Did you know how well your camper travels behind your tow vehicle has a lot to do with how you loaded the contents? It’s like a pinball game, except you can actually control where the bumpers are, which lights go off, and how well the flippers maneuver your ball to make sure you keep on playing.
The first rule of the game, 60% of your total trailer weight needs to be at the front of the camper, in front of the axles.
I’ve got a few tips to help get your weight distribution right. I only have 1 axle in my 1968 Shasta Compact, and I’ve been pulling it, without sway bars or a weight distribution hitch, across the country for 4 years. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about loading the camper.
When a trailer comes designed off the assembly line, it’s designed to travel down the road without sway. Any additions or subtractions which may have been made will contribute to changed movement. Cupboards, beds, kitchens – they were all designed to support structure, air flow around the camper, and balancing weight. Structural integrity is #1. If you’ve removed permanent installations, I hope you have an engineering mind to shore it up.
But, even when a camper is 100% structurally correct, you can get dangerous sway. A little bit of added weight in the back (think a bicycle, spare tire, or cooler mounted on the back), can change your travel day from exciting to exhausting, or worse.
Like in my earlier tire pressure post, it sounds like a lot of numbers, but it’s really pretty easy to figure out, once you understand it. For simplicity, we can just think of it as the rule of thirds.
At 60%, approximately 2/3 of your weight needs to be in front of the axles. Pretty simple, right? In my camper, the kitchen is in the front, and I trust the makers balanced my stove with my refrigerator, left to right, when they built the front cupboard structure. The front of the camper was already designed to be heavier than the rear. It’s the added contents that make a difference.
So, year one, everything was cool. The camper was pretty original, and loaded lightly. No sway, no rocking, no worries.
Year two, I tried putting my bicycle on a mount on the back of the camper. Took me about 3 exits on the highway before I stopped to maneuver it inside the tiny camper, (in front of the axle.) Huge difference.
Year three, I found two great cast iron swivel chairs I fell in love with in Florida. I strapped them down inside with the bicycle. Call it an impulse need. The chairs ended up leaving me in Michigan, as they made it impossible to navigate inside the camper during the journey, much less get to the bed, but they taught me how much easier the camper went down the road with the added weight in the front.
Year four was a winner. I loaded the front lower cabinets of the camper with canned goods. Filled the front closet with my solar panel, chairs, and tables, and loaded the back storage area with every lightweight “puff” thing I wanted to take with me. Since I’d added a much needed 10” memory foam mattress in the rear, I knew I’d need more weight up front to balance the difference. I also left the bicycle behind.
There’s a simpler way to find out your ratios than experimenting. Before you travel, weigh your camper. I’ve found truck stop weigh stations to be very friendly, and pretty easy to figure things out. Google “weigh stations near me”, and you should come up with some nearby options.
Oftentimes you’ll find the closest at truck stop fueling stations, which have easy weigh scales used by truckers. Drive on, with your tow vehicle on one pad, and your camper on the other. Push the button to let the attendant know it’s your first weigh, and then go inside and pay your $12. They’ll give you a printout with all your numbers. It’s money well spent. (If your rig is as little as mine, the truckers will probably smile and talk about you. They may even stop to tell you you’re going to be in trouble for being underweight.)
Now you know your total trailer weight. Make sure it’s under the amount specified for your car’s towing capacity, which you should find in your car’s manual.
Tongue weight is the amount of that weight carried on the tongue of your trailer. Your tongue weight should be 10-15% of your total trailer weight. For example: my camper weighed 2060 pounds fully loaded when I headed back to Michigan this year. My tongue weight should come in between 206-309 pounds.
When you get home to unhook your camper, put your bathroom scale under the tongue jack. If you’re loaded correctly, it should come in at 10-15% of your total weight, if you have the trailer loaded correctly, front to back. If it’s not, shift weight between the front and back until you’re within the right range.
You could also get this measurement by unhooking your camper from your tow vehicle at the scale, to find the difference in weight on your tow vehicle. I’ve never wanted to hold up the scale long enough to try this method. If your trailer is too big to get this simple measurement on your bathroom scale, you can use an offset board to get your numbers. There are instructions and diagrams online on how to set up the offset type measurement.
Another note: If your hitch isn’t rated for the number your scale read, you better rethink your towing situation.
Propane tanks on the front also add tongue weight, so filling them is also a good way to add weight up front if you need it. Alternatively, I’ve jettisoned them prior to a long trip when I need to cut back on weight. I think of it as a cheap “stress-free travel” insurance policy.
Through trial and error, I’ve also noticed it helps if I make sure the weighty things are lower in the camper when traveling. It’s not as scary when the semi trucks pass me by. When thinking about how my world is configured, heavy stuff always goes at the bottom whenever possible.
One final consideration is water. Anything that can shift during the ride, will. Water weighs approximately 8 pounds a gallon, and a few gallons sloshing about can make a huge difference in the ride. I would recommend either keeping your tanks empty, or full, when traveling, depending on your weight needs, and the placement of your tanks.
Nothing shifts in my camper when traveling. I pack the cupboards tightly so things don’t shuffle around. I use tacky putty to stop anything from rocking on the walls. And the cat has to ride in the car with me, so she doesn’t play around back there.
Because a good travel day makes all the difference.
Safe travels!