Quote:
Originally Posted by brulaz
Yes, a lot of us have been surprised at how close or over the TV's GVWR we are. Trailmanor's tend to put a high % of the trailer weight on their tongue.
17% w/o WDH, 11% with WDH, in my case. This helps with the handling, but sure reduces what you can carry in the TV.
There's a huge difference between many TV's payload (~1100# in my case) and towing capacity (6500#). Of course the towing capacity depends on the trailer's axle and brakes functioning as they should!
Ok, I'm going off-topic here, but this really brings out the difference between trailers and campers. In our trip out west we saw a lot of over-weighted TV/camper combos. And those that looked reasonable were running on one ton trucks and still had a lot less living space than any Trailmanor.
When I was younger I had a half-ton pickup with a camper. Because the truck sagged so much, the dealer suggested an additional leaf in the rear springs. One trip across the continent and the rear bearings were shot.
To my mind a trailer makes a lot more sense if you want any space at all.
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Brulaz,
Back in the 60's I had an F100 P/U. I bought an overhead camper, and the trip home had the headlights pointing up at a 45 degree angle.
I put big overload springs on it. That levelled it up, with no swaying problem. However, on one trip a steel rear wheel split!! Only happened once.
Years later I bought a 96 F150. I put airbags on it for towing, then I spotted a used overhead camper at a super-bargain price. It was lighter than most, so I was right at GVWR with camper, contents, DW, and gas. I drove that thing back and forth accross the US and up into Canada. No problems at all. One thing I did was to always make sure that my tires had adequate capacity to handle the weight, and ran them at maximum pressure. I never had any problems at all.
I always give swaying truck campers a wide berth.
Tom