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ribet View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Hitch Weight
    Posted: 06 Mar 2020 at 9:41pm
I have a question about the hitch weight on the 192.  It is 460 lbs and I believe it is a dry weight.  Add propane tanks and batteries and that is a lot of weight.  More then any other rPod.  Is that getting a little high? Put in supplies between the axle and hitch and that is an awesome weight.  Am I wrong to question that.  I would appreciate any feed back. Presently towing a 180 with a Ford expedition EL. Hitch weight 332 lbs. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Mar 2020 at 4:25am
You are correct to be concerned. The published tongue and trailer weights are notional at best and don’t include water, batteries, supplies, options, etc. Your actual weights will almost always be higher, sometimes much higher, than those numbers, so both the 332 and 460 are going to be incorrect. For example, my 179 has a published tongue weight of 285, my actual tongue weight is about 500, over 200 lbs higher.

That’s why it’s so important to actually weigh both your trailer and the tongue so you know what you really have. Most folks are surprised when they do. I was. Easiest way is to load both the trailer and the tow vehicle as you normally would, including any water and supplies, and drive the rig to a public scale. Then get the weight of each of the three axles and the whole rig combined. If you have a weight distribution hitch release the tension on it first or remove it and put it in the back of the tv, it will mess up your measurements if it’s tensioned.

Then, drop the trailer and run through the scales again with just the tv, again getting the weight of each axle.

The tongue weight will be difference between the total weight on the two tv axles with and without the trailer. The trailer weight will be the difference between the total rig weight and the tv by itself. If you do this for your current 180 it will give you some idea what to expect with a 192. You don’t want to exceed either the max hitch weight rating of your tv, any of the three axle weight ratings, or the total combined vehicle weight rating. Adding a weight distribution hitch can help your ride but doesn’t increase your hitch weight capacity.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Mar 2020 at 7:42am
Originally posted by ribet

I have a question about the hitch weight on the 192.  It is 460 lbs and I believe it is a dry weight.  Add propane tanks and batteries and that is a lot of weight.  More then any other rPod.  Is that getting a little high? Put in supplies between the axle and hitch and that is an awesome weight.  Am I wrong to question that.  I would appreciate any feed back. Presently towing a 180 with a Ford expedition EL. Hitch weight 332 lbs. 


An Expedition with tow package has about 920lb allowable tongue weight. The big issue you may run into with an Expy is cargo capacity.

You are not wrong to question what the loaded TW will be. It isn't an R-Pod thing, or even an FR thing.. across the board, owners report ready to camp TW's significantly higher then the catalog weight. But, a 192 should not be an issue, in actual use with an Expy as a TV.

Load appropriately. Also remember that just because it's in front of the axle, it doesn't all go on the tongue, weight wise. It's a lever, and if you put 100lbs on the ball.. that's 100lb of TW,, but if you put it 10 feet back from the ball, it's only a fraction of that.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Mar 2020 at 10:56am
It's interesting that the 192 has almost an identical floor plan to our Sonoma 16RB, except we opted to not get the Murphy bed and have a stove with an oven.  The actual trailer width appears to be about the same, but the wheels on the 192 extend beyond the sides so it gets a 96" width designation instead of 84" with the inboard wheels.  The tongue weight and overall "dry weight" are also very similar.  It is a very nice choice for a couple.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Mar 2020 at 12:14pm
  If possible you can lessen the tongue weight by adding weight to rear of axle having a single axle trailer that can make a big difference.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Mar 2020 at 6:41pm
Originally posted by David and Danette

  If possible you can lessen the tongue weight by adding weight to rear of axle having a single axle trailer that can make a big difference.

You can do that but it will increase load on the trailer axle so it might or might not be advisable depending on how close you are to your trailer axle load limits. Its all a balancing act, literally. If your TV has lots of extra weight capacity then moving weight forward in the trailer might be better because it reduces stress on the trailer axle and frame. 

Again, its best to to load up both the TV and trailer with gear, water, supplies and people as you normally would for a trip and weigh everything. Then you will know where you really are and you can decide if and where you might want to change your load out positions. If you fill out this online calculator it will give you a clear picture of how much headroom you have and also the effects of a wdh on the rig. 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Mar 2020 at 3:03pm
It's best to weigh it, but are you looking at dry weight or Unloaded Vehicle Weight?  UVW supposedly includes battery and full propane, but no water or cargo.  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Mar 2020 at 3:58pm
You need to go by the gross weight of the trailer. So that is UVW + CCC (unladen Vehicle Weight + Cargo Carrying Capacity). Using the 192 as an example, that is 3449 + 1411, or 4860. To be safe, you will want the tongue weight to be between 10% and 15% of that gross weight. That would be between 480 and 729 lbs. I like to strike a middle at around 12%. Again, for this example that would be about 583 lbs.

So never go below 480 lbs, but you probably shouldn't go over 729 lbs. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Mar 2020 at 5:32pm
Originally posted by Colt

It's best to weigh it, but are you looking at dry weight or Unloaded Vehicle Weight?  UVW supposedly includes battery and full propane, but no water or cargo.  

The listed weights now are supposed to include the weight of the propane itself, but no optional equipment or dealer installed accessories. So "batteries not included" as they say (along with no water, cargo,supplies, etc). If you run dual golf cart batteries that alone will add about 120 lbs tongue weight.

When I weighed my trailer it was over what I expected by about 250 lbs, so I suspect that FR was underestimating its weight by about that much back in the 2015 time frame.

Bottom line, weigh it. Trust but verify as they say. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Mar 2020 at 8:43pm
доверяй, но роверяй 
[doveryay, no proveryay]

The data plate on our Sonoma is in French and English and lists capacity in Kg's, specifically stating that the weight is calculated with the fresh water tank full.  Maybe that's a Canadian requirement.  Since the water tank is aft of the just forward of the axle, with waste tanks aft, that's some handy information to have.
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