NEW 192 pod tomorrow...

The wdhs I've seen have around 18 inch bars, but if yours are 35 inches then they are. To be clear, I'm talking about the spring bars which you put under tension to lift the hitch.

The place in the calculator that's used is to calculate the moment (torque) the wdh is applying at the ball to rotate the tow vehicle down in the front and up at the hitch. Once you have the calculator set up for your rig you can adjust the tension on the bars to get the weight on the front axle back to where it was without the trailer, which is the proper way to set up a wdh.

Start with no tension on the bars and don't have the bars tensioned when you go through the scales. Have the wdh installed though. You can put the wdh bars in the back of the tow vehicle for weighing if that's more convenient. The WDH is considered to be part of the tow vehicle not the trainer.

To get the water heater tank empty you have to pull the anode rod. You might be able to get most of the water out by pulling the heater tank pressure relief valve and opening a winterizing drain, not sure. Either way it's a bit of a PITA so hopefully you can stay within your weights without having to drain the water heater every time.

The trailer GVWR should be 4840 according to your sticker. Since the You need to get a tape measure and measure the distance from the trailer axle to the ball and also from the Traverse rear axle to the ball. Also measure the length of your wdh bars, I'm sure they're not 30 inches, typically they're 18. And the wdh rating should be what's published for your hitch, in the range of 600-1000 lbs for your rig.
The trailer GVWR and tongue weight should be your actual fully loaded weights as measured on the public scale.

if you choose to never fill your water tanks be sure to drain and dump at the campground every time before you hit the road. Consider if that's really practical for the kind of camping you do. If it's not practical then fill your fresh water tank before you go to the scales. As a minimum, you need to have the water heater tank full when you weigh. That's about 50 lbs right there. Fill your fuel tank too and take your wife and pets (if any) and all the tools, folding chairs, bbq grills, propane tanks, ground cloths, etc etc. You will be surprised how quickly it all adds up.

I appreciate everyone's Sound Advice here. Obviously your experience is my gain.

We do plan to travel relatively empty. Told the wife that decorations are going to be kept to a minimum as well as no Towing with tanks full.

Since we are coming from a pop up world, we're pretty used to buying items once we arrived at our destination, IE water Gatorade Etc. So not too much of a change for us that way either. First trips are going to be somewhat local so that we can kind of gauge how everything pulls and how it feels.

+2  to OG.

The Traverse is going to be pretty close to it's max towing limits hauling a 192, or over if you carry lots if gear.

You need to look at the GCWR (gross combined weight rating) and the tongue weight as well as the trailer weight. The WDH does not actually increase any of these, it only improves handling by placing more weight back on the front axle.

So please do the following. Load the entire rig as you plan to actually travel. People, pets, supplies, fuel, gear, toolkit, water in the fresh water tank if youre carrying it, water in the water heater, batteries, etc. It adds up fast, youll be surprised.

Install the wdh but do NOT tension the bars, it will throw off the weights. Go to a public scale and weigh the rig, rolling on one axle at a time so you get the weight on each of the 3.

Then disconnect the trailer, leave the wdh in the receiver, and go through the scales again one axle at a time with just the Traverse and everything in it.

If you subtract the Traverse weight in the second weighing from the total combined rig weight from the first weighing you get the trailer weight.

Similarly, if you subtract the weight of the Traverse in the second weighing from the combined weight of the two Traverse axles from the first weighing you get the tongue weight.

Then put all your weights and specs in this calculator to see if you're within limits. Most of the load specs are on your driver's side door sticker or in the trailer sticker, some might be in your vehicle owners manual, and a couple will be length measurements you take. At the bottom of the calculator you will see dual gauges for each load spec.

If you're out of spec, you'll
have to remove some stuff or shift it around, or use a heavier tow vehicle. Up to you how close you want to get to each max limit, most of us want a decent safety factor (10-20 % or so) so we're not right at the hairy edge.

Have fun and be safe.




towing calculator