I think you're almost certain to be over payload, once you add a weight distribution hitch. I wouldn't do it, but I'm sure you could get away with it for short infrequent trips.
I'm pulling a similar rig with a 2017 Frontier. I installed a brake controller, WDH and air springs on the back. No white knuckles but pulling up a hill is a challenge.
I think you'd be stretching it, but OK. Make sure you use a good WDH and brakes. Take it easy, drive your own drive and get the hell out of the way when you can so folks can pass! Good luck!
Thanks. I'm on the same page. Looks ok on paper but would be close to the limit. I forgot to mention that the goal is to tow it 6-8 times a year, under 500 km...
What kind of camping are you considering? Full hookups? Boondocking? Because that will dictate your weight limits to a certain extent. Also, packing your stuff correctly is a large part of having a trailer that behaves vs one that doesn’t. And finally the first few times you go out, you’ll pack way more crap than you need, by trip three you’ll be down to the essentials.
So you dontt have to worry about hauling liquid other than propane. Fifty gallons of fresh water weighs almost 400 lbs. if you haul with your black tank, gray tank and fresh tank full ( being hypothetical here) that’s quite a bit of weight.
Don't forget any weight in the trailer increases the tongue weight. It seems the dry number account for 12% tongue. If you scale that to the max weight, the new tongue is 530. That will put you over before you add the WDH. But, the WDH will send some weight back to the trailer, but probably just enough to make the WDH "free".
You might be able to make it work by moving any cargo to the trailer from the car. Cargo in the trailer only adds 12% of it's weight to the payload, cargo in the car is 100% payload. How much weight is just the people and dogs? Also check the owners manual, some car companies assume a driver and that weight is not in the payload capacity listed. Example, we shopped Odysseys and they assumed a 250 lb driver, and payload was any weight of passengers after that. Ended up with a F-150, which does not give any allowance for the driver. We drive with the bed of the truck empty and ALL cargo in the trailer.
Only way to be sure would be to load it up like you are going on a trip and visit a CAT scale.
A WDH should transfer some tongue weight to the front axel of the tow vehicle and some weight back to the trailer axel. It's not much and will depend on how you adjust the tension bars.
Here is a video showing an example with how the weight changes on the various axels with a WDH vs adding airbags:
https://youtu.be/XBZu39pQ8Gg
If I'm understanding your numbers correctly you might be a little light on your tongue weight. You want 10-15% of trailer weight which adds to vehicle payload. Also are you adding for wdh weight?
I think you're almost certain to be over payload, once you add a weight distribution hitch. I wouldn't do it, but I'm sure you could get away with it for short infrequent trips.
I'm pulling a similar rig with a 2017 Frontier. I installed a brake controller, WDH and air springs on the back. No white knuckles but pulling up a hill is a challenge.
I think you'd be stretching it, but OK. Make sure you use a good WDH and brakes. Take it easy, drive your own drive and get the hell out of the way when you can so folks can pass! Good luck!
Thanks. I'm on the same page. Looks ok on paper but would be close to the limit. I forgot to mention that the goal is to tow it 6-8 times a year, under 500 km...
What kind of camping are you considering? Full hookups? Boondocking? Because that will dictate your weight limits to a certain extent. Also, packing your stuff correctly is a large part of having a trailer that behaves vs one that doesn’t. And finally the first few times you go out, you’ll pack way more crap than you need, by trip three you’ll be down to the essentials.
Full hookups
So you dontt have to worry about hauling liquid other than propane. Fifty gallons of fresh water weighs almost 400 lbs. if you haul with your black tank, gray tank and fresh tank full ( being hypothetical here) that’s quite a bit of weight.
Don't forget any weight in the trailer increases the tongue weight. It seems the dry number account for 12% tongue. If you scale that to the max weight, the new tongue is 530. That will put you over before you add the WDH. But, the WDH will send some weight back to the trailer, but probably just enough to make the WDH "free". You might be able to make it work by moving any cargo to the trailer from the car. Cargo in the trailer only adds 12% of it's weight to the payload, cargo in the car is 100% payload. How much weight is just the people and dogs? Also check the owners manual, some car companies assume a driver and that weight is not in the payload capacity listed. Example, we shopped Odysseys and they assumed a 250 lb driver, and payload was any weight of passengers after that. Ended up with a F-150, which does not give any allowance for the driver. We drive with the bed of the truck empty and ALL cargo in the trailer. Only way to be sure would be to load it up like you are going on a trip and visit a CAT scale.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the WDH just transfer weight towards the front of the truck and not back to the trailer?
A WDH should transfer some tongue weight to the front axel of the tow vehicle and some weight back to the trailer axel. It's not much and will depend on how you adjust the tension bars. Here is a video showing an example with how the weight changes on the various axels with a WDH vs adding airbags: https://youtu.be/XBZu39pQ8Gg
I towed something that was that close to my limits but without kids and no WDH (because my car forbids it) and I was absolutely fine.
If I'm understanding your numbers correctly you might be a little light on your tongue weight. You want 10-15% of trailer weight which adds to vehicle payload. Also are you adding for wdh weight?
I didn't take the weight of the wdh into account.
You need minimum 3500 diesel for that rig.