New Trailer

[brroberts]

Somewhere under towing, I have posted a CAT scale worksheet to help you get your weights. I don’t have internet for at least a week, so hopefully a forum search will turn it up for you.

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[Frost]

Thank you for posting that worksheet. Gives me some ideas for how to work through the numbers. This is why I check this forum often, great advice given in friendly terms. Thanks again.

 

[9zero1790]

Picked this up a

few days back, towed 40 miles home. First time towing with my Ranger. Lots of good advice given to me from members here. Bilstein 4600's on rear and Blue Sumo bump springs. Purchased an Equalizer wdh/sway system at the dealer. Had a little back and forth with install guy as I felt trailer was high in the front at first. Guilted them into adding a longer drop stinger (?) and here's how it looks. At the fender wells, rear of truck dropped half an inch, front rose by the same. Picture shows setup with hardly any weight added so things might change and might have to tweak the wdh a bit.
It towed so well, truck and trailer felt like one unit, barely any flex. Just a real positive feel, most comfortable tow I've ever done. Last setup was an F150 and a lighter trailer with sway bar only. That was fine, but I now know how good it can be. I chalk it up to the wdh , never used one before. BTW, trailer is 5,000 lbs loaded and hitch weight supposedly 550 lbs.
Suggestions and comments welcome. Want to thank the people here once more.

excellent choice! i spent a lot of time in airstreams growing up. lot of history to the brand and the uses of them. are you a wbcci member?

 

[Grumpaw]

Thank you for posting that worksheet. Gives me some ideas for how to work through the numbers. This is why I check this forum often, great advice given in friendly terms. Thanks again.

The one nice piece of info that Airstream supplies is that the battery and propane tanks are included in the tongue weight that they post on their info page.
So, the only extra weight added to the tongue weight would be any personal items that you store in front of the axle.....and the closer to the front of the cabin, the more weight will be placed on the hitch.
So, the 550 or so tongue weight listed in the trailer info is well under the Ranger's rating.
And, as posted, the hitch is cargo weight for the truck, just as anything you carry in the bed.

 

[Frost]

excellent choice! i spent a lot of time in airstreams growing up. lot of history to the brand and the uses of them. are you a wbcci member?

Not yet, had no idea what it was . Just looked it up.

 

[Frost]

The one nice piece of info that Airstream supplies is that the battery and propane tanks are included in the tongue weight that they post on their info page.
So, the only extra weight added to the tongue weight would be any personal items that you store in front of the axle.....and the closer to the front of the cabin, the more weight will be placed on the hitch.
So, the 550 or so tongue weight listed in the trailer info is well under the Ranger's rating.
And, as posted, the hitch is cargo weight for the truck, just as anything you carry in the bed.

Thank you. You've mentioned loading the trailer thoughtfully in other posts. I listened to that and know the goal is level trailer and truck close to unladen measurements. I shouldn't have much trouble doing that, will certainly be paying attention.
I'll close the thread by thanking all who gave comments and helpful hints about setup. Never thought I'd have an Airstream. Sold our fiberglass Casita 6 months back and thought we were done. Wife had other plans and here we are.

 

[Cmar]

Nice rig, you rarely see Airstreams over here as they being fully imported are expensive. I do like the classic design however.

https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/airstream/

Yes over here the hitch weight contributes to your GVM (Gross vehicle mass) because it is part of the vehicle, but is not part of your tow ball down weight which also contributes, but separately, as it only adds to your mass when the trailer is connected.

 

[Frost]

Nice rig, you rarely see Airstreams over here as they being fully imported are expensive. I do like the classic design however.

https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/airstream/

Yes over here the hitch weight contributes to your GVM (Gross vehicle mass) because it is part of the vehicle, but is not part of your tow ball down weight which also contributes, but separately, as it only adds to your mass when the trailer is connected.

Thanks,
What you're saying seems to ring true, you and others have said that the wdh is payload and not part of tongue weight. I guess that's the conventional way of looking at it.
But it makes no sense to me that it's also not counted as tongue weight. My receiver is rated to carry 750 lbs. It carries the trailer and the hitch, doesn't it? I guess its semantics but I feel better knowing the trailer tongue wt and hitch together are less than 750 lbs.

 

[Grumpaw]

Thanks,
What you're saying seems to ring true, you and others have said that the wdh is payload and not part of tongue weight. I guess that's the conventional way of looking at it.
But it makes no sense to me that it's also not counted as tongue weight. My receiver is rated to carry 750 lbs. It carries the trailer and the hitch, doesn't it? I guess its semantics but I feel better knowing the trailer tongue wt and hitch together are less than 750 lbs.

Nope, hitch is always counted as payload. I know it would seem as if it would be "tongue weight" as it is actually being carried by the truck AND is also "weighing down" the rear, even without the trailer hooked up. But it's always counted as payload.
As for the hitch platform and it's ratings, it's rated by the hitch manufacturer and Ford....
You could install a Class 4 platform (1000 tongue and 10,000 pull) on the Ranger, but dosen't mean the Ranger can haul that much based on Ford's ratings of the frame strength, suspension, rear axle, tires, ect.

 

[notsolinear]

I originally shared this on another forum, reposting it here because it may be helpful: A summary of my CAT scale results with a 20’ Airstream Basecamp.

I've seen a lot of people recommending using a CAT scale to get TV and trailer weights but not as many people posting results, so I thought I'd share mine. I did 3 weighs: First with BlueOx TrackPro installed, second with tension bars removed, third with no trailer. Results are in the same order:
Front Axle – 2,680 lbs (WDH), 2,420 (no WDH), 2,700 (no trailer)
Rear Axle – 2,640 lbs, 3,120 lbs, 2,180 lbs
Trailer Axle – 3,480 lbs, 3,320 lbs, 0 lbs
Some observations:

• Measured tongue weight was 440 lbs with WDH and 600 lbs without (Airstream literature says 535 lbs). (Calculated as the sum of TV axles minus the unhitched TV weight)
• Without WDH my rear axle increased by 940 lbs (!); The tongue weight plus some weight from the front axle. With WDH the weight is almost identical between front/rear axles.
• The WDH not only shifted weight from TV rear axle to front axle, it also moved 160 lbs onto the trailer axle! (The same 160 lbs difference from the tongue weights above)
• Estimate the trailer by itself weighed ~3,950 lbs.
• Without WDH my rear axle weighed 3,120 lbs which is not far from the Rear GAWR of 3,370! Even if you have payload capacity remaining your rear axle could be maxed out.
• My nearly-empty TV weighed 440 lbs more than manufacturer's listed curb weight. Even less my own weight there's a few hundred pounds I need to try and account for.

During weigh-ins the trailer was winterized with antifreeze but generally "dry", stock AGM batteries, one propane tank partially consumed one full, a few personal items left onboard, BlueOx TrackPro equipment installed, tension bars left in the front cubby for measurement without WDH. TV is a 2021 Ford Ranger Lariat.
For anyone interested in doing the same it was $21.50 total for the three weights. Only hiccup I had using their mobile app was that you need to pull onto the scale before you click to confirm the scale number: I was trying to get setup before I pulled onto the scale but it just gave a generic error

 

[9zero1790]

Not yet, had no idea what it was . Just looked it up.

lots of nice folks in it. they do a lot of travel. lots of eating pot lucks. lots of chair holding down in the evenings lol.

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