For many years I have pulled a 20 ft gooseneck stock trailer. Age and health have crept up on me and I have sold my gooseneck trailer, and bought a 6&1/2 ft slide in pop up camper for my Dodge Cummins 2500 short box., 3:55 rear end ,5 sp. Then I bought a 3 horse slant trailer, bumper pull. Hopefully this will enable me to stretch out my hunting career and other 5 years or so.
Here are the specs: camper weighs 1500 lbs. Horse trailer weighs 3500 lbs with a tongue weight of 350 lbs. These are empty figures. Full up loaded with two mules, gear, grain, hay water ,tack, it will come up to about 7500 lbs and 750 lbs tongue weight max.
My receiver hitch says 1000 lb tongue weight, 10,000 lb trailer weight if using a weight distribution hitch.
The company that I want to buy the weight distribution hitch from says to size it correctly I also need to add the cargo load inside the truck bed that would be behind the rear axle to get the total tongue weight for the hitch.This would be approximately 750 lbs if the camper is distributed evenly.
So adding the 750 from the trailer and 750 from the camper, I get a 1500, lb tongue weight which would then indicate that I have to go to a Class IV receiver, which gets up to 1500 lb tongue weight and a 15,000 trailer and I am only half that weight with my trailer fully loaded.
I can't figure out, other than the suspension on the truck's limitations why I need to figure the camper weight in on the weight distribution system. A Class IV hitch is going to bolt into the same holes so the total weight on the suspension is going to be the same.
With the weight of the truck included I am a little over the GVWR specs of the truck itself which I am not worried about since my stock trailer loaded was over that and the truck handled it well.
Thoughts? advise? Is it correct to figure in the camper load or am I OK with my present receiver hitch?
If Ido this,the
Last edited by saddlesore; 12/26/13.
