Well, I guess it is close to that time when everyone posts their favorite gear for the year.
How Much Trailer Can You Tow (Part 3)?
In Part 1, I discussed some general thoughts on matching a tow vehicle and a trailer, to include tongue weight and gross weight specifications.
In Part 2, I took a deeper dive into tongue weights and presented the idea that a tow vehicle’s maximum tongue weight specification is usually the limiting factor in how large a trailer you can tow.
The conclusion in both is that perhaps we bought a trailer that is too heavy for our Ford Expedition; although I shared that I understood all the weight implications before we purchased.
So here is the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.
Patagonia, shame on you
Let me state up front: I like Patagonia products. I have lots of Patagonia items and have been doing business with them since the early 1980’s, when they were Chouinard Equipment. The gear is good, and Patagonia gets top dollar for it.
This may surprise you, but I am not going to talk about gear; I am going to talk about advertising.
Dave Chenault on Gear Reviews…
CREDIBILITY
Nice article on Bedrock & Paradox by Dave, “That’s not a review”
Dave is not as subtle as me:)
But in the same vein as what I wrote in several posts:
I took it a bit further in Backpacking Gear Is Getting Boring
How Much Trailer Can You Tow (Part 2)?
Before we discuss trailer weight, tow vehicle weight, and total combined weight, a discussion about hitches is in order. There are a lot of misconceptions about trailer tongue weight, hitch weight and how to calculate what you have in your rig.
This is not meant to be a technical “White Paper” but just a general overview. If you need more information, then Google is your friend. But this article might help you sort out the sea of confusion that is the Internet.
Once the concepts are understood, we can discuss our “too heavy” trailer in Part 3.