Determining Compatibility of Trailer Weight and Vehicle Towing Capacity

Question

Question:

Hi. My wife and I are looking at the Winnebago 2455BHS with a dry weight of 5300lbs. The vehicle is a 2017 Tacoma 4wd off road 6speed short bed. With a tow rating of 6400lbs and tongue weight 640lbs which is from Toyotas website. I see in the owners manual that I can go up too 6700lbs / 670lbs. The issue is the dry hitch weight is 660lbs for that trailer. I do plan on getting a weight distribution hitch and trailer brake controller. I know the weight distribution hitch will take some weight off my hitch and transfer it to the front. Is that ok to tow? And recommendations to the setup and what will be the best weight distribution hitch to get for this. Also will I need airbags even though I am running a weight distribution hitch. The rv dealership states it is fine and they do seem pretty convincing that it would be ok but I know they are just trying to get my business. Thank you

asked by: Nashan T

1

Helpful Expert Reply:

A trailer with a dry hitch weight (also called empty tongue weight) of 660-lbs will have a substantially higher TW once you load it. The Winnie Minnie 2455BHS has a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 7000-lbs which means that when loaded to capacity the actual TW of the trailer could range from 850-lbs to 1000-lbs. The trailer has a 43-gallon fresh water tank; just that 43 gallons of water weighs a hefty 358-lbs!

If your Tacoma hitch is rated for use with a weight distribution (WD) system (its safety sticker will tell you if it is) then you can indeed use one and increase the towing capacity for the vehicle. But even if your hitch and truck are rated for 8000-lbs towing capacity with WD in use you still have a pretty skimpy safety margin.

A properly selected and installed WD system will indeed transfer enough trailer tongue weight to the truck's front axle that you should not need air bags or other rear suspension help. But towing a trailer at or near your vehicle's maximum will add heat stress to your transmission and make installation of a supplementary transmission cooler a very good idea. If you do intend to tow this trailer with this vehicle I would consider a trans cooler mandatory. The standard trans cooler I recommend is the Class III model # D13503 from Derale. This is shown in the linked review video.

We also offer the Derale Electra-Cool # D15200 which cools BOTH engine oil and transmission fluid in one fan-powered cooler. Since it is fan-powered it will cool regardless of your driving speed. Passive coolers such as # D13503 rely on passive air flow to do their cooling while the Electra-Cool will cool both oil and trans fluid even when you are towing up a grade at low speed. I suggest giving this item some serious consideration.

Weight distribution systems need to be selected based on the fully-loaded trailer's actual tongue weight, which is easily measured with scale # e99044. Any cargo weight behind the rear axle of the Tacoma, a generator for instance, will be added to the trailer's own TW to give you the total figure you need to choose a WD system. Ideally your total TW will fall right in the middle of the operating range for the system you select. You might care to take a look at the linked article and video on WD systems.

WD systems are shown on the linked page. Click on your total TW to then see suitable options. For instance, if your total TW is 900- to 1000-lbs, then the Equal-I-zer Weight Distribution System # EQ37120ET would be a good choice since it operates over a TW range of 800- to 1200-lbs.