tongue weight?

[swj]

Does anyone have an actual tongue weight for a Surveyour 251RKS?
And is your tongue weight based on 2 full propane tanks, battery, and 1/2 full fresh water tanks? Thinking about upgrading my Fastway E2 1000/10,000 weight/sway hitch to a Equalizer 4 point sway 1400/14,000 hitch?

[FISHTAIL]

Originally Posted by swj

Does anyone have an actual tongue weight for a Surveyour 251RKS?
And is your tongue weight based on 2 full propane tanks, battery, and 1/2 full fresh water tanks? Thinking about upgrading my Fastway E2 1000/10,000 weight/sway hitch to a Equalizer 4 point sway 1400/14,000 hitch?

I went through this before placing my order for the 245BHS, and didn't really get many answers. I think the problem you'll find (or at least I did) is that depends so heavily on how you load your trailer.

Coming from an R-Pod, all of our camping gear (including kitchen stuff) fits in 4 bins. After 8 years we've never needed anything else, so my trailer likely won't ever weigh much more than the advertised "dry" weight (which does include LP btw), since the aside from maybe 150-200lbs of gear, we'll have groceries, and that's it.

That said, I would personally save your money. What's the GVWR on that trailer, about 7600 or so? Assuming your traveling loaded (and if your CCC is like the 245, that's 2400lbs of cargo...which is A LOT), 10% of that GVWR is 760lbs, and 12% is only 960. Both are within range of your current hitch, and that's IF you are rolling with ~2400lbs of crap in your camper.

[clarkbre]

Factor in a little over 200 pounds more for the tongue weight. Likely 200-300 if you have the tanks full.

For what it's worth, the listed tongue weight on my 247BHDS was 581 and it came out at 800. That included 5 gallons of fresh water @ 40lbs, (2) 6v batteries @ 124lbs, (2) 20 lbs propane tanks @ 74lbs and the pass through storage with tools, chairs, etc.

My point is that the listed tongue weight is about 3/4 what the actual tongue weight will be.

[rockfordroo]

You will never really know until you load it for camping and go weigh it.

Per the FR website, your TT's GVWR is 7768 lbs. So max tongue weight would be about 15% or 1165 lbs. More realistic is probably 13% or 1009 lbs. If you don't load it up to the GVWR, it's probably just under 1000 lbs.

So your current 1000/10,000 is probably OK, but an E4 is better than an E2 for sway control. You could split the difference and go with a 1200/12,000 Equal-i-zer, but it's only about a $15 cheaper than a 1400/14,000 in price.

https://www.etrailer.com/s.aspx?qry=Equalizer+Hitch

[FISHTAIL]

Sadly, it's even more lame than that. For Forrest River anyway, the listed tongue weight is just the GVWR minus whatever the max load of the axles is. So if your trailer GVWR is 7600lbs, and you have two 3500lb axles, the trailer will have a listed tongue weight of 600lbs.



Took me a while (too long really) to notice that's what they were doing. The safer strategy is to figure on ~12% of your loaded trailer weight on the tongue. Target is 10-15% from everything I've read, but 12% seems to be a happy medium. You will likely need to adjust how you load your trailer to get this number. I had hoped they would have put the fresh water tank behind the axles so you could use it as ballast to hit target weights, but that's just not the case typically.


clarkbre's information is what caused me to go back and question the advertised tongue weights in the first place, a fact for which I am grateful.

I still go back to my original statement though, your current hitch will probably be ok if your able to load your trailer well. You can always check it, and then upgrade if needed, but I wouldn't just spend the money up front unless you have it to spare and are concerned about it. Peace of mind is important...so if buying the extra capacity up front helps you relax, then it's probably worth the expense.

[swj]

I currently have the Fastway E2 1000/10000 and get alot of sway when the wind blows. Going to the 1200/12000 Equalizer 4 point should help with sway control. And, my truck is rated to tow 12,000 lbs so the numbers seem to line up better.

[clarkbre]

Originally Posted by swj

I currently have the Fastway E2 1000/10000 and get alot of sway when the wind blows. Going to the 1200/12000 Equalizer 4 point should help with sway control. And, my truck is rated to tow 12,000 lbs so the numbers seem to line up better.

Honestly, if you don't know your weights a new hitch isn't going to help. Read up on weighing 3 times with a scale then adjust your current hitch accordingly. Then, make minor adjustments as needed.

Questions to answer:
1. What's the stock height of your front fenders on you truck without the trailer?
2. How much does the front fender height raise on your truck when you put the trailer on without the WD bars engaged?
3. How much does the fender height go down when you apply the WD bars?

If the following 3 questions can't be answered, don't waste money on a new hitch....invest time and effort into adjusting what's already there. Chances are good it's doing either very little or way too much and allowing the trailer to sway.

Also, what is your tow vehicle?
Based on your other posts a newer F150?
No matter what hitch you have, you may always get a little sway with wind based on the fact that the trailer is relatively big compared to the tow vehicle. It may actually help to have some weight in the bed acting as ballast.

[FISHTAIL]

*forest river. Derp. I didn't see an edit button?

[Mr. Dan]

Originally Posted by FISHTAIL

*forest river. Derp. I didn't see an edit button?

You get 120 minutes to edit a new post. After that, the edit button goes away. You can send a PM to a site team member and ask him/her to turn ON edit for a period or to do the edit for you.

[FISHTAIL]

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

You get 120 minutes to edit a new post. After that, the edit button goes away. You can send a PM to a site team member and ask him/her to turn ON edit for a period or to do the edit for you.

Makes sense, but it doesn't help when I notice I've made a hilariously bad typo.