You're getting some poor advice in this thread -- based on dry weights, tow capacity, and other red herrings. These questions are actually quite simple. Payload, who/what is in your vehicle, and what is the GVWR of your trailer. Easy peasy.
Anything less than a HD truck will run out of payload long before anything else. So, take those tow capacity numbers and toss them in the trash. They're irrelevant for towing an RV. You need one number and only one number: payload (from your door jamb sticker). That's it.
The OP doesn't list the payload, so you can't really say. But, later in the thread, a response posted the following information.
I'll use this as an illustration to the OP:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacjayco
I tow our 212qb with our 2017 Nissan Pathfinder Platinum. V6, full tow package. Rated at 6,000 lbs. TV payload is 1,149. TT weighs 4,403 from the factory. TT hitch weight is 470 lbs. empty.Tt payload is 1,097 lbs. [...]
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Any trailer other than toy haulers and 5ers will be at or near the GVWR for that trailer. Most have CCC of 1,500 lbs or less and it's really hard not to chew through that with factory options, dealer options, cookware, leveling gear, tools, bedding, food, drink, fresh water, and so on. RV dry weights are just about useless.
This one has only 1,097 lbs of CCC and that's a number that's a lot easier to eat through than it might seem (again, factory and dealer options eat into this ... the trailer on the lot will have less than 1,097 lbs of available capacity).
When budgeting out what your prospective trailer will weigh, you want to be shopping based on the GVWR of those trailers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by powhatanone
[...] I plan to purchase a trailer in the 3,500 to 4,300 Weight range. [...]
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You need to be much more specific about the "weight range" you're referring to. If you were conned into looking at the fictional dry weights, then you may need to recalibrate to the realistic GVWRs.
So, in this Nissan Pathfinder example, I'd expect the 212qb trailer to be 5,500 lbs rolling down the road. 12.5-15% will be on the tongue for 690-825 lbs on the hitch.
Anything less than 10% is unsafe, so, at an absolute minimum, there will be 550 lbs on the hitch. But smaller trailers (maybe longer ones, too) will always tow better with a bit more weight on the tongue ... and most will naturally do this based on where cargo is located.
12.5% is a good value to use for expected tongue weight on the tow vehicle. Again, in this specific example, we'd use 690 lbs.
Add 50 lbs for the WDH, and there's ~740 lbs. The payload is 1,149, so that means that there is ~400 lbs for everything in or on the truck.
An average couple is going to be 300 lbs (180 husband + 120 wife) or more. Everything else counts, too. If you added a LineX bed liner, stereo gear, offroad lights, tools, food, duffle bags, pets, etc. It all counts against the payload capacity.
You can see how tight this gets with even a smaller trailer.
It's a pretty easy couple of calculations, though.
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