2016 Premier 22 RBPR Hitch weight loaded

2ndtime · 05-28-2015, 11:06 AM

Hi all,

I am new to the forum, and I guess like everyone have been lurking around doing a lot of reading.. I am looking at purchasing a new Bullet Premier. I have a 2013 Dodge Ram 1500 longhorn (air suspension, Hemi) and am limited by the cargo weight of the truck. I am wondering if anyone that currently owns a Premier 22 RBPR may have weighed the trailer with all of their standard camping gear and have a real world hitch weight for it? I would use this information for Hitch sizing as well.. I know that most of the manufacturers come in a bit heavy, and am presently waiting for a photo of the weight sticker from the manufacturer. I know that I can make this combination of TT and TV work but it is always good to have some actual measurements to go by. My guess for an empty trailer with propane and a battery would be around 621lb guessing that the actually hitch weight of the manufacturer was about 540lb instead of the advertised 500lb. Most of the storage appears to be on and behind the axles, so I think I can keep the hitch weight down (may have to put blankets in the hatch area

)

Thanks for anyone that chimes in!

**sourdough** · 05-28-2015, 01:09 PM

Congrats on the new camper and welcome to the forum.

Your truck will pull the trailer no doubt. Payload is the issue with a 1/2 ton as it was with my 2013 Ram 1500. What does the sticker on the door of the truck say is your payload;carrying capacity? I would say 1400lbs or so - maybe 1500. You're probably pretty close on your tongue weight estimation but don't forget the weight of the WDH - add 100lbs. That would put your estimated used payload at about 721lbs out of approx. 1400lbs or so payload.
700lbs will disappear pretty quick if you start throwing people and things into the truck so pack accordingly.

What is the rear axle ratio of the truck? That will also help you determine just how well the truck will pull the trailer. I would want a 3.92 but you could get by with a 3.55.

Maybe someone has the weights of the actual trailer and can help you out. If not, I would say you shouldn't have any trouble if you just keep in mind what you put in the truck - that's the weak point.

2ndtime · 05-28-2015, 01:33 PM

Hey Sourdough,
I did consider the hitch. My sticker is only 939lbs.. Very disappointing in terms of cargo. I put a lot of thought in the truck but obviously missed the cargo portion.. It can pull 9000+ but not much good if the cargo capacity is not there.. 3.92's in the axles. We will not be travelling very far from home, (lots of sites within 60 miles) and I plan on storing much of our cargo in the rear of the trailer. Which is not much, we only stay for a few nights at various locations and do not carry much. We wanted a smaller travel trailer to do lots of visiting. Our lives do not allow us to go for to long, there are only two of us. Most of the storage is over the axles and towards the rear in the trailer. We can keep blankets, etc. up front, and cans, bottles, etc. in the pantry and the washroom if need be to keep the hitch weight down. It would be good to know actual hitch weights to get the weights just right. I may have to purchase a scale.. With my cargo capacity, we are pretty limited in terms of what we can tow, which was part of the selection of a premier 22..

**sourdough** · 05-28-2015, 04:19 PM

939lbs? Wow! I don't guess I've heard of something that low on a 1500. Mine was low 1400s and I felt it was low. My 13 was a double cab, 4x4, Big Horn, 5.7L w/3.55. My 12 was a 3.92 and payload wasn't much different but towing was. That's over a third reduction in payload for something - did you have some sort of factory add ons; grill guard, side steps etc? 939 would get maxed out w/4 "good ole boys" up front

GaryWT · 05-28-2015, 06:02 PM

We towed a 31 bhpr with a 150 that had 3.25 gears which did great. The payload figure was 1700 though. I have heard of around 1200 but never under 1000. As sourdough said, people alone will eat most of that up. Sorry to hear this, hope you can figure something out. You might want to weigh the truck to double check it.

notanlines · 05-30-2015, 03:10 AM

In reading the charts for a 2013 "Bighorn" Hemi short bed, the smallest payload that comes up is 1430 lbs. Sourdough asked if there were some add-ons maybe? Even 1430 makes this sound terrible small if you have big friends.....

2ndtime · 05-31-2015, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notanlines

In reading the charts for a 2013 "Bighorn" Hemi short bed, the smallest payload that comes up is 1430 lbs. Sourdough asked if there were some add-ons maybe? Even 1430 makes this sound terrible small if you have big friends.....

Sorry, I was away for a bit. It's a fully loaded Longhorn.. I guess all the options add up! We can make this work with a bit of cargo organizing in the TT, keeping a much as we can at the rear. Every little bit will help us. We do not travel far, and only go for a night or two so we will not need to " load up" for an extended trip. Most of the storage is on or behind the axles in the TT so we'll just have to load the front area lightly. I may install a hitch at the rear of the trailer and fabricate a small storage unit for the generator. That should help with the hitch weight as well. I guess if we upgrade TT's later it'll be a 2500 upgrade as well! I love the longhorn, the air suspension ride and handling is amazing. To bad there wasn't a bit more payload.

I plan on getting it to the scales to weigh everything to make sure we keep things within the specs of the truck, which we should be able to do. There is only the two of us.

**JRTJH** · 05-31-2015, 06:46 PM

Don't forget that while you're loading, reloading, organizing your load so you can stay within the payload of your truck, you still need to maintain between 10 and 15% of the total trailer weight on the tongue or you'll have some significant controllability issues when towing. With the truck you've got and that trailer, a light tongue could easily spell disaster if anything should go "not just right"...... With a "too light tongue" any emergency maneuver, strong side wind, passing truck's draft could make controllability more difficult than expected.

Whether your trailer tows best as low as 10% or if you'll need to increase the tongue weight to optimize your control will depend more on the rig's characteristics then on where you store your cargo trying to keep the tongue weight low enough to meet your payload requirements.

It's going to be a "shell game" to a certain extent. Don't be surprised if it takes a significant amount of moving cargo, trying to maximize towability and never really getting it to where it "should be"......

2ndtime · 06-02-2015, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Don't forget that while you're loading, reloading, organizing your load so you can stay within the payload of your truck, you still need to maintain between 10 and 15% of the total trailer weight on the tongue or you'll have some significant controllability issues when towing. With the truck you've got and that trailer, a light tongue could easily spell disaster if anything should go "not just right"...... With a "too light tongue" any emergency maneuver, strong side wind, passing truck's draft could make controllability more difficult than expected.

Whether your trailer tows best as low as 10% or if you'll need to increase the tongue weight to optimize your control will depend more on the rig's characteristics then on where you store your cargo trying to keep the tongue weight low enough to meet your payload requirements.

It's going to be a "shell game" to a certain extent. Don't be surprised if it takes a significant amount of moving cargo, trying to maximize towability and never really getting it to where it "should be"......

Thanks,

I will be spending a significant amount of time at that.. I like getting things right!

**JRTJH** · 06-02-2015, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2ndtime

Thanks,

I will be spending a significant amount of time at that.. I like getting things right!

The point I was trying to make is, depending on how much your trailer weighs when you get it loaded, you may not be able to get the minimum 10% tongue weight. Let's say you and your spouse weigh 300 lbs total, the hitch weighs 75 lbs, you have accessories added to the truck and cargo in the truck bed of 100 lbs. That's 475 pounds of your available 939. That leaves 464 pounds for the trailer tongue. The Premier 22RBPR has an empty hitch weight of 500 pounds (no propane or battery) with an empty shipping weight of 4638. Ten percent of the empty weight on that trailer is 464 pounds.

Generally speaking, you must maintain 10% of the total trailer weight on the tongue to obtain "reasonable" towing characteristics. With your truck's payload and that trailer in tow, you'll be very hard pressed to stay above 10% tongue weight without overloading your truck.

The "shell game" I referred to is trying to use "magic" to make it work. Conventional arithmetic won't get you there.

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