New Dutchmen Owners

[hddecker]

Originally Posted by chily3

For our Aspen Trail 1900RB had it weighed yesterday loaded by not full of water or food stuff etc for a trip. The trailer weighed 4220 hooked up to the truck so we are not overloaded and probably will not be with full water tank, and the goodies for our trips. Next step is do the tongue weight to make sure have the right size equalizer bars, right now using 800 bars.

Mike

Looks to me like the bars you have are more than adequate for your camper. If you go overboard on bar size you will begin to feel it in the seat of the pants, you 'll feel every expansion joint on the interstate as if it's a pothole.

I have the same 8000# bars on my Hensley that I used on my Airstream. The Dutchmen comes in at just under 12k and I still don't crank them to the max to get a proper weight distribution. If I cranked them right up to the max I can get way too much weight moved forward to the steering axle and the back end gets squirlly and the interstate feels like a corduroy road.

When I talked with the folks at Hensley about getting a new draw bar, old one was a 4" drop and I had to get a straight draw bar to level the trailer, they said I as long as I was getting a balance in the TV, I was good to go. If I really wanted to go with the bigger bars, I could have exchanged them right there on the spot.

[Firstime RVer]

Originally Posted by chily3

For our Aspen Trail 1900RB had it weighed yesterday loaded by not full of water or food stuff etc for a trip. The trailer weighed 4220 hooked up to the truck so we are not overloaded and probably will not be with full water tank, and the goodies for our trips. Next step is do the tongue weight to make sure have the right size equalizer bars, right now using 800 bars.

That's really good to hear. I need to take mine out and get it weighed.. Since we don't plan on crossing the Rockies, My 4.3 liter Chevy work truck with a tow package is rated to tow up to 7200 lbs with a GVW or 12800 lbs.. So my plan is to try to keep the trailer to around 6000 lbs.
Will post the results of my mods and weights as soon as I can get them done..

Thanks for the good info...
All the best

[chily3]

Finally got the tongue weight it is 850 "dry" our water tank is pretty much in the middle by the front axle. I do have 800 ez lift bars and run them on the third link from the top which make everything almost level. Now my question is should I move up the 1,000 pound bars as probably will get 900 on tongue weight once everything is loaded and ready to go. Will check in the morning just before we leave. Have put in about 1/3 of tank of water as do not like to not have any for stopping lunch etc.

[wahoonc]

I would see if you can borrow a set of 1000# bars and see if they make a difference. I know with Airstreams we would run lighter bars if we were towing with a heavier vehicle to make it easier on the trailer.

Which brand of hitch are you using?

Aaron

[chily3]

Using an eaz lift hitch