WEIGHING YOUR POPUP
Knowing the weights of your popup/tow vehicle combination prior to purchase is important to ensure you do not exceed your towing capacity, GCWR, and/or axle capacities of either your tow vehicle or popup. One thing is for certain, your popup or trailer WILL weigh much more than is stated in the promotional literature. For my popup, the popular options (furnace, water heater, awning, refrigerator) added about 300 lbs. We pack around 250-300 lbs in the trailer, which leads to the loaded weight below.
Once purchased the only way to determine this figure is to go to a scale and weigh it. You can either pay to have it weighed at a CAT scale or you can try going to your local dump or hardware store with raw materials yard and weigh it there. My local ACE hardware has a scale and they let me use it for free.
If you are unsure of your maximum ratings, check your owners manual, sticker on your door jamb, or contact your manufacturer. If you are still having difficulty, contact me at
SactoCampers@yahoo.com and I will try to steer you in the right direction.
Below are the figures for my combination:
Advertised Dry Weight: 1705 lbs
Loaded Weight (scale weighed): 2240 lbs
Advertised Dry Tongue Weight: 215 lbs
Loaded Tongue Weight: 360 lbs
Advertised Dry Axle Weight: 1490 lbs
Loaded Axle Weight: 1880 lbs
Unloaded Minivan Weight: 4530 lbs
Gross Combined Weight (GCW): 7020 lbs
Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR): 8300 lbs
Front Axle Weight Rating (FAWR): 2850 lbs
Loaded Front Axle Weight: 2460 lbs
Rear Axle Weight Rating (RAWR): 2906 lbs
Loaded Rear Axle Weight: 2680 lbs
