Towing and payload with camper - 1000 mile trip

Just over a week ago we went from Michigan to Iowa and back with our camper, just over 1000 miles total. At one stop I went across a CAT scale to see what we weighed. Truck has GVWR of 7210, and according to the scale we were at 7080, 130lbs away from GVWR and rear axle was right at GAWR. My trailer sticker shows unloaded 4960 and GVWR of 6400. Never occurred to me when I bought the camper that I would be that close to 'overloaded'. We have very little in the bed of the truck, and just my wife and I and two small dogs in the cab. About 1/3 tank of fresh water onboard the trailer, maybe 15 gallons, and normal camping stuff in the pass thru - chairs, etc.

While towing, power is absolutely NO issue, truck pulls that camper like it's not there. But I didn't feel super comfortable on I94/I80 through the Gary IN, Chicago, Joliet area. Went max 65 mph the whole trip. Even with the anti-sway WDH it seemed to move more than I like when passing or being passed by transport trucks. Maybe a WDH adjustment will help to move more weight to the front wheels. Or maybe I should have bought an HD truck...

Anyone else have stories / comments on towing similar trailers / payloads?

 

Quite a bit of sag in the back. May need to dial that weight distribution hitch in better. Start on level ground, measure front hub to fender distance. Your trailer looks relatively level so I think your hitch height is close. Need to adjust the tension on your WDH. Not sure witch one you have, but it needs to be tightened up to transfer more weight to the front and back to the trailer.

 

Thanks. I agree - I think an adjustment would help, although I did measure front fender height before and after hook up and it stays essentially the same. Rear sags though, as you said and the picture shows. Not sure an adjustment will reduce overall weight on the truck though. Was going to try an adjustment this past weekend and go to the scales but I got lazy...maybe this weekend!

 

Thanks. Payload is 1391. I did do front fender measurements before / after load and it stays almost exactly the same. So I made the assumption the front was loaded OK. But I still think I will adjust to push more weight forward.

 

Mine is an SR5, no skid plates etc. Might be a bit lighter, but probably not 140lbs lighter - again points to the need for a WDH adjustment. Thank you for the feedback!!

 

I did the old 'bathroom scale with a lever' check on the tongue weight, near as I can figure its between 700-800 lbs. I read somewhere on the inter webs you can assume 13% of trailer GVWR, which in my case would be 832lbs, so my scale measure seems about right.

 

Some good tips stated here!

I would add that if you drop your fresh water make sure that the grey and black tanks are emptied as well.

You should also add about 5 extra PSI to your rear tires.

Do you know how the tongue weight compares with the trailer weight?

Perhaps some of the instability that you are feeling is too light on the tongue?

 

Thanks. Really appreciate the feedback. I'm going to at the very least make some adjustments to the WDH and visit the scales before I winterize the camper. Probably won't get another long trip in this year but the scales are 20 miles of freeway away, so maybe I'll feel the difference.

 

I bet the instability is too light on the front axle.

 

Thank you for the feedback!! In this case, the black and grey were empty, very rare we can't dump before travel since we don't boondock. I mentioned on another reply that hitch weight is somewhere between 700-800 lbs, which should be fine. GVWR on the camper is 6400, so I am over 10%. But I will try the additional 5psi in the rear tires!

 

I hope this is the root cause..because a WDH adjustment is a lot cheaper than an HD truck!!

 

I know it. I have received a pretty good trade quote against an F250SD, but I am trying to talk myself out of a trade. My wife and I use up about 350lbs (mostly me, she's a featherweight), dogs and crates another 60-70lbs, my tools and a small ladder, griddle, axe and a leaf blower, tonneau cover and a plywood slide out in the bed and we are maxed out.

Then I think about when I was young my Dad towed a very heavy hardtop pop up camper with a 2 door, 4 cylinder 1969 Volvo 142 - all the way from London Ontario to Prince Edward Island and back...and somehow we lived!!

 

Just for reference, I tow a trailer much heavier and longer than yours without issue. It’s not your truck, it’s your setup. Just keep working to dial it in.

 

Gonna agree with what everyone said on here already, especially about adjusting the weight distribution bars. I would recommend setting them so the steer axle weight is around 3500~3600 lbs. That’s about the weight on the front axle with people in the cab. I regularly tow with 800-900 lbs tongue weight and 14-15k combined weight so that’s not an issue.

 

I agree. Get that weight back on the front axle. As you transfer weight to the front axle, you also transfer some weight back to the trailer axles - both of which reduce the sag on the rear and contribute to stability (to a point, obviously, but that pint is usually 1/3 of the tongue weight which most people never reach).

As has also already been mentioned, airing up the tires even by just 5 psi can make a huge difference. If those are the stock P rated tires, they reach max load at 35 psi; however, they are rated for 42-51 psi depending on the manufacturer. The additional pressure is purely for ride tuning - including trailering stability. With stock tires, mine were always at 42 psi or higher for hauling and towing. It also helps combat sway.

 

I am experiencing the same with the sag. We just traded in and got a new trailer https://www.jayco.com/rvs/travel-trailers/2024-jay-flight/212qbw/. Nearly same length and just a few hundred pounds heavier than our old one. The RV dealership adjusted my WDH to the new trailer. They made it much worse. I won’t have an opportunity to adjust it until early November, but that is it.

I should have done it myself.

I am also considering some air bags but I don’t think it will be necessary .

 

I appreciate all the feedback. I feel better about the truck and once I’ve had the time to make some adjustments to the WDH and visit the scales I’ll come back to this thread and report out my success and/or failure!

 

I found the same thing towing my trailer when I first got the truck. Was expecting it to feel like my 2nd gen tundra but it squatted much more and felt less planted due to weight coming off the front wheels. Had to take an extra link up on the WDH to improve the ride. I am considering adding airbags as well, but for the amount I tow it, it is good enough for now.

 

I did a level in mine so I added 1.75" up front. Then the trailer made the sag more noticeable by 1.75"

I added a 1" spacer in the rear and that gives me a pretty level stance now with the trailer. I also ran 5 more psi in the rear tires and the ride was the best ever while towing on our last trip.

 

Yeah if you are at 3200 lbs steer axle weight with people in the truck, that seems pretty light. I bet 60-70% of your body weight should be on the front axle since you sit closer to it. I'd expect at least 3400 lbs on the front with people in the truck.

Also, 3820 lbs on the rear axle makes it seem like there is a lot of weight in the back. My F150 has a curb weight of 6160 lbs with nothing in it, probably 800-900 lbs heavier than your truck, and that had an empty rear axle weight of 2700 lbs. So you must have 1200+ lbs on that rear axle.

Where is the fresh water tank. On my trailer it is directly over the axles so it doesnt affect my tongue weight whether its full or not. Only the black and grey tanks would.

 

Tank is about midway between the hitch and the wheels. I only put about 10-15 gallons in, just for that emergency on the road toilet flush.. but I am sure water adds to the tongue weight. I’ll have to consider weighing the few items I carry in the truck, maybe more than I think.

 

That’s the best picture to really exaggerate the length for shock value. But yeah, it’s around 33ft. Total length.

From the front view

 

Yup - again, probably more than I think....it's not necessary either. I'll get it sorted out eventually!

 

I tow a 31' trailer around 7000# fully loaded without any issues. I did adjust the WDH and trailer ball height to keep both the front and back of the truck level. No sway. I have not run it across a scale but after reading this post, I want to find one just to know what I'm really weighing.

 

Looks pretty decent to the eyeball, so that’s a good start for sure. I need to scale mine as well. The tape measure says it’s good, but I’d love to know what the weights look like.

 

Sorry about that. We had some pretty ugly hail here a while back, fortunately the big tree under which I park the camper saved it. (someday I'll probably have a story about how a falling limb damaged my camper!!) My cargo trailer, on the other hand, the top looks like the surface of the moon now, and the vent cover looked like Swiss cheese!

 

Dail in you hitch and chains a little more take some more weight off drive tires.