Quote:
Originally Posted by marky
Thanks for the ideas, I also have limited space with my TT & a carpet with a firm backing, it will fold in half when rolled up, I found this Pic. in the (Tech. Forum Modifications by member JohnB) looks like a great Idea
but I hate to give up my spare tire holder & bike carrier
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Marky
Thanks for the good words on my rear boxes. I have been traveling for work and just getting to this.
Being a friendly camper, I do want to express caution on adding rear boxes so you do not make an accidental mistake can casue you issues. What looks to be a neat thing to do, can have a very negative effect if all things are not considered. And what works on my camper, may not work on others.
In my case I happen to have rear living room area campers. This floor plan is prone to have a lot of the cargo space on or forward of the TT axles. And as such tongue weight can rise quickly pending how much “stuff” one loads into a camper. In my case this was a problem for me. I had a ¾ ton Suburban on my T2499 and the way my gear loaded it went up to 20% tongue weight or 1400# with fresh water. This actually was too much for my truck. And again in my case I would have to totally unload the front pass thru cargo hole, leave that gear at home, to get the tongue weight down to 1200# where my truck could handle it. Not great when I still had over 900# of TT cargo capacity before reaching the TT GVWR
Sunline was still in business at the time and I exchanged several letters with them about this and an approach I had to balance the TT the way we camp with it and still have 14.5% tongue weight no fresh water and 16% with fresh and stay in the 1200# tongue range. In my case after they saw the calculations I did, they approved my modification. And I still only could add 250# to the back of the camper. The rear tire is about 45# all on it’s own, so it was only ~ 200# limit for, gear, frame, boxes and gear moved in the TT to that area. And I only moved 150#
My solution was not to carry more gear, but to move the gear I already had in different places, thus the rear boxes where born. The rear living area camper has a lot of rug on the back wall. And rug does not weight much….. to offset a heavy TT tongue layout. See here on my T310SR, also a rear living area camper. A beautiful big picture rear windows that we really like. But it comes with a price, tongue weight.
This type of floor plan has chance of being able to move weight in the rear area of the camper and not create a too light tongue weight issue or put heavy stress on the back of the camper as there is not much weight already back there.
A camper with say a rear kitchen, this could be extremely negative to TT balance as it will unload tongue weight thagt allready mya be an issue.
A rear bath camper, pending what is back there, it too may not be able to have this feature as there is already considerable weight at the back of the camper and frame flexure is something to consider.
If we look at front kitchen campers, again heavy tongue weight campers, they have a rear bed room and in the back is a monster size cargo hole under the bed. This helps relieve the tongue to be manageable.
The friendly heads up is, it will take a review of weights and balance and what other weight is already in the back of the camper from floor plan to not accidentally create a very negative effect on TT stability.
Good luck on your gear storage situation as we all have our “stuff” and where to put it. My T2499 had a side full length outdoor peg board cabinet. My new T310SR does not and I’m still trying to figure out what to do with all the cords and hoses I use to have in that peg board closet…..
Happy Camping
John
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