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I don't often get a chance to quote myself...

The recent post to this thread go my attention.

I never did dig out the numbers, but two numbers from the one time that I weighed it really stuck in my mind.

Be aware that I loaded the TM with everything I thought I might ever take in the future. I was trying to simulate a worst case scenario. Besides 46 gallons of water, and the obvious food and dishes, I also had on the TM floor:

6 camp chairs
2 lounge chairs
3 outdoor camping tables
1 free standing awning with sides. This thing must be 80 pounds
Honda 2000 generator
plus some other stuff that I can not longer recall. The floor was full.

The two interesting things I remember vividly were:

1. The TM axle weight was 3380. That is 120 below the factory limit.
2. The weight of the three axles, two on the truck and one on the TM were within 100 pounds of each other. Pretty close.

I did not weigh the tongue. Assuming that the tongue weight was in the 10 to 15 percent range, then my best guess is that the total TM weight was 4,100 pounds. If anyone has a TM 2720 that weighs more than that then they must have loaded their rock collection.

FWIW, on many occasions I have reported here that I had no need for a WDH, because my Chevy 1500HD was such a large tow vehicle it could handle it. Sag at the rear bumper of the truck was about 5/8 inch. Rise at the front bumper was 1/2 inch.

I finally managed to get the truck to sag more than I liked. Besides all the stuff I always carried, I added a motorcycle (280 pounds) 5 gallons of gas for the motorcycle, more tools, because of the motorcycle, way more cases of soda, beer and water, because it was a 3 day weekend and we had 4 additional adults joining us and I bought all the supplies.

Though a WD hitch would have solved the sag problem, I was unhappy that our new two person ATV (Polaris Sportsman 700 X2) was too long. 8 feet of ATV does not fit in a 6.5 foot truck bed. So we kept the Chevy and purchased a GMC 2500HD long bed. I can now carry the same load, but I am back to very little sag. How's that for a high cost solution to a low cost problem.

On that trip where I had more sag than I liked, we had a blow out with a Marathon. We were certainly running heavy, but I do not think I was over 3500 on the TM axle.

After an hour of driving we made a rest stop. I checked the TM tire temperature and bearing temperature with the back of my hand. It seemed fine. I inspected the TM tires as best as I could and saw nothing unusual.

One hour later we hit a pothole one the freeway. DW was driving. For some reason unknown to me, she was driving faster than I would have. I normally stay at 55-60. She was running 60-65. I had a bad leg and could not drive. I was not about to lecture the boss about her driving skills.

One hour later the curbs side tire blew. We heard the pop. I said "blow out, pull over to the side as quickly as is safe." DW did a fine job of that. Everything was stable. If the radio had been on we would not have heard the pop and would not have know about the failure until DW saw smoke in the mirrors, and since she does not watch the mirrors as often as I do, that might have been awhile.

Contributing factors:

Tires had been in use for 3 years
Tires were 4 years old
Driving a little fast
Towing right at the weight limit
July 4 2008 was HOT in the California Central Valley. Probably close to 100F.
Hitting the pothole and not thinking to stop for a tire inspection.

I no longer have Marathons. I now have Tow Masters. Taht was what I could get when I wanted them. So far, so good.

I think I posted weights of my truck axles in the past, but that would have been the fully loaded weight. I have never weighed the truck by itself, so I have no idea how much the weight changes by adding the TM. I'm too lazy to look up my own post, but if someone is curious I think I would have posted it in the summer of 2005, the first year we had the TM.