We made our maiden voyage this year as many did over the long holiday weekend. We only towed the camper 100 miles and it did OK.
I installed a 2" bumper receiver from Camping World for our bike rack. I loaded two adult bikes and two childrens bikes on the rack before we left. I don't know the exact weight of the bikes, but the kids bikes are pretty small. We didn't have any issues until we were on I-71 south and I decided to pass a semi. At 65 MPH passing the truck I encountered some pretty serious sway. I ended up controlling the trailer by manually activating the trailer brakes. I quickly got back into the slow lane and stayed put for the rest of the trip. I originally towed the camper empty from Fla to Ohio didn't encounter sway over the entire 1300 miles. Therefore, my conclusion is the added weight of the bikes on the rear bumper eliminated some of the tongue weight. I was still somewhat surprised by the sway issue since I use a Reese WDH with sway control. On the way home I loaded the kids bikes inside the camper and did not encounter the sway problem. Anyone else have a similar experience?
The weekend went well. The TM kept us all nice and comfortable. The toilet capacity was not the issue I thought it would be. As others have mentioned grey water capacity was a bigger problem. After the first day we became a lot more conservative. Washing hands outside, collecting dish water in a plastic tub and dumping outside, etc.
It took us a little while to pack up to come home, but we feel we will get faster with practice. I double checked everything because I was afraid to forget something.
On the way home I had the TM3023 weighed on a CAT certified truck scale. I was surprised to get the weight receipt that said 3600#. We did not feel we had overly loaded the TM in any way. I think I recall reading that the 3023 should not weigh over 3500# with the TM hooked to the TV and only the TM wheels on the scale. I am concerned that we may be overloading the TM. Any recommendations or comments?
Sorry for the long winded account, but I have learned a lot from this board and appreciate everyone's valuable opinions.
Keith