Am I over-calculating this or forgetting to carrying a 1, somewhere?
I took my empty T.T. and SUV to the city dump to use their scale in order to get a reasonably accurate
weight. Vehicle has a tow limit of 3500 lbs. so I want to be sure to keep within this range when I load it up, if for no other reason than to keep the wife happy and kids safe. Personally, I'd bog it down till the
tires bleed.
First, I used our bathroom scale to determine the tongue
weight which came out at about 380 lbs. Seemed a bit high, but went with it. Then I drove the vehicle, only, up on the city scale (with trailer still attached), got that
weight (5300 lbs), then pulled forward with both (8160 lbs). I then subtracted my personal weight (210lbs) and that of my daughter (35lbs) and the tongue weight (380lbs) to get the vehicle net weight. This came out pretty close to the vehicle's stated curb weight which is roughly 4700 lbs. I then subtracted this from the total weight of 8160, ending up with a T.T. weight of almost 3500lbs! I know the stated weights were generic back in '89 but this is quite a bit of difference. My T.T. does have an AC unit,
fridge, shower, oven, etc. and I think there were a few gallons of water and
propane in the tanks. I was hoping the dry weight was somewhere below 3k, which would give me about 500 lbs or so for supplies and sleeping bags since we only use it for local, weekend jaunts. Someone please tell me I am engaging in bad logic. It seems like I might be mis-calculating my personal weight(s)
Thanks!
Perhaps I should just take it to a pay-to-weigh scale and detach.
~Dave