[dparenza2]

Hey folks.
I own the Canyon AT4 Long Box Diesel.
My wife and I are looking at Travel Trailers. I have an eye on the Sportsmen SE 260 BHSE. 4,780lbs.
I figure with the wife, dog, kid, gear, and a buddy additional 1,200 lbs. This puts me at 5,980lbs = 77.% to capacity which is 7,700lbs.
I keep reading 80% rule, and do not max your rig out, if this is accurate, I would think this would be the sweet spot for my rig.

If go with a nice weight distribution hitch, do you all think I am good with my truck?
I have a buddy that says I am being to conservative, but I am not into white knuckling going somewhere.
We live in Iowa, so not a lot of major hills, but a few.
Also is it good to keep around 65 miler per hour if Interstate is 70 miles per hour?

Thanks and hopefully I generate a good conversation here as I am about 12-months out on making a decision.

 

[SFLTruck]

Hey folks.
I own the Canyon AT4 Long Box Diesel.
My wife and I are looking at Travel Trailers. I have an eye on the Sportsmen SE 260 BHSE. 4,780lbs.
I figure with the wife, dog, kid, gear, and a buddy additional 1,200 lbs. This puts me at 5,980lbs = 77.% to capacity which is 7,700lbs.
I keep reading 80% rule, and do not max your rig out, if this is accurate, I would think this would be the sweet spot for my rig.

If go with a nice weight distribution hitch, do you all think I am good with my truck?
I have a buddy that says I am being to conservative, but I am not into white knuckling going somewhere.
We live in Iowa, so not a lot of major hills, but a few.
Also is it good to keep around 65 miler per hour if Interstate is 70 miles per hour?

Thanks and hopefully I generate a good conversation here as I am about 12-months out on making a decision.

Well there's a few things to keep in mind. First is the plain old towing capacity, look at the last page of the attached pdf for details. Let's roughly say all models are in the 1500 lb range of payload capacity. Typically the weight of the trailer (towing capacity) is not the problem for most, it's the payload (payload capacity) that presents the biggest challenge.

If your trailer weighs in at 5000K lbs typical proper tongue weight is between 10 and 15% of the trailer weight. That would put you in the 500 to 750lbs area. This weight needs to be subtracted from your total payload capacity. WDH's weigh in at 80 to 100 lbs. If we took the middle of the tongue weight range (625 lbs) add the 100lbs for the WDH your at 725 lbs. Now, you need to subtract this from your total payload capacity and that only leaves you with 775 lbs of payload capacity (aka cargo and passengers).

This means you and all your passengers and any cargo in the cab or in the bed of the truck needs to be under 775 lbs, otherwise you will exceed the payload capacity maximum. You can see how quickly you can overload the payload capacity. Even a full size truck has the same problem. Sure they can tow more but the owner still has to mindful of the capacity because they're roughly in the same payload capacity range, this is why you see 2500/3500 trucks towing. This way they have more flexibility on weight of cargo they can carry, but those size vehicles present their own challenges.

The object is to carry more of your cargo in the trailer (obviously not exceeding it's max payload capacity) as opposed to carrying it in the truck itself. The biggest challenge to payload weight is the passengers that can't be offset to the trailer.

Hope this helps....

 

[dparenza2]

Really appreciate the feedback SFL Truck as I have been focusing all along on just the weight of people, cargo, and dogs. Forgot about the tongue weight, and the hitch. I think I would be ok, but will study the specs on the trailer.

 

[dparenza2]

SFL Truck guy, thought I would attach the specs. If you don't mind let me know your thoughts.

 

[SFLTruck]

SFL Truck guy, thought I would attach the specs. If you don't mind let me know your thoughts.

That looks like a good fit. Just keep in mind your onboard water amounts. Water adds up really fast at 8lbs per gallon.

If you're going to a camp ground with hook-ups then just keep a small amount of water in you black tank and fresh tank to use the head if needed while on the road. I put about 5 in the fresh and 2 or 3 in the black tank. You don't want the black tank to be dry ever because TP and other elements (lol) will become cement if left in a dry environment....

 

[dparenza2]

I appreciate SFL Truck guy, I will check back occasionally with other rigs we may look at.