RU-vid videos have helped me out with so many projects over the years. I created this channel to post things that I hope will help someone else out someday.
Thanks for the video. We've been trying to figure out how to remove the roller shade, and this video seems to address our type of mounting the bracket. We'll give it a try tomorrow.
It’s a strong adhesive pad. I haven’t tried to take mine off so I can’t really say if it’ll hurt anything. Mine is on stainless steel so I doubt it would hurt it.
I’ve never had any problems while we’ve been traveling or camping. There was one time the camper had been in storage during a very hot time and one of the pads came loose. I pressed it back on and haven’t had any problems since then. Since there are 2 on the refrigerator door, I do have a backup in case it happens while I’m driving.
Having just picked up my 2109s. I drove across the scales and came out with 860 tongue weight. It felt a little swayish on the way home towing with my f150 but maybe I was just a little sensitive. My hitch was rated at 500 #s so I’m getting a properly rated hitch from a friend tomorrow. At least I’ll feel a little better if I go camping at the beginning of the week awaiting my WDH to arrive by the weeks end.
This video and the comments have me wondering. I drive a f50 with the 3.5 ecoboost , 7200 # payload limit. I’m supposed to get my 2109 tt on Saturday. I was thinking of getting a carrier to put the generator on and put it on the back of the trailer. This might actually help the tongue weight issue. I just sold my single axle, 3k dry trailer but last year I had the water reservoir full, 32 gal, and my buddies heavy suitcase was just above the water on a bunk maybe slightly behind the axle and heading out of town, I got a little sway action. I was getting gas a few miles later and I moved some weight up to the front of the trailer, no more sway issue so that was in my mind, about the weight on the back if I put the generator at the back. Either way my plan was to check out the CAT scale after I get the trailer but I wish dealerships were honest about trailers and if the tow vehicles would be able to tow specific trailers. My door says I have between 1300 to 1400 payload capacity. Minus 500 # for two men only leaves me 800-900 #. And I’m not buying a new truck, manufacturer have priced themself out of business!
We love our 2109S and have had no problems while towing. We are definitely mindful of keeping additional weight out of the truck to stay below our payload capacity. You’re right about too much weight in the back of the trailer causing sway. An “unloaded” tongue is not good. The rule of thumb I’ve read is 12-15% of the trailer weight should be on the tongue. We have not had any trailer sway from this trailer. Good luck with everything and Happy Camping! 😀
I’ve read that a lot of people are having the same problem where the factory doesn’t fill in those holes where the clips go. Hopefully, that solves your problem too.
You are EXACTLY correct. I tow this exact trailer with my 5.7 Sequoia. I ran all of the numbers and this rig is utterly maxed out when loaded and ready to roll. And its only my wife and I. The Sequoia is rated at "7200# tow capacity" but it is utterly meaningless because the Sequoia's max gross vehicle weight is maxxed way before this tow capacity is ever reached. I use a Blue Ox WD hitch and I inflate all tires to the maximum recommended pressure before each run.
Thanks. Great video, with a lot of food-for-thought. Just bought (but have not yet picked up) a 2024 2109S -- wish the Forest River spec sheet was more clear about what did-and-did-not factor into the printed tongue-weight (or did I just miss it?). This comes into play for me since part of my purchase involves a dealer-installed Husky WDH. Now I'm wondering if they're installing the #32216 (tongue weight 400-600#) or the #32217 (600-800#). Based on your numbers, maybe I should've requested the #32218 (800-1200#). My guess is that they'll just go with the 557# hitch weight on the FR spec sheet (and the #32216), which means my WDH will be under-spec'd. Will find out.
I'm glad I found out my actual tongue weight so I can keep my payload within the limits of the truck. It's one less thing to worry about. Good luck with your 2109S. We love ours. It's a great size and can fit just about anywhere.
@@jackg7225 Towing with a 2018 Ford F150, 8-cyl. Since my above post I've made two trips, one predominantly flat in Texas and NM, and the other with a good bit of elevation gain in Colorado, where I live. The F150 is a crew cab with a 3.55 axle, GVWR=7,000, GCWR=14,400 and Payload Capacity=1,679. Actual Sherline'd hitch weight is 850#, and I'm using a Husky wdh. Obviously more than half of my payload is taken up by hitch weight. As to your question re. "Have I been happy with towing (the 2109S with this vehicle)", I would have to say "Yes", though I would always like to get more mpg (only averaging about 10mpg). BUT, subjectively, I must say that I doubt that I'd tow anything much heavier with the F150, mostly due to my sense of "laboring" the engine on grades, but also because of the "numbers". With two adults, two large dogs and a modicum of tools, spare gas and water, and misc equipment, I'm right at the truck's 7000# GVWR, which is the biggest negative. As a 2109S owner, you're already aware of the TT's weight -- mine is stickered at 4435# with a max cargo payload of 1343#, giving a gross combined trailer weight of 5778#. Assuming I don't fully-load the trailer (say only 1000#), and my towing capacity is only 7,400# (i.e. GCWR minus GVWR), the above combined trailer weight puts me at 73% of towing capacity (if all my math is correct). As I noted, vehicle towing preference is very subjective, but since the 2109S puts my F150 at max payload and 73% of towing capacity (some sages recommend staying below 80%), I think I have support for my opinion that the F150 is OK towing the 2109S, but nothing much more.
holy cow, have same year and model, thanks for the tip, would have never known, didnt even notice there was a usb charger there too... big thumbs up!!!!
Great video! I'm afaid I bought the same exact replacement that you bought. My original handle lasted 12 years. The very cheap (cost and quality) replacement lasted less than 10 months and just broke! I'm afraid your's will probably be breaking any day now.😟 I just left a terrible review of the specific item on Amazon, then I noticed, Oh! What a coincidence, that specific item is no longer for sale on Amazon. I see another on Amazon has a 1yr warranty. But I suspect these obscure companies sell an item for a few months, then once they start breaking and racking up negative reviews (around 8 months for this item?), they just change the part number and keep selling the same garbage but under a different company name and/or part number.
That’s too bad you had a problem. They are cheap handles and you definitely get what you pay for. $20 vs $120 OEM Mine has been working great for 2 years. I’m sure it’ll break at some point too.
@@jasonjohnson9403 On the side of the lever arms is where mine broke twice. Wherever you see the hinged part moving add an additional layer of protection (epoxy) to thicken the hinged material. It's all around where the outer plastic is hinged.
@brianandreasen2200 this happened to me about a month ago. If you pry in the center bottom of the handle you can get that retaining clip to release to get a little space. From there you're going to have to snap the plastic where those 2 bolts attach the handle to the tailgate, I just rocked it back and forth until they snapped off. Then you should be able to move the handle out of the way to get to those two side rods and pull them together to release both tailgate latches. There's probably an easier way out there but this worked for me in the middle of the woods with no cell service to look up a video. Good Luck
Great information and awesome use of that scale. Also I believe you said that the trailer was empty. If you add another 1000 lb of cargo, roughly 10-15% of that or 100-150 lb more will be added to the tongue weight which will push you right up to the truck's payload capacity.
It had all the typical gear already loaded. We don't add bikes or anything other like that when we camp. You're right though, weight can add up fast if you aren't paying attention.
Everybody is so stuck on payload capacity. I tow with a ford f150 and we are within the numbers but our ford explorer which is a 7 passenger vehicle. If we put 7 adults weighing 220 pounds each we are over the explorers payload.
Just made this chamge today on an 2008 crew max. AWESOME RESULTS. Just be careful not to drop one of the nuts behind the carpet trim... I was able to trap it and peel the carpet back to be able to get it but my heart skipped a beat for a minute there. Great explanation thanks so much for this!
The gear in storage area plus weekend clothes plus battery probably pushing 300 Lbs. Truck cargo capacity is not the same as truck tongue weight capacity which is usually about 10% of towing capacity.
Payload is all the weight that can be added to a vehicle before it exceeds it's GVWR; a legal weight capacity. Tongue weight counts towards GVW/GVWR and against Payload. Hitch reciever ratings are a completely different thing, not a legal capacity and not typically a limiting factor in this class of trailer, at least not with a class IV or larger hitch reciever.
I suspect bad weight distribution in the RV. The two full 30 lb bottles and one deep cycle 12V battery puts a 150 to 175 added pounds to the tongue. Whatever, you have too much tongue weight as is.
Too many people look up their trailer's hitch (tongue) weight published in brochures and use that number. Wrong. That is the tongue weight estimated from trailer's DRY weight. The safe way to estimate tongue weight is to calculate 12-15% of the trailer's GVWR (dry weight + cargo capacity). For your trailer, the spec GVWR is about 5,692 lbs (4,171 lbs dry weight + 1,521 lbs cargo capacity). Take 15% of the trailer's GVWR and you get 854 lbs; that's very close to your number! You are very smart to limit what you carry in your Tundra. I wish all other RVers were as conscientious about weight limits as you are! I would also take your rig (loaded for travel) to the CAT scales to further quantify all numbers and to ensure the front and rear axle weight ratings are within limitations. And, finally, use those axle weights to compare with your tires' load weight rating.
Agree 100%! I see people towing giant rigs with little trucks but I think (hope) it’s out of ignorance. This is my 4th camper and no dealer ever talked about payload. I thank Facebook groups for the education on payload and towing safely. Yeah, load rating of tires is another good conversation. Happy camping!
So how does the weight distribution hitch effect the actual tongue weight and the trailer weight? I have heard that the weight distribution hitch can reduce the tongue weight down by 50%, which I then assume would increase the trailers weight by the remaining 50%. Does this make sense at all?
Yes, a WDH definitely moves weight off the tongue and redistributes it forward and backward. Ideally 12-15% of the trailer's weight will be on the tongue. I've never been to a CAT scale to figure out exactly how much weight is on each axle with and without the WDH. It's on my list of things I want to do but never seem to have the time on the way out of town when we are completely loaded up.
No wdh will ever move 50% of TW back to the trailer...and you wouldn't want it to as that would unload the tongue and an unloaded tongue is the main cause of sway. A wdh has 1 purpose; to move TW from the the TV drive axle to it's steer axle to fix an unloaded steer axle that happens when bumper towing. A wdh sends a nominal amount of TW back to the trailer...typically around 100 lbs...just enough to offset the weight of the wdh itself.
The WDH if tight will throw at least 150Lbs or more back onto the trailer frame. In my case it’s 200 Lbs onto the TT’s frame. I know from the Cat-Scale. Our TT is a Grand Design XLS 22mle. My hitch weight loaded is 790Lbs.
That’s my thought as well. Although, I still haven’t been able to get to a CAT scale to see exactly how much. I still don’t load additional cargo inside my truck. I really don’t want to push the payload capacity. Happy camping!
That's been my experience as well (i.e. the WDH throwing weight back onto the TT). I recently scaled my Rockwood 2109S and F150 and observed the following: Unhitched Hitched w/o WDH Hitched w/ WDH Steer Axle 3240# 2920# 3080# Drive Axle 3080# 4180# 3680# Trailer Axles 5280# 4520# 4660# Note that the lightly-loaded weight of the TT alone is 5280#, and when lowered onto the hitch, it puts 1100# onto the F150's rear axle while lifting 320# off the front axle. Significant squat there. The WDH throws 140# back onto the trailer, 160# onto the F150's front axle, and reduces the drive axle by 500#. All very interesting. These numbers would undoubtedly vary per various adjustments of the WDH, but I didn't mess with it further since the TT was level and the F150's wheel well heights (front & rear, unhitched & hitched w/ WDH) were consistent.
We still have the tires that came on the camper. The standard tire is the Goodyear Endurance but our dealer ordered our camper with the “upgrade”. We got Westlake tires. I would have preferred the Goodyear but I have not had any problems out of the Westlake.
I did take a look and estimated that the gear in the pass-through is in the 100 pound range. Most of the items are plastic or aluminum. The heaviest thing I have in there is a small bottle jack that is in the 6-7 pound range. All my other tools are probably 5 pounds. However, the clothes, sheets, blankets, extra towels, etc are all stored on or near the bed in the front as well. Maybe 50 pounds of stuff in there?
@@doublediamondrailroad5949 I think most people are mis-informed about towing weights and how to calculate what they can safely tow. I know I was. When a manufacturer advertises that their truck can tow 10,000 pounds, that's the number everyone goes with. I knew nothing about payload when I bought my first camper. The RV dealer certainly never mentioned it. My trailer's weight is well under my truck's towing capacity but calculating the payload tells the real story. I'm at 80-85% capacity of the payload with only 2 adults, 2 dogs, and no gear in my truck.
@@Random-Dad-Stuff I towed a 2007 Wildwood 28 ft Stick and Tin that was like under 500 Tongue weight and around 4650 Empty. Gross about 6600. We never carried Water or Sewer weight. We towed it with a 2006 Dodge Durango 2WD with an upgraded rear end. Could pull 8000. We were never over 6000. Mopar Hitch was 500 capacity, but with the Equal-izer Distribution Hitch it was 900#. We never Loaded it up over 600#. Did just fine, all the way to Traverse City 3 times from E. Ohio. 😊
I bought a 2007 and first thing I noticed was a hair trigger(ATF knocking at my door) gas pedal. I thought it was my lead foot. Thanks again for the help
Interesting. I've had a couple campers with this same cover and neither had those clips locked into place. I've got the camper in the driveway now. I'll climb up there and take a look. Thanks.
I had an older Retrax retractable cover for a little while until it broke. I know when I looked to replace it the website had options under the vehicle selection for trucks "With Deck Rail System". The clamps it comes with are just a little different.
