SKBORDERS

I have a lot of experience towing, I operated a recovery vehicle in the Army, drove a wrecker, driven a Tractor-trailer a few times, pulled many cars on flat beds.
I have never owned a camping travel trailer. I have only ever used a Pop-up style unit a couple of time. My wife and I want to get a travel trailer and I was wondering what is a good estimation of the weight of the gear you haul in a camper for a couple and two or three grandkids? I am not talking about bicycles and toys, I am talking about cookware, plates, drinking glasses, blankets and other necessities. I am aware it can vary, especially cookware, like cast iron versus aluminum, but I would like something to get me started so I can properly choose the size/weight of a camping trailer.


By the way, I like the floor plan of the Startcraft Launch Ultralite 26BHS and it has a 520 tongue weight.

Trailbreak74

I'm relatively new to trailers as well, just got my first trailer a year ago. I was very worried about a lot of things, including this very same question.

For me and my wife, with "mostly" full tanks, My trailer is about 1000 lbs over the dry weight. It has a dry weight of 5000 odd pounds, and a GVWR of 7000 odd.

I'd say a "good guess" for most people is going to be about the same.

It does depend though, some people carry a lot of stuff with them.

SKBORDERS

I am going to try to not carry water unless I have to, and then just enough to get me there. I don't plan on camping without service, so I can get water when I get there.

Velosprout

My first camping trailer was a pop-up towed behind a first generation Hyundai Santa Fe, so I have always been volume and weight conscious. Now we have plenty of room and weight capacity in a Rockwood Roo 21SS, but I still have the lightweight habits. There aren't any set guidelines for weight needed; the choices are too personal.


For cookware, we use MSR Blacklite cookware. Kitchen accessories are all plastic and silicone. Dishware is currently melamine, but it was purchased before our camper had a microwave. I would now get Nordic Ware microwaveable lightweight/unbreakable plates and dishes. I do used real stainless flatware. For bedding, buy higher quality so it is comfortable (it is a vacation). A high quality sheet set, a microfiber fleece (Kohl's "The Big One"), and a down or down substitute machine washable comforter for each bed keeps weight down.


Food, especially canned food and canned beverages, weigh a lot. I travel with enough food and beverage for one or two days, and do our shopping at the destination. It's always great to find local produce and meats that we wouldn't have enjoyed if we had packed everything with us.


On longer trips, we pack for four days plus one good outfit for going out to plays, church, or a nice dinner. Then we plan on using a campground laundry facility or making a trip to a local Laundromat after 3-4 days. Taking some laundry detergent "pods" and dryer sheets take up a lot less room and weight than packing twice the clothes.


An essential automatic drip coffeemaker fits in a plastic tote (so it doesn't leak into the camper while travelling). These take up space, but not a lot of weight. We do cook and use our oven, so a dollar-store electric hand mixer, aluminum 15" pizza pan, sheet cake pan are kept in the camper, and I do now carry an electric toaster. In the pop-up camper, disposable aluminum cake pans/pizza pans, hand-whisk, and a stove-top folding toaster were used.


I do suggest the lightweight quick-drying bath towels available at Kohl's or other retailers. In addition to drying faster when hung up in the camper in inclement weather or draped over a clothesline or camp chair back in good weather, they take up less space (less plush), and cause you to spend less time waiting for them to dry at the Laundromat.


Shopping to outfit the camper is part of the fun, and you are never quite done; always replacing worn out supplies and looking for upgrades and modifying your storage areas.

SKBORDERS

Reading your list helps me to realize why people say the weight can creep up on you. you just don't think of all the things you use everyday that you would need going camping, how to pack/store it, keep it from getting broken, etc.

sunofabeach

my trailer has a dry weight of 6500lbs and a loaded and ready to camp weight of 7300lbs. this is for 2 adults and 2 kids and 4 and 5. that includes bikes, toys, food, clothing, etc. my tanks are always empty on the road. if anyone needs a bathroom break, my truck will need gas so we just use the gas station bathrooms.

SKBORDERS

So if I allow for 1000 lbs W/o water and another 4or 500lbs with I should be good.

smokeywren

You need to know the MAXIMUM your trailer might weigh on the road in the middle of a camping trip. Simplest answer is to use the GVWR of the trailer. If GVWR is not published, then use shipping weight plus cargo carrying capacity (CCC) as the max weight of the trailer. To estimate max hitch weight, use 15% of GVWR (or shipping weight plus CCC).


Note that tongue weight and gross trailer weight are used only to match trailer to tow vehicle, plus tongue weight is needed to determine if your WD hitch is properly set up and adjusted. But you don't know (and don't use) those weights on the road.


Dry hitch weight is 520, but nobody tows a dry trailer. Real-world hitch weight (tongue weight or TW) will be closer to 13% of the 6,250 GVWR, plus another 75 pounds or so for the weight of the WD hitch. So count on hitch weight of 813+75 = 888.


http://www.starcraftrv.com/light-wei...floorplan-main


As to guessing the weight of the future cargo you might load into the trailer; that's an exercise in futility. The 26bhs has CCC of 1430 pounds, and you probably won't use all of that, but a family of 4 can easily exceed 1,000 pounds. So what does it matter as long as you don't exceed the combined GAWR of the trailer axles?


When on the road during a camping trip, the CAT scale is not going to tell you the weight of your cargo, or your tongue weight, or the gross weight of your trailer. It's going to tell you:
1] the weight on the front axle of the tow vehicle
2] the weight on the rear axle of the tow vehicle
3] the weight on the trailer axles.
4] the combined weight on all the axles of the rig.


Compare the weight on the front axle to the fGAWR of the truck..


Compare the weight on the rear axle to the rGAWR of the truck.


Add the weight on the front and rear axles and compare to the GVWR of the truck.


Compare the weight on the trailer axles to the combined GAWR of those axles.


Compare the weight on all the axles of the rig to the GCWR of the tow vehicle.

If the CAT scale doesn't show that you exceed any of the weight ratings mentioned above, then you're good to go. Plus you'll know how nuch unused cargo capacity you have left in the trailer and the truck for latter additions.

Weigh your wet and loaded F-150 with you and everybody and everything in it that will be in it when towing, including he WD hitch. Drive to a truckstop that has a CAT scale and fill up with gas. Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded F-150 from the GVWR of the F-150. If the answer is at least 888 pounds, then that 26BHS will match up just fine your tow vehicle.

SKBORDERS

Thanks. That helps a lot.

STSCDave

Here is a locator to find the nearest scale. I used it when I was in the Navy to weigh the truck when we moved our self.
http://www.publicscaleslocator.com/