I know this question has been asked before, but I’ve been “doing the math” and I’m concerned about my situation.
In April through June of this year I’m going on a little 12,000 mile jaunt to celebrate my 50th birthday. My route, roughly, is Massachusetts to Arizona to Alaska and home again. I’ve got a Fleetwood pop-up trailer, but I’d like to get a TrailManor if I can safely tow it.
My tow vehicle is a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder LE. GVWR is 6000#. GCWR is 11133#. UVW is 4813#. The fuel tank is 21.1 gallons (126.6#). I’ll be carrying two adults and a dog (500#), the dog’s crate (50#), my hitch (25#), and I am very conservatively targeting 50# cargo. Adding these up bring my GVW to 5565#.
My maximim tongue weight (GVWR-GVW) is therefore 435#. A tongue weight percentage of 12% this gives me a max TGVW of 3628#, and at 15% it is 2903#.
A TrailManor 2720SD has a UVW of 2865#. To this I’ll add 350# for the battery(s), A/C, and an awning (is this enough?), 76# for two full 20 gallon tanks of propane, and 300# of cargo, an empty water tank, and I get a TGVW of 3591#. I can tow this at the 12% tongue weight, but not at 15%.
Also note that at 12% I get an actual tongue weight of 431#, which when added to the tow vehicle GVW gives me an actual GVW of 5996#, just 4# under the tow vehicle’s GVWR or 6000#!
1) Is my math accurate?
2) Is this safe?
3) 90 days with only 350# of cargo - am I nuts?
4) I understand that the TM wheel placement puts more weight on the tongue. But it appears from the above that cargo placement will be critical. Comments?
Thank you, Andy
PS: Thank you to whomever posted
http://www.rvtowingtips.com/what-can-i-tow.htm