towing advice -- are we crazy?

Yep. It’s crazy pushing things that much. I tow my 179 with my Highlander and wouldn’t consider towing anything heavier. The tow ratings on vehicles are set assuming nothing but a skinny driver in the TV. Totally unrealistic, as is the unloaded weight of the trailer especially if you want to carry gear and water to boon dock or drycamp.. On top of that you have to ask yourself how close to the manufacturer’s limit you want to operate. We have folks once a week or more frequently here wanting to tow too heavy a trailer with too light a TV.

If it’s fuel economy towing that worries you about a heavier vehicle don’t. It will be about the same, around 12-14 mpg regardless of what you tow with. That’s because as jato says air drag on the trailer dominates the power requirement, and of course that doesn’t change when you change TV’s.

Colonel Podder, what was your trailer weight? You might be able to reduce tongue weight by moving some stuff aft as long as you keep the tongue weight above around 11% of total trailer weight.

Originally posted by dsj123 Nope -- the weird singular one [192] with the murphy bed!

So the trailer weight is 9800-5560=4240.

The tongue weight is 2660+3560-5560=660. Tongue weight is at 15.6% of trailer weight. That’s all fine I think assuming it’s within your truck’s limits.

On date of purchase the trailer weighed 4000 and the tongue 520, for a 13% tongue weight. So you added 240 lbs of which 140 went on the tongue. Typical, FR’s listed tongue weights are optimistic to say the least.

I do notice that your truck weighs 20 lbs less (essentially the same weight within the limits of accuracy of the scales) then when you picked up your rpod so presumably you haven’t loaded it for camping yet. I’d suggest you do that and also add water in the water heater heater and fresh water tank (if you plan on dry camping), clothes and food and weigh again to get a “final” set of numbers. After that you should be good to go unless you make some major changes.

Originally posted by offgrid So the trailer weight is 9800-5560=4240. The tongue weight is 2660+3560-5560=660. Tongue weight is at 15.6% of trailer weight. That’s all fine I think assuming it’s within your truck’s limits. On date of purchase the trailer weighed 4000 and the tongue 520, for a 13% tongue weight. So you added 240 lbs of which 140 went on the tongue. Typical, FR’s listed tongue weights are optimistic to say the least. I do notice that your truck weighs 20 lbs less (essentially the same weight within the limits of accuracy of the scales) then when you picked up your rpod so presumably you haven’t loaded it for camping yet. I’d suggest you do that and also add water in the water heater heater and fresh water tank (if you plan on dry camping), clothes and food and weigh again to get a “final” set of numbers. After that you should be good to go unless you make some major changes.