I remember learning about class one levers in grade school.... before I could even operate a motorized vehicle
I remember learning about class one levers in grade school.... before I could even operate a motorized vehicle
Imma just going to leave this here. No judgement to anyone. Just a handy trick. No idea how accurate these are, but it's a good start.
https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...le/A-p8686024e
Old tow vehicle yes I agree I shouldnt of been towing with my highlander. Also looking through the Towing WD thread extraslow posted, I dont expect I will have these issues towing with my Infiniti however I will atleast do the measurements (it has auto levelling feature too) before my trip on friday.
And get to a scale in a week.
Infiniti can tow 8500lbs, trailer is 2950 dry - I just went through everything we have and without firewood and bikes in the equation we are carrying approximately 350lbs (150lbs of that is on the tongue (the batteries and gas bottle) the other 200lbs would be distributed over the rest of the camper.
I will have to weigh my bikes but they will probably collectively be under 200lbs easily since 2 are kids bikes. And I only take firewood in the trunk.
Bugger none in stock in calgaryThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
My wife doesnt seem concerned at all about this. She's all "use the WD hitch, self levelling feature on infiniti and load the trailer evenly = no problem"
Last edited by nzwasp; 07-28-2020 at 01:17 PM.
Here are the 3 steps I went through when setting up my truck and trailer originally. You'll want to know what your vehicle gvwr is as well as the limits for each truck axle.
According to my sticker, the trailer is 3500 lbs dry. But in actuality it was just a hair over 4000,
Extraslow has some good advice on setting up the hitch, for me I just checked to make sure that I wasn't losing any weight over the front compared to being unloaded. As I am sure you've realized, don't overload the rear axle, put as much as possible in the trailer.
Last edited by dirtsniffer; 07-28-2020 at 01:38 PM.
Yes and no. I'd been consistently overloading my rear axle rating by about 100lbs before I started loading more things into the trailer, above/behind the axles.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Placement of weight matters.
I seriously doubt you are sitting at 3,300lbs loaded. I camp by myself and I have a lot more than 350lbs of stuff, especially when I count the batteries and propane. Food, bedding, clothes, camp gear, water all count.
Since you haven't been able to weight the trailer loaded, use the GVWR to calculate for now. Dry weight is used to move trailers off lots.
Find out the payload of the tow vehicle, subtract passengers and cargo from that number. Take 15% of the trailer GVWR and use that for tongue weight, subtract that from the remaining payload. If you wind up with a negative number, you're overloaded.
See Crank. See Crank Walk. Walk Crank Walk.
Good call, anyone who hasn't weighed thier trailer should assume it's at 100% gvwr when loaded. That's been pretty close for all of mine. And tongue weight 15% is as good a guess as any.
Taking real weights is better.
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I used 15% since that’s the upper limit of what their tow vehicle says. I’d be double checking what hitch is on there too.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
See Crank. See Crank Walk. Walk Crank Walk.
More than you think. Every single person that i know that has a bumper pull above 3000# does. An trailer that isn't loaded property can severely change the way a vehicle handles the load.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Like others have stated, load your trailer and hit the scales. Weigh both axles of the tow vehicle and the trailer. Its a balance. You want to make sure your vehicle axles are close with the WD hitch and that you are still within the tongue weight range specified by the OEM. It gets dicey when you have a smaller tow vehicle because there isn't a lot of room to play. People think, "Oh, it can pull 5000# so i will buy a a 5000# trailer" and dont think about things like tounge weight, the effect on stopping, and cargo capacity of the tow vehicle.
I never take water ever. But if I did yes I would be maxing out.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Anyway to your point:
Infiniti Payload Capacity: 1629lbs - 470lbs (people) - 350lbs (cargo in trailer) - 100 lbs in trunk - 510 (15% tongue weight) = 149 lbs remaining.
Infiniti Towing Capacity: 8500lbs
How is the trailers payload capacity calculated, because in my case the trailer dry is 2950 but the trailer payload is 550lbs - (the tires for the trailer are load rated for 1760lbs each, do the trailer tires somewhat determine the amount of payload for the trailer? because im not sure what else would.)
Last edited by nzwasp; 07-28-2020 at 04:23 PM.
Trailer GVWR is 3,500lbs? And is the 1,629lbs of payload off the door sticker?
Take the payload off the door sticker, subtract your in vehicle weight (570lbs) and then take 15% of trailer GVWR. Since you haven't weighed the trailer loaded for a typical trip, that's how you do it for now.
There is a 99.9% chance that you're under-counting weight somewhere.
See Crank. See Crank Walk. Walk Crank Walk.
Inner city publicly accessible scale, Manchester area just to south of 42nd Avenue SE - Manchester Industrial scales.
Last edited by speedog; 07-28-2020 at 05:06 PM.
The 1629lbs is the Infiniti payload.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
The trailers cargo carrying capacity is 550lbs.
Trailer info as per sticker:
Fun fact... payload numbers exclude the driver (well... a small human worth)
If you live in the dirty south, the aldersyde truck scales by the A&W are great too. I just live too far away to make that handy.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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Is the scale near dewinton no good? Or is this just an excuse for A&W??? Mmmm... burgerThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Dunno, I'm a northie. The aldersyde scale has lots of parking to fuck around with your hitch, cargo etc and make multiple passes.
I just pay at the Barlow north CAT scale at the husky truck stop. But I'm a baller who spends money like it's going out of style.
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There is a free scale southbound McLeod in dewinton. After heritage point but before macleod and deerfoot meet
No longer available. Just drive by to check it out.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Added a proper battery monitor to the trailer yesterday, along with a pair of GC2 batteries (a la ExtraSlow; H/T for the recommendation). Our tired Group 24 with 65Ah rated wasnt enough for three nights "offshore".
For $60 it seems like a cheap way to truly understand how much power you're using and help you treat your lead acids kindly. I opted for the "350A" shunt thinking that I might add a 2000W inverter at some point; it's frigging huge and kind of annoying as it's so thick you cannot mount it directly on the post of a battery. Ended up brazing/soldering a bunch of short leads to hook it all together, time consuming PITA. In hindsight I'd probably just go for the 100A shunt next time around as it can handle up to something like 150A (100A is what they call "typical" load.)
A bargain versus a $300 Victron unit.
The biggest pain of the whole process was definitely running the lead from the battery boxes to the cabin of the trailer, which surprised me. Had to cut an access hatch in the corrugated floor sheathing and couldn't fish the wire into the wall next to the factory-installed battery/tank unit as they run wires then install grey/black tanks making it impossible to follow that route.
- - - Updated - - -
Another repair/improvement made last night (probably my favourite thus far). Our Dometic fridge's incandescent festoon bulb was burnt out. I shopped around for a while looking at LED festoon replacements but was never very excited about spending $20 on a bulb I wasn't convinced would last with all the condensation/temperature fluctuations in the fridge.
After reading about it from someone else online, I scrounged up a 12" chunk of under-cabinet LED lighting from my junk drawer and soldered a wire directly to the festoon bulb base. amazing light; feels like a brand new fridge. Will post a pic later of my shitty rusty old fridge with beyond baller lighting.