to keep the girlfriend from packing 6 months of canned goods for a one week trip.

Thank you for wanting to do it the correct and safe way.

 

My Lance is one of the smaller offerings @ 5,500 lbs. GVRW (and I'm pretty close to that on most trips) but there are plenty of others on the Lance forum towing rigs larger than mine with Tundras.
There are some "Payload Police" on there, but there's also a general consensus by many that the Tundra's are a bit over built in terms of axles, brakes, cooling system, robust trans, etc.
Some people half jokingly refer to Tundras as a 5/8 Ton truck.

While I do keep my payload capacity in mind, I'd be a big fat liar if I said that I may not have gone a few lbs. over on occasion (Especially before I switched to the propane firepit).
I'm much more concerned about not exceeding axle weight ratings than occasionally bumping up against the (likely conservative) payload #'s.

 

I'm on a couple RV forums and you get quite a few posts about "what's the most reliable truck?" Since they never mention any other requirements besides reliability, you guys can guess my response. Hoo boy, do I get flamed hard for that.

"Not enough payload" - it's the same as or better than Ford and GM before 2014 and Dodge before 2019
"Horrendous fuel economy" - it's the same as every other gas engined truck out there when towing, if not better.
"Not enough features" - OP didn't mention any features he wanted or needed, just reliability.

 

The towing/hauling forum here on tundras.com is my safe space. I don't have to hide (my Tundra)!

 

Try towing with a Ridgeline! It is on the "Not a real truck" listing!

Lot's of the Airstream old timers say 1 Ton or nothing! Anything lighter and everyone will die in a fiery crash! Tundra's are good for pulling little 16' Bambi's which are actually only 13'.

 

There's a couple of people on my Lance owners forum that used to tow with Ridglelines, and talk about what a great capable TV it was.

I say "used to" and "was" because interestingly enough, they replaced the Ridgelines with other trucks... I know one of them went to a 3/4T

 

We were surprised about how good it was towing the 22FB (ours was a 2019) and had a 1,500 lbs payload! A bit slower up hill but that is expected. I found the brakes less than inspiring but I was coming from a 6 piston Baer system in my previous towing setup and that thing could stop! We felt like we were at the limit of the Ridgeline.

The Tundra does a good job with the huge power increase over the Ridgeline. Our trailer is pretty light at about 4,200 wet.

 

Not comparable, but we had a NoBo 18.6 we towed with mine, 2020 Tundra 4wd. We had a little slide antisway bar (not a monster setup like larger trailers need) and it handled, towed, braked like nothing was even back there. Super capable!

 

I'm surprised it weighs that much. Does it say what the curb weight is on the sticker and is it way off?
I have a base model double cab 8' bed, 2wd and the sticker says curb wt is 5200.
I wonder if the limited trim adds up to a few hundred lbs in add-ons.
I also wonder if my curb wt on the sticker is way off. I need to get it to a scale.

 

The 5540 seems heavy because it includes 220lb of me sitting in the truck on the scale. Backing that out, my curb weight would be 5320 so a bit more than you. I have power adjust and heated seats. Thats the only thing that I can think of that weights significantly different from a base model. I don't think the leather is meaningfully heavier than the cloth and the powertrain and structure should all be the same.

Funny thing about the weights though. If you back out my weight and subtract from the GVWR 6900-5320 = 1580lbs.
The door sticker payload says 1490 with a 48lb reduction (probably for the spray in bed-liner).
My GVWR-actual weight is 138lbs more than the sticker says it should be. I got the truck used so maybe there was something installed at the factory that's been removed since or maybe Toyota skips weighing every truck and slaps a lowball number on the sticker to make sure to never overpromise and underdeliver. I did fill up my truck at the Loves right before weighing so fuel weight doesn't explain it.

In any case, the consensus of the strangers on the internet says that as long as you aren't over on GVWR you are fine so that's what I'm going with.

 

Curb weight accounts for full fuel, all fluids at the proper level, factory and port installed options, new tires, and owners portfolio. No dirt hiding in the frame, no beach sand in the carpets or anything you add. Note: The port installed options are subtracted on the yellow sticker.

 

A friend of mine bought a Hyundai Santa Cruz to tow a travel trailer with.

 

I wonder if there's a sq ft frontal area limitation like the Ranger. The Ranger max is 7,500 if the planets are aligned and you jump through the correct hoops in the correct order and only on the 5th Tuesday of the month.

 

Oh Dear God! How'd that go... or are you still waiting for him to return from that first trip?

I did a little Googling... Interesting that the 2.5L Turbo version comes with a 5,000 lb. tow rating.

Even more interesting that it doesn't come with a 7-pin connector.

 

Yeah, I think he added a brake controller himself and maybe a couple other mods too. They've done one or two trips so far and I haven't heard any complaints or plans to buy a bigger truck yet.

 

5000 lbs seems like the desired number to reach for Honda or Kia or Hyundai. With the Ridgeline, it came with a 7 pin plug and was prewired so I just needed to plug my brake controller into the harness. It came with the hitch as well so pretty easy to start towing.

We looked at a Taco with a higher capacity but it was too small inside. We had the Ridgeline for 3 years and traded it on the Tundra. We really wanted more truck to pull the trailer all over the continent.

When we saw that the TTV6 would give is similar mileage, we thought it made sense to pull the trigger.

My biggest concern now is the engine failure potential so I am trying to figure out how to mitigate that by watching the threads on the subject. I hope it turns out to be something easy to remedy.

Sorry to go off on a tangent!

 

That's wild! Do you know what kind of TT he's pulling?

 

He doesn't own a trailer, he's just renting them. I haven't seen what he's towed so far but he's aware of the 750 lb tongue weight limit.