1200 lb hitch weight

[RollingDownTheHighway]

We looked at a camper yesterday that has a 8600lb GVWR, but a 1155 hitch weight. The camper is lighter then the current one I'm towing but that hitch weight is up there. What kind of mod would I have to do to my current reciever (if any) for that kind of hitch weight?

I have a '10 Silverado 1500 ext cab 4x, and I can tow 9600 lbs at ease, but my current camper has a hitch weight of 650lb.

[Dodge Guy]

Your final tongue weight should be 12-13% of the trailers loaded ready to travel weight. If you loaded the trailer to its full GVWR of 8600 lbs, then the tongue weight should be just over 1000 lbs.

[RollingDownTheHighway]

I got you so that hitch weight i'm seeing is when its fully loaded?

[bakken]

Usually hitch weights are based on an empty camper.
What make/model is it?

[RollingDownTheHighway]

Dutchman Aerolite 326BHSL and the 319BHSS, we want to trade in our shasta revere for one with slide outs and a little more room

[cyclepuck]

That weight is before it's loaded. My in laws have a 30ft rear kitchen with similar tongue weight. I think it has a heavy tongue because all the weight of pots, pans, dishes, water heater, fresh water and grey tank are behind axle so it will off set some.

[ependydad]

I agree with cyclepuck - that's the unloaded weight:
319BHSS and 326BHSL

Unfortunately, given this layout - the tongue weight of 1,155 is only going to go up.

Which, still leaves your original question stand. What type of hitch do you need for carrying that much weight?

[bakken]

Originally Posted by bagged123

Dutchman Aerolite 326BHSL and the 319BHSS, we want to trade in our shasta revere for one with slide outs and a little more room

The 326 has a dry hitch weight of 1155 lbs, and a GVWR of 9680 lbs.
The 319 is oddly enough almost identical.
These are long campers.
If the dry hitch weight is 1155 lbs, then your loaded hitch weight will definitely be more, as you have to add the battery, the propane tanks, and anything you might put in the front storage area. You could be looking at 1400 lbs easy.

[RollingDownTheHighway]

We've found other campers with similiar floor plans, with lower hitch weights, would it be better to look at those instead to be on the safe side? Ours is paid for, so if we keep it or trade it in, no biggie, I want a 5'er but I'm not upgrading my truck quite yet. but we've found some TT that will fit our needs when we go camping.

[cyclepuck]

Originally Posted by bakken

The 326 has a dry hitch weight of 1155 lbs, and a GVWR of 9680 lbs.
The 319 is oddly enough almost identical.
These are long campers.
If the dry hitch weight is 1155 lbs, then your loaded hitch weight will definitely be more, as you have to add the battery, the propane tanks, and anything you might put in the front storage area. You could be looking at 1400 lbs easy.

On a 1500 hitch max tongue is 1100 and cargo capacity on a 1500 is around 17-1800. Not much room. Look into a curt hd hitch

[Herk7769]

This brings up the issue of "floorplan" planning when trying to determine whether your tow vehicle is capable of towing a particular camper.

The dry tongue/dry weight ratio can give you an idea (loose estimate) of what you are going to look at loaded (use GVWR of the camper to get an estimate of worst case tongue weight).

DRY TONGUE/DRY WEIGHT = TONGUE AT GVWR/ GVWR

Solve for TONGUE AT GVWR = (GVWR * DRY TONGUE) / DRY WEIGHT

Plan your hitch to be able to handle that tongue load and you should be OK.
LOADING can only do so much to shift the weight of heavy installed items like slides and appliances.

[Dodge Guy]

The final tongue weight should be 12-13% of the trailers loaded ready to travel weight, period! regardless of floor plan. this is why you need to properly load a camper. Before I weighed my trailer it didn`t handle all that well, then I found out I had 1500lbs of tongue weight on a 9100lb trailer. I got rid of a few things, moved some stuff around and I`m now at 1200lbs and the whole setup handle so much better. so you can have to much tongue weight vs. trailer weight! load it properly and everything works out great!

[bakken]

Originally Posted by Dodge Guy

The final tongue weight should be 12-13% of the trailers loaded ready to travel weight, period! regardless of floor plan. this is why you need to properly load a camper.

Not always possible to get within such a narrow range.
Take a look at the floor plans the OP is talking about and explain how you would add weight to the rear.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by bakken

Not always possible to get within such a narrow range.
Take a look at the floor plans the OP is talking about and explain how you would add weight to the rear.

This is correct. The "range" for travel trailers is 9-15% of total camper weight.
The "optimum" is 12% for safe trailer handling (sway and end swap). The more tail heavy the trailer is the more unstable in braking and the more likely a jack knife in a stop. The heavier the nose, the more likely it will have severe sway issues.

Some floor plans are by their nature heavier in the front or back. If tongue weight is a limitation for your tow vehicle, you should avoid a floor plan that has a heavier than average dry tongue weight (and the majority of the storage in front).

[Davidceder]

Well all this is good and well but what is the spec for max tongue weight on your truck. You should know that even if you decide to exceed it. I would be very careful of liability these days. You overload, have an accident and those lawyers will be all over you. I doubt you could do much to the truck and get anyone to stand behind any spec other than the manufacturer of the vehicle. Air bags or springs might work but getting the spec changed is another thing. I passed on an F-150 because I was within 92% of max weight, dry....I went in a different direction.

Good luck

[Great Laker]

I moved up in trailer size and had some problems taming 450 more lbs of tongue weight. After the 100 mile trip home the 1st thing i did was lose the P rated factory Bridgestones and installed some LT tires. After a few hitch adjustments i am pretty comfortable towing.

[asquared]

you ask about increasing receiver capabilities but I would be concerned about payload capabilities. Have you weighed your truck loaded, ready to camp with all occupants and pets in it plus a full tank of fuel? if not then I suggest going to do so. then take the scaled weight and subtract it from your TV gcwr to get your adjusted towing capacity. The loaded weight of the TT must be less than this. Take the scaled weight and subtract it from your TV gvwr to get your available payload. The loaded tongue weight of the TT must be less than your available payload. The loaded tongue weight of a TT should be 13-15% of the loaded weight.

Do you know for certain how much weight you have added to your Shasta from its dry scaled weight (yellow weight sticker in door or cabinet of TT)? if not then with only approx 1700 lbs cargo capacity on the 319 TT I would calculate using the TT gvwr. The gvwr on the 319 is 9680 lbs. That means a tongue weight possibly as high as 1452 lbs.

the 326 has the same gvwr as the 39 but as a much larger capacity. you are not likely to load 2400 lbs of gear but it s possible. The average camper adds 1000-1500 lbs of gear, some more, some less. You could weigh all of your gear as you pull it out of the Shasta or weigh it loaded and unloaded to figure that weight addition out. If you know the amount of weight added, then you can add that weight to the stickered dry weight (this includes weight of options etc) to get an estimated loaded weight. or you could calculate using gvwr of TT. Looking at gvwr of 9680, you again look at 1452 lb worse case tongue weight. if you know an estimate then it could be less. ie if you knew the stickered weight to be 7600 lbs (random number) and you knew you were to add 1000 lbs of gear for a loaded weight of 8600 lbs, a 13% tongue weight would be 1118 lbs.

I also find it very hard to believe your current TT is heavier nd only has a 650 lb tongue weight. that would mean you were unsafely low on hitch weight. How did you get that weight? did you get it from a sherline scale, a calculation after hitting scales, a dry tongue weight from a catalog or a guess? Have you scaled your Shasta to get an accurate loaded TT weight? if you haven't already, go to CAT Scale and find a local scale. you can also try a feed store or landfill to find a scale. good luck and happy hunting

[asquared]

Originally Posted by herk7769

This is correct. The "range" for travel trailers is 9-15% of total camper weight.
The "optimum" is 12% for safe trailer handling (sway and end swap). The more tail heavy the trailer is the more unstable in braking and the more likely a jack knife in a stop. The heavier the nose, the more likely it will have severe sway issues.

Some floor plans are by their nature heavier in the front or back. If tongue weight is a limitation for your tow vehicle, you should avoid a floor plan that has a heavier than average dry tongue weight (and the majority of the storage in front).

herk I thought tail heavy, tongue light induced sway.