Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Camping Trailer Weight Question

There's some trailer hauling men here and this seems like a good place to ask.

The wife and I are thinking about a camping trailer for retirement type wanderings.

I know what a trailer is going to weigh but maybe some of you guys have taken the time and trouble to weigh all the other stuff you take with you.

So for two adults - clothes, food, beer, guns, fishing tackle, tools, camp table, folding chairs, something to grill on, maybe a big old axe - what does all that typically weigh in your experience - give or take - ballpark?

You'd be saving me the trouble of weighing all my stuff before I go shopping for the trailer. Thank you.

In addition to the stuff you mention, there is also the issue of onboard water (if you intend to dry camp), if there are holding tanks in the trailer that are holding stuff, full propane tanks, cooking utensils, firewood, etc. These can quickly add additional weight to your load. You will also find out that over the years, more and more 'essential' stuff seems to find its way into your camp trailer.

I would definitely plan on preparing for an additional 1000 lbs. potential when making a choice of trailer.

Clear Air<

Every trailer model and size has different tires, and weight capacity. Each person will have different quantities and weights of materials you listed. Each will pack different amounts of other equipment and tools and food supplies. You need to weigh your own load if you want anything accurate and predictive. Do it once and make a master list. Then you will know what you want to know. You need to know the gross load capacity of the trailer and how many pounds it is designed to carry. Some trailers are remarkably unable to haul much at all before the trailer itself is overloaded. I'd avoid or analyze carefully a trailer brand that uses the same basic frame, axles, brakes and springs for a range of trailer lengths. The long models of that series may be nearer to gross weight capacity than you might prefer. Then just match these weights to the towing capacity of tow vehicle.

Marfv

+/-500# for planning purposes, tools alone could easily be 500#'s. It's really easy to underestimate the weight of gear, especially if a woman helps pack As time goes on you'll find you stash more and more stuff if you have room to fit it. I assume you'll also likely be carrying some firewood, and ice for a cooler, and...

People tend to forget how heavy water is - 8 lbs a gallon - for example, a 40 gallon fresh water tank adds 320 lbs of cargo weight before you start packing anything else. If your not hooked up to sewer that weight doesn't go away, just moves to the grey and black water tanks until you get a chance to empty them.

Hunters will get by just fine with aluminum pans and plastic plates. When the little lady goes, you get steel pans, Corningware plates, etc. Your kitchen just got a lot heavier.Don't forget about canned food, too.

Then you get to the toy haulers. It's anybody's guess as to what all you can cram into one of those.

This wont help much, but for me, between my travel trailer's 2900 pound payload capacity - (5200 pounds dry) and the 4400 pound payload/17k towing in my ram 3500, I just put everything in it the wife wants plus some and don't worry about it...lol

About that water...my camper has a 40 gal tank in the rear. Both holding tanks are in the front. That's about 300lb being transferred from back to front. It changes the balance. My camper is just a 23' and I have a pretty heavy duty pickup, but with a smaller pickup and larger tanks, it can change the handling.

It also makes a difference with the vehicle's weight that you are pulling it with and how much it is loaded. A load leveling hitch sure helps the handling.

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Travel trailer or popup?

Trailer.

I'm thinking 19' if I can keep it that small. Whatever it is has to have a shower/toilet and A/C and the wife will not negotiate those away.

Once I decide on the trailer I will look at a truck to match it up with.

Right now I'm looking at manufacturer's weights and was hoping to take an easy shortcut to initial calculations by asking if anybody has ever actually weighed their personal stuff before loading. If I got responses I would take an average. So far Bighorn and Lott 458 have ventured estimates. (Thanks guys.)

Guess there's no help for it. I'm going to have to weigh all my stuff myself and make a spread sheet.

Tell you what though. When I eventually get that done I'll come back and share!

Let us know what you come up with. I suspect that none of us has weighed our stuff. I sure haven't.

Of course that's the best way as everyone's choices for packing are different. One can guess and maybe come pretty close. Best probably is to pack light and weight; and then do that packed heavy to get the max/min parameters.

Looking forward to the report.

I have think I have come close to weight.I know my truck weight, slide in pop up camper weight, empty trailer weight, mule weights, water weight, fuel weight a and hay weight. Pretty sure about equipment and tack weight. I am going down the road pretty close to 16,000 pounds, which is my trucks total GVR

Never a bad idea to get GCW for empty and full.

Usually anyplace with a scale will do that for a few dollars.

We have a cement company down the road a few miles that will weigh for free as a public service. I have an old '76 camper that I'm slowly restoring. I took it down and got both the axle weights and total weight. Of course the difference is the tongue wt. That's very useful to know sometimes.

I have a trucking company a tad over a mile away. I just run through in the evening.

If you play around on Etrialer.com there is a section on there that tells you how to get the tongue weight using a bathroom scale and lever arm.

Here ya go.





You can use a bathroom scale and a box to measure tongue weight of smaller trailers. Place the coupler of the loaded trailer on the scale at normal towing height (Figure A). For heavier tongue weights, use the second method (Figure B). Be sure to perform these measurements on a level surface and with a leveled trailer.

To use the method in Figure B, follow these guidelines:

Always place the trailer tongue 1 foot from the pipe on the support brick
Multiply the reading on the scale by the total distance between the 2 support pipes
Use a brick that is the same thickness as the scale so that the 2 x 4 is level when you weigh your trailer


For example, if the distance between the trailer tongue and the pipe on the scale is 2 feet and the distance between the trailer tongue and the pipe on the support brick is 1 foot, then you would multiply the reading on the scale by 3 to get the tongue weight. If the distance between the trailer tongue and the pipe on the scale is 3 feet and the distance between the trailer tongue and the pipe on the support brick is 1 foot, then you would multiply the reading on the scale by 4 to get the tongue weight.


https://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-to-determine-trailer-tongue-weight.aspx

That works if you don't have a truck scale handy.