Boxr4
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I am a couple months into my 'new to me' Travel Trailer with my 22 Mojave Manual. When I bought Gladiator I did not have an intent to tow (obviously as i willingly picked the manual). When we decided to get a trailer I did geek out on gvwr, payload, frontal area etc. to confirm if Mojave could pull anything better then a tent trailer(dump Mojave for a 1500 etc if not), until friend with allot more experience, and credentials (licensed 30 year mechanic and truck/towing/ travel trailer guy) told me 'don't worry about all that if you are in the right ballpark (aka single axel sub 5000lbs TT) Gladiator will tow that fine' was his exact direction to me on this exact unit. I asked about insurance/accident even and he said, nobody is getting that detailed unless grossly innappropriate. So i went for this model being (4700 gvwr so 200lbs too heavy i know)My experience is so far he is right. 3800lbs dry, 4700lbs full capacity trailer (not planning to take it that heavy anytime, i know my max is 4500) it tows really well. Curt brake controller and weight distrobution hitch on. Pretty flat roads around me but drives dead straight/ good handling. 4th gear under 3000rpm for the most part. 90km/hr (55mph) for a couple hours and getting like 18 l/100kms (13mpg) which I think is pretty good as no trailer I usually get 11 l/100kms (20 mpg). My wife's Durango has max rating of 6200 and it does not handle TT nearly as well (3.6l v6)stability wise. As photo shows Mojave soft spring rates do sag a bit in rear. I am being as ginger on clutch as I can be, what with fire /recall risk and all. I figure as I have the heavy duty cooling, good axels and gear ratios, reinforced frame (albeit for non towing related reasons), I am set pretty well once Mopar get us the proper clutch.
This weekend I got a tongue scale and I kind of got back into the #s. With some tank use and pass-through loaded tongue was 575lbs! Tanks empty, front pass-through empty with rear storage full tongue is 475. I thought it would be lighter, closer to 400. As we know payload quickly becomes l an issue (1100 payload in my low option Mojave)as family of 4 (small, light for now, kids fortunatley, and mid sized dog) with tongue weight, hitch, recovery gear chews up Gladiator payload real fast. Most I put into box loaded is bicycles and a mid sized cooler fortunately when towing, but any real world experience in here I should be mindful of while flirting with max payload? I wish the roof rack system on trailer would have put rails over axel more then front. 2 SUP boards on tongue not helping... No I am not 'running the whoops while towing, in spite of 'No Boundaries' branding on trailer, lol, but I do find myself checking box/cab gap more then I care to admit after seeing the tongue weight... forums/internet not ususally a good place to come to calm nerves i know. Any expieriences, good or bad out there, on this payload dance we play with Gladdies?
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