Quote:
Originally Posted by Eastham
Hi I have a 28ft tt.towing with a express van 2500 HD.van ...i know people don't like towing with vans .with these numbers why would it not be a good tow vechicle?
|
Nothing wrong with towing with a van. I put over 100,000 miles on a van while towing a camper trailer all over the USA when my kids were still home. I did a homemade van conversion to result in a comfortable place for the kids to play or sleep while on the road. They had their own sterio with headphones (no speakers) so DW and I could enjoy our music while the kids blew out their brains with their rock junk.
Quote:
gvwr 8900lbs
empty wt 5450lb. (payload 3,450)
pay load of van is 3040.lbs. (then the empty weight of the van is not 5450
|
8900 minus 3040 = empty wt of van of 5,860
Quote:
total wt of loaded van would be 7000lb.
|
Not including hitch weight?
Quote:
trailer gvwr. is 7700lbs.
|
So tongue weight at 13% would be a max of 1,000 pounds. Add 100 pounds for good WD hitch and max hitch weight is about 1,100 pounds.
7,000 wet and loaded van plus 1,100 hitch = 8,100 GVW on the van axles. That's well within the GVWR of the van, so it sounds like you're good to go.
All that tells you is you'll have plenty of power to pull 7700 pounds trailer with a van that grosses not more than (14,600 minus 7700 =) 6,900 pounds.
Oops! Your van is going to weigh a bit more than 6,900, so you'll need to stay away from mountain passes, or else don't load the trailer up to use all of 7,700 pounds max.
That's tongue weight of an empty (dry) trailer. With a properly loaded trailer that grosses 7,000 pounds with 13% tongue weight, your tongue weight will be about 910 pounds not counting the weight of the WD hitch.