Trillium Weight??? - Fiberglass RV
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Old 05-19-2007, 02:41 PM   #1
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Trailer: 1975 13 ft Trillium
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I'm a newby, just purchased my first "EGG". A 13ft 1975 Trillium. I've been looking all thru this site & it seems here would be the place to ask this question. Anybody know the weights - the dry/unloaded (is this the correct term??) weight & the tongue/hitch weight of this trailer? & how to I check if it has brakes? I'm planning on towing with my '91 Eagle 2000gtx (towing capacity of 2000lbs/90lbs with trailer brakes). (NO mountain climbs planned) Will my car work with this trailer? (I was told a compact car could tow it) & would I need a transmission cooling unit? Or any other additional things to make this work?
Any & all info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
LOVE this site!!! LOTS of GREAT info
Joan
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Old 05-19-2007, 04:50 PM   #2
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This info is of a brand new Trillium.

Weight--1395lbs
Height--7ft 10 inches
Frame--14ft 2inches
Tire 13inch

This weight is total dry before options and I personally would have a trany cooler with the size of Tow vehicle you will be using.

I hope this helps a bit
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Old 05-19-2007, 05:44 PM   #3
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Joan, my 73 Trill 1300 had a sticker of specs including weight on the inside of the closet door. Mine was about 1000 lbs...that'd be dry weight. Figger on a couple of hundred more for the pots and pans and beer etc and ou are well within your tow limit. Tongue weight should be between 120 and 150 lbs. If your trailer electric connector is a four wire "flatty" then youKNOW you don't have electric brakes. If it is a round 7 pin type, you may or may not have electric brakes. Mine had theround plug but no wires from the pins that would have connected to the brakes. A garage or RV place can tell you right away. We've travelled over mountains coast to coast and never had a problem by not having the trailer 'braked". Enjoy your "vintage" TT Cheers, Alistair
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Old 05-20-2007, 02:14 AM   #4
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Joan, my 73 Trill 1300 had a sticker of specs including weight on the inside of the closet door. Mine was about 1000 lbs...that'd be dry weight. Figger on a couple of hundred more for the pots and pans and beer etc and ou are well within your tow limit. Tongue weight should be between 120 and 150 lbs. If your trailer electric connector is a four wire "flatty" then youKNOW you don't have electric brakes. If it is a round 7 pin type, you may or may not have electric brakes. Mine had theround plug but no wires from the pins that would have connected to the brakes. A garage or RV place can tell you right away. We've travelled over mountains coast to coast and never had a problem by not having the trailer 'braked". Enjoy your "vintage" TT Cheers, Alistair

Thanks Chester & Alistair for all the helpful info
And yes, thank you, Alistair I found that mine also has the sticker of specs inside the closet (just never looked ) & it's 1500lbs & has a 'flatty' connector - so no brakes.
I guess all I need is a hitch & tranny cooler & I'm set!
BTW Alistair what type of vehicle did you tow your 73 Trill with?

Joan

Is it just me or does my Trill seem a bit heavy??? & maybe I should have brakes installed?? Any opinions?
Thx again
Joan
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Old 05-20-2007, 09:14 AM   #5
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Joan...glad to have helped. I tow with a '06Toyota Sienna...previous tug was an 02 Sienna. If your Eagle has drum brakes on the front, you might need extra help in the way of trailer brakes...if it has front disc brakes in good shape, you should be OK.
Yes, 1500lbs dry weight seems high...our two rigs have very little differences. Might be a reference to gross trailer weight?
In terms of tug power...at Bolerama at Emily PP, we see tugs that include VW beetles (old), '52 chev sedans, hearse, Toyota Matrix,...I tried to buy a 13'er from a local antique car restorer who towed with a 50's Vauxhall!
Happy camping...Alistair
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Old 05-20-2007, 10:47 AM   #6
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I found that mine also has the sticker of specs inside the closet (just never looked ) & it's 1500lbs & has a 'flatty' connector - so no brakes.

Is it just me or does my Trill seem a bit heavy??? Joan
Hi, we have a '76 Trillium 1300, Fridge, Furnace, and front bunk. We recently weighed it at 1200lbs, with a 160lb tongue weight. It had nearly a full tank of propane, other than the cushions, it was an empty trailer.

As far as the 1500lbs goes, on my sticker the 1500 is the GTW (Gross Trailer Weight) , which would be the "most" it can weigh with all the cargo loaded, as I understand the original axels were only rated at 1500lbs to keep total weight down.

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Old 05-22-2007, 10:56 AM   #7
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I agree that the 1500 lb on the sticker is almost certainly Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, which is the maximum, not the empty or dry weight. The actual weight will still be well over 1000 lb.

The Eagle will have front disk brakes, and may have rear disks. Regardless of brake type, my guess is the the car's manual, like that of other vehicles, will say that trailer brakes are required if the trailer is over some specified weight; since the Eagle 2000GTX is a Mitsubishi Galant compact sedan, I would be very surprised if this restriction was over 1000 lb. The only vehicles for which I have seen no-brake trailer ratings over 1000 lb are full-sized pickup trucks (and presumably their station wagon SUV versions), which allow 2000 lb.

Even if the manual does not require them, the loaded trailer is going to be about half of the car's empty weight; it doesn't matter if it has racing brakes, the car does not have the traction to stop the trailer without emergency braking performance being compromised.

Short answer: the trailer needs brakes with this tow vehicle. It might even be on th borderline of legally needing brakes in some areas, based on a requirement if the gross trailer weight rating exceeds 40% of the tow vehicle's GVWR.

The trailer might have brakes despite the four-pin connector; they may just not be hooked up. Even if it has no brakes, other topics have included reports that Trillium axles had the mounting flanges for brakes even when no brakes were included from the factory, which makes adding them a bit easier (complete axle replacement would then not be required).
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Old 05-22-2007, 11:01 AM   #8
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towing capacity of 2000lbs/90lbs with trailer brakes
Is this intended to mean a maximum total loaded trailer weight of 2000 lb and a maximum tongue weight of 90 lb? That might be an appropriate combination in Europe, but would be unusual here, where a tongue weight of 10% of the trailer weight is generally assumed. If the tongue weight limit is really 90 lb, that will be a problem for just about any 13' trailer.

If the rear axle load is carefully checked, it may be that more tongue weight could be handled well with air springs added to the car's rear suspension. 90 lb seems quite low for this size of car; for comparison, a Toyota Corolla would have a 150 lb limit, matching the 1500 lb trailer weight limit for that model.
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Old 05-22-2007, 11:14 PM   #9
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When NOT towing our trailer with the Rod, we are now using an '06 Dodage Dakota Q-cab with a 4.7 H/O V-8, so towing with THAT won't be an issue, but tonight I thought I better check on our loaded tongue weight for towing with the '37 Plymouth (which is NOT stock).


We used the front trailer leg to weigh the tongue. We placed the pad on a square of wood to help spread the weight a little more evenly over the scale (they AREN'T ours, LOL!!) I was amazed to see the scale climb to just under 240lbs!!!

We jettisoned the two small propane tanks (20 lb's I think) on the tougue, emptied ALL the contents in the under the bunks storage area and re-weighed the trailer. The 'tongue' weight dropped to a more decent 140odd lbs. Do I then NEED to stow all the valuable stuff in the rear of the trailer AND was this scale method accurate enough. Closest weigh station I could weigh at is a fair distance away....
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Old 05-23-2007, 09:49 AM   #10
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We used the front trailer leg to weigh the tongue.
The only problem in weighing with the tongue jack (which is I assume what is meant by this) is that it is in the wrong place: it is closer to the axle than the coupler is. Measure the distance from coupler to axle, and the distance from jack leg to axle, and the ratio is the correction factor you need. For instance, if the leg is 9/10 of the distance from axle to coupler, then the corrected hitch weight is 9/10 of the weight measured at the jack leg. It's a lever thing...

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...was this scale method accurate enough. Closest weigh station I could weigh at is a fair distance away....
My guess is that the jury-rigged scale arrangement is more accurate than the highway scale, because you are using it in a reasonable range. The highway truck scales in Alberta and BC have a resolution of 10kg to suit their many-ton capacity; even if they are also this accurate, that's a pretty large fraction of the tiny tongue weight.

Quote:
Do I then NEED to stow all the valuable stuff in the rear of the trailer...
I would be cautious about putting stuff at the back. While it's good to avoid excessive tongue weight, for stability it's also good to keep the "pendulum effect" down (reduce the polar moment of inertia). Maybe just moving heavy stuff to near the axle would be a better compromise, if the corrected hitch weight is still too high.

In general, if the tow vehicle handles the tongue weight well (stays within axle and tire capacity, maintains suitable height and geometry), then I don't see a need to reduce it to any arbitrary fraction of trailer weight.
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Old 05-23-2007, 06:35 PM   #11
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Thanks Brian, I never thought to 'factor in' the fulcrum affect. Will re weigh as opposed to doing calculous, LOL!!!!
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Old 05-23-2007, 06:52 PM   #12
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Thanks Brian, I never thought to 'factor in' the fulcrum affect. Will re weigh as opposed to doing calculous, LOL!!!!
AW SHUCKS- - - -just think of the tongue weight as the same weight added to the suspension if ya had your mother-in-law in the back seat.... Then leave her at home and hang the trailer on........ It's just sort of relative. Larry
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Old 05-23-2007, 09:34 PM   #13
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You Warshingtonians are ALL alike, ALWAYS with the 'inlaw' jokes
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Old 05-23-2007, 10:32 PM   #14
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You Warshingtonians are ALL alike, ALWAYS with the 'inlaw' jokes
YUP- - --Oklahomans sorta said the same thing last week when I was down there with the Wench.... Larry
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Old 05-30-2016, 11:21 AM   #15
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Name: Clark
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My 1300 76

I towed mine for 10 years with my 2004 Vw turbo diesel bug, no problems

Mine had a 4 pin plug but it was witted on to the end of the 7 wire cable, someone had cut the old plug off, so couldn't use trailer brakes and didn't need the , car had disks small around

To see if you have brakes, look at the back of the tire and of you see two wires going into a brake drum you have trailer brakes but you should clean and check them before relying on then

Big advantage of the 7 prong plug is it provides 12 v port to recharge the 12 v battery while driving so you can run the fridge on 12v while driving since gas will not work with a moving vehicle

Enjoy they are great and sturdy. Just replaced my axle last fall to raise it up to original height, installed cost $750,
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