suspension upgrade with a 7000 GVW travel trailer

[Polo08816]

With 950 lbs tongue weight and maybe another 50 lbs for the WDH itself, you've only got around 500 lbs payload including driver and passengers, if your expy has a 1500 lb payload like mine.

Was the trailer and truck loaded for a typical trip when you weighed it?

1lbs of tongue weight isn't exactly a 1:1 with 1lbs of payload because it's overlooking the vehicle's rear axle weight rating.

In fact, tongue weight applies a lever action on the rear axle so it's possible that 1lbs of force from the tongue weight could translate into 1.2 lbs of force on the rear axle.

 

[ryanpe]

Thanks for all the advice! In discussion with Fastway trailers, the manufacturer of the Fastway e2 1200 WDH that they recommended for my 2516s, I re-measured all aspects of the trailer and expy on a totally flat concrete surface. Bottom line is that the standard shank that Fastway ships with all their hitches measures 2.250" too high on my expy relative to the tongue coupler on the level 2516s. Therefore I had a 2.25" pitch on my trailer. Fastway mentioned that they have an allowance of +1" - 0" on this dimension but most people don't really care about a 2' difference. Optimally, the ball height on my truck should be dead even with the coupler height on the perfectly level trailer measured from the frame rails. From my discussion, I ordered a drop shank from Fastway which will accommodate the 2.25" height difference. I just installed it on my fully fueled and loaded expo and it is now exactly at the correct height. It's very snowy here so time will tell on our first trip how it reacts. Thanks everyone!