2015 Keystone Laredo 299BH

[mavagrand]

Wife and I are seriously considering buying this unit. It is beautiful. My only concern is the tongue weight. My truck is a 2013 Ram 1500 with the tow package. It has a max tow of 8800lbs and a max payload of 1650, with a GCVWR of 14,150. The trailer weighs (empty) at 6880 and is rated at 8200 for a full load. The camper has a tongue weight of 830lbs which leave me about 830lbs of cargo. I know this is close. I think the weights are OK, but am concerned about pulling 29ft of sail behind my truck, I'm worried about sway and buffeting in high wind. Any co mments? Here's a link:

http://www.keystonerv.com/laredo/#/floorplans

[therink]

I believe the 830 lb tongue weight is the dry weight. Loaded, the tongue weight will be around 13 percent of loaded trailer weight. Figure on the trailer weighing 8000 loaded. The tongue will weigh around 1100 lbs. In my opinion, too much for your truck.
I recommend trailer with 6500 gvwr or less.
Steve

[mavagrand]

Originally Posted by therink

I believe the 830 lb tongue weight is the dry weight. Loaded, the tongue weight will be around 13 percent of loaded trailer weight. Figure on the trailer weighing 8000 loaded. The tongue will weigh around 1100 lbs. In my opinion, too much for your truck.
I recommend trailer with 6500 gvwr or less.
Steve

Thanx, Steve. One question about loading the trailer. If I loaded cargo in the camper behind the axles toward the rear, would that not lessen the tongue weight on the front?

And, since I'm installing a WDH, would that not, by virtue of spreading the weight over the entire truck, ease the load on the hitch?

[therink]

Putting gear behind axles will lower tongue weight, but you need to maintain min 13 percent tongue weight proportionate to what you load or sway will be an issue even with WD hitch.
Even if you spread some weight to front axle of truck with WD hitch, you u are still adding weight to truck. Payload is payload.
I hate to say but that is a lot of TT for the ram 1500. If you are dead set on doing it than consider upgrading tires to loadrange E. You likely have P rated which are not good for towing especially at max capacity of the truck. P rated tires are softe and can promote sway. I was in the same bboat once but I didn't listen and ended up having to upgrade to a bigger truck after I bought the trailer.
I'm sure someone will chime in with their two cents.

[mavagrand]

Gonna pick the camper up Saturday. 95% of camping is just the wife and I, we'll keep the truck empty and haul our limited supplies in the camper.

[mavagrand]

Ok, picked the camper up Saturday, drove home Sunday. I was surprised how smooth and easily my truck towed the camper. Much better experience than I expected. Had to travel about 50 miles, mostly flat with an termperature hoving around 90 -95* outside. Watching my gauges, my oil temp rose to 230* while on the interstate and dropped as soon as my RPMs did. Probably gonna put in synthetic oil at my oil change. Other than that, I'm pleased with the combination.

[bkpp300]

I hope everything works out for you!!

I was sort of in the same boat, I was pulling a 30ft passport with a 2001 5.9L Durango. She could pull it but the heat would raise on hills even with the factory tow package. I never had an issue with sway because of the sway bars but i did put E rated Nitto tires on it which I'm sure helped a lot. Less than a year later I'm now towing with a 2005 RAM 2500 HD Hemi and its a world of a difference. put a lower T-stat in it.

Just be careful and have fun!

[mavagrand]

Originally Posted by therink

Putting gear behind axles will lower tongue weight, but you need to maintain min 13 percent tongue weight proportionate to what you load or sway will be an issue even with WD hitch.
Even if you spread some weight to front axle of truck with WD hitch, you u are still adding weight to truck. Payload is payload.
I hate to say but that is a lot of TT for the ram 1500. If you are dead set on doing it than consider upgrading tires to loadrange E. You likely have P rated which are not good for towing especially at max capacity of the truck. P rated tires are softe and can promote sway. I was in the same bboat once but I didn't listen and ended up having to upgrade to a bigger truck after I bought the trailer.
I'm sure someone will chime in with their two cents.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Wished I would have listened to you Steve. Even though the tow numbers were good with this set up and, with the WDH, the truck towed the unit with ease, I was getting sway during moderate winds and when passed by semi trucks. so much so it made me nervous. I just upgraded to a 2500 Ram, got plenty of room now. Expensive lesson. Thanks for your good, albeit ignored, advice.

[therink]

Originally Posted by mavagrand

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Wished I would have listened to you Steve. Even though the tow numbers were good with this set up and, with the WDH, the truck towed the unit with ease, I was getting sway during moderate winds and when passed by semi trucks. so much so it made me nervous. I just upgraded to a 2500 Ram, got plenty of room now. Expensive lesson. Thanks for your good, albeit ignored, advice.

Sometimes you just don't know until you try. The only reason I offered my 2 cents was because I had been there, done that. Good luck and enjoy.
Steve