That picture always raises eyebrows. The sticker on the trailer says 3900# dry. I know that's without options, propane, battery, water etc. But I was really surprised to find out what the true weight was.

Couple of weeks ago I took it to a truck stop and weighed it with and without trailer / front, rear, and trailer.

Hitched
Front 2300#
Rear 3500#
Trailer 4560#

Unhitched
Front 2520#
Rear 2360#
Trailer 5500#

WOW! I've been tugging a 5500# trailer with 1000# tongue weight and the aero of a barn and getting 12-16 mpg! That's good.

What isn't so good is the complete lack of weight distribution from the Hensley Arrow (I think it's from the AirLift springs already lifting the rear) and the heavy rear axle weight (96% of the stock tires rated load capacity). That particular tug felt real good though. I think I'll keep the weight on the rear and get some load range E's and be happy.

Another surprise was the unhitched weight of the little red tractor. Yeah, I had some extra equipment in the back (3 gal jug of water, 20T bottle jack, wheel chocks, etc.) and probably some mud on the top of the skids but 4880#? Over 5K with me in it?

I weighed it a week later without the MT/R's (stock tires & wheels + trailering equip) and the KJ was only 4760# so the MT/R's + steel wheels weigh an additional 24# ea.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

My 17' Casita Spirit Deluxe is around 3000 with 365 pounds tongue weight. My fuel mileage is 17 mpg.

Your numbers don't look to good to me eather I noticed when I put my 365 pounds on the hitch the rear goes down not quite a inch. Do I understand you have air bags/shocks on the KJ? Are they necessary Are they really necessary?

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Atlantic Blue 06 CRD Limited (his)
Joined by a 2000 XJ Classic (hers)

I have AirLift bags in the rear springs. They are not required, in a way they actually hurt. Because they lift the rear, they take away from the load leveling function of my hitch.

However, they increase stability, especially under max torque in first and second gear and highway cruising with a crosswind. Without them the rear suspension bounced all over the place. I like them for the stability increase and will just plan on getting some load range E tires to carry the weight. I'm not worried about the axle, it's basically the same as used in the Durango/Dakota.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

danoid, where did you get the towing mirrors

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Stump doctor

Landy Front hitch
2006 CRD all stock
scan guage 2

Camping World. It's supposed to mount at the window but I pop the hood and hook it in the body near the hood latch instead. There are several brands McKesh comes to mind first but I think mine are Eagle somethingorother.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

It would be interesting to see on the scale how tensioning the hitch bars affects weight transfer. Are you running with the bars highly tensioned?

Wobbly

I think the Hensley Arrow hitch is different then a conventional weight distribution hitch.

Joe

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Atlantic Blue 06 CRD Limited (his)
Joined by a 2000 XJ Classic (hers)

The Arrow's weight distribution is accomplished by tensioning the spring arms. I haven't seen any scale data, though.
The manual says that it's impossible to over-tension the spring arms, but that more tension will make the tow vehicle ride harder.

Unhitched front weight 2520# / hitched 2360# so approx 200 pounds are being shifted front to rear - backwards to expectation.

Trailer unhitched weight 5500# / hitched 4560# - or around 1000# tongue
unhitched Front + rear axle 4880# / hitched 5800# - or around 1000# tongue

Unhitched rear 2360# / hitched 3500#= around 1000# tongue + 200# transfer front to rear. So the math (in rough numbers) appears to add up.

What I didn't measure was hitched without weight distribution (like what you said would be interesting). It's $8 a weigh and I felt I've spent enough there.

The bars are cranked nearly in (farther in is more tension) and are rated to 1000#. I can purchase a set of 1400# bars for about $240 but the trailer is level now. More tension would crank the front of the trailer up and overload the rear trailer axle.

Alternately I could use the 2" drop bar (instead of the 4" I used that weekend) and put less pressure in the AirLifts. With the trailer level I would expect more weight transfer rear to front with a lower back end, but like I said, it felt real stable with all that weight on the rear axle and 50 psi in the MT/R's (Load Range D).

I have a set of Michelin XPS Ribs (Load Range E) picked out for the spring and those will be the main tugging / summer tires and I'll save the MT/R's for winter and goofing off.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

If you raised the trailer hitch wouldn't that be raising the rear and transfering weight to the front? That's the way my Draw-Tite single bar instructions explained it

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Atlantic Blue 06 CRD Limited (his)
Joined by a 2000 XJ Classic (hers)

I raise the back with the AirLifts and use a 4" drop instead of a 2" drop to keep the trailer level. When I do that, it's doing the same thing as the weight distribution is trying to do - defeating (at least a portion of) the weight distribution.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

Now all you need to do is weigh the trailers left side and right side. When loaded. Your looking for weight balance.

Terry

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2011 Ford F-150 XLT 4X4

Its ok to have a bit of a weight bias towards the drivers side to counter out the crown of the road. If you look at most cars and trucks they put the batteries on the drivers side for just this reason.

Well, we got the certificates of origins and manufacture today for our Rockwood 2605... Unladen weight is listed at 4699lbs, and it will be higher once it's packed with stuff and the battery/propane are installed and filled. Danoid, I'm not far behind you.

We pick up this Saturday. Hopefully all will go well!

- Chris

Think real light or you'll be a thousand pounds ahead of me. I went from a listed 3900# trailer to a nearly (trailer axle) maxed 5600# without trying hard.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

Danoid, what's your unladen (dry) weight? It should be on a sticker inside a cabinet door. That's where I've usually seen them. Your original 3900lbs weight is hopefully the unoptioned weight. Our unoptioned weight was 4100lbs according to the brochure, so we've got 600lbs in options (awning, oven, fridge, water heater, stereo/speakers, etc.).

- Chris

I don't remember which sticker the 3900# weight is. The trailer is at the storage yard - I'll look next time I go over there.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

Hi Danoid,

How does your trailer pull? We picked ours up yesterday in Albany NY, and brought it back home to the Poconos in PA. We had a real horror story with the dealer (more to come on that later), but the trip home went well. It was very windy and semis were flying by us on I-87 and I-84, but the anti-sway on the Hensley hitch was absolutely fantastic.

The CRD pulled well on flat ground in 4th or 5th, but really struggled up some of the longer grades. I charged up one particularly long grade on I-84 in NY in 3rd gear with overdrive off at 65mph, and I just kept slowing... and slowing... and slowing... By the time we got to the top of the grade, we were down to 40mph. Even if wind resistance were the primary culprit, you'd thing it would slow down to a point where it would find a decent steady state. It's a good thing we weren't coming eastbound on I-84 (from PA into NY) - the uphill side of this grade is twice as high in that direction! The coolant temperature needle never budged during the trip.

Our CRD has the F37 TCM code applied (yuck) and did have the easy ORM (MAF unplugged). I'm wondering if transmission temperature was causing the engine output to be reduced? I was very careful to switch in and out of overdrive to keep the TC locked, so I'd hope the transmission temperature was reasonable. The optioned trailer weight is 4699lbs according to both the cabinet sticker and the Certificate of Origin, plus two full 20lb propane tanks and the battery. I was really hoping it would handle the hills better than this.

I will be out of town for the next few days, but I'd like to get to a scale and get some actual weights when I come back. Oh yeah, and pictures!

- Chris

You really have to get the trailer weighed. My dry weight to camping weight difference was a real surprise. In Michigan, there aren't that many grades. But I still downshift often. I pull at 65 and if speed goes down to 60 I'm in third until I get my speed back. The only grade I had real problems with was I75 south from Cincinati into Kentucky. Everyone decided to come to a stop at the bottom and I had to accelerate and climb. Could only manage 2nd gear. Engine started to overheat and the bell chimed once (the engine will reduce power then) then the transmission started to overheat, thats when things (strangely) got better. Once the transmission went into it's overheat protection the torque converter locked in 2nd gear and we bulled up the hill. There's just no power to the wheels with the torque converter unlocked.

Your engine coolant gage probably didn't move because there was a change to the programming. It lies now.

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2005 CRD Limited Flame Red w/ Renegade rock rails & light bar, AirLift 1000. 225/75R16 MT/R's on cheap black steel wheels, dual MOPAR subwoofers, Ipod kit & seat covers, Samco hoses - totaled and gone. 2008 WK Laredo 3.0L diesel - AirLift 1000, wife won't let me mess with it much. 2013 JK Sahara on order.

I definitely want to get it to a scale when I get back from this conference. We've got no camping stuff in it yet, so it's still at its dry weight plus propane and battery (no water). Looking at the pictures, your front end is raked and mine is more vertical (ick). That hurts my aerodynamics. Drag really seems to be key with this setup. Around town, it really pulls the trailer well from stoplight to stoplight. I was surprised how well it merges onto the freeway. However, get it up to a reasonable highway speed and it takes a bit of work to keep it there.

I'm just wondering if my vehicle is running right or not. You mentioned you don't have a lot of hills in Michigan, but we've got plenty of them here. The grade up I-84 is a few miles long. (In the westbound direction I came on Sunday, it's only a mile uphill, then a three mile downhill off the plateau.) If you're going up grades with no problems and I'm not, then I suspect my vehicle. Otherwise, I need to figure out a solution or rethink the setup.

I'll share the weights once I get them.

- Chris