Problem with Hitch weight, advice appreciated

[Vionykak]

Hello everyone. And from one veteran to another Happy Memorial Day.

I bought a Andersen 5th wheel hitch when I bought my new truck. Here’s the problem. My hitch is turning, meaning the whole framework that attaches to the gooseneck ball. I torqued it per the instructions and it still is turning. Anyone know what the problem is? Thanks

[Biglar]

Before I purchased my little 2009 Star-Traveller 18 FBS, I found a website by Husky Towing , https://www.huskytow.com/towing-calculator/ that has this nice calculator. It help me a lot in figuring out weights. I started by taking my fully loaded truck to the city scales. I even weighted lawn chairs, portable BBQ, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, linens towels, etc. (placing them a few at a time in plastic storage totes to weigh on bathroom scale) and watching where they were placed in the trailer. Using my towing limits in the truck manual was able to ensure the combined weight was at least in the ball park.

[JasonCanada]

The weights I used as reference to decide on this trailer were from the sticker on the trailer and the advertised weight on the starcraft website, the dealer never really spoke to the weights. We took it to a cat scale and it confirmed the incorrectly advertised weight.

This experience is now all over, we no longer have the trailer and the matter has been resolved. We have learned a lot and I'm sure the only reason this doesn't come to light more often is that we aren't towing with a giant pickup truck! It has been a very long journey and a summer with no camping but happy to move on.

[cattzap]

Try driving onto an rv lot with my giant 4x4 diesel dually. Salesman come out like roaches after you.

[Dcm1379]

The very first trailer I purchased to tow with my 2014 dodge caravan 3500 lbs rated apparently weighed 2700 lbs being new to travel trailers ahh everything is good. Salesman reassured me all is good no problems.

Well it wasn't had one heck of a time controlling it, it was to much for the van, once at hwy speed it was like TT was controlling the van, I don't like that feeling.
Go rid of everything and bought ram 1500 rated for 9000lbs tow capacity and starcraft 26bhs and dry weight so they say is 5800lbs and GVWR of 7500lbs well the ram should handle that no problems well with a few upgrades to the truck air bags for extra stability, because the ram trucks now a days are made for getting groceries, they have soft rear end suspension. Now I will say i feel safe putting myself, wife dogs and grand kids in it and hitting the road.

The point being in all of this is the dealer will tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear to sell that trailer. It should illegal. We are talking about road safety for everyone involved not just the driver of the TV passengers as well as who ever might be around it when something goes wrong.

Just the other day I seen an suv something like a Mercedes SUV pulling a big trailer like mine and I thought there is noway that can be safe, at least I wouldn't want to be the guy behind the wheel. and I bet his saleman said it will tow it no problems. He is right it will tow it but will it control it should he need to because lets face it we all hope not but someday we might have to, and where will the salesman be then.

[uct]

To me when a salesman starts mentioning dry weight he either has no idea what he is talking about or he is very likely trying to give the prospective customer a real snow job. Dry weight is absolutely useless when figuring weight limits. Use the GVWR found on the DOT tag.

[JasonCanada]

Sadly my TV specifically stated no WD equipment to be used. There are a lot of posts on forums where people are doing it anyway but i fell that's another can of worms. I do plan to tow it to a scale to weight it overall but there aren't any near me unfortunately. The 6000lbs and 600 makes sense to me but if so, that's an amazing discrepancy between what the factory says the weight is vs reality.

Guess I will have to wait to speak with the dealer and see what their input is but not confident.
Thanks for the responses!

[uct]

Have you weighed your fully loaded trailer. Bet it is close to 6k which means about 600 on the tongue. You have a very nice vehicle, is really overloaded. Just my 2 cents

[uct]

The more you put in the rear the lighter the hitch weight you probably know that already. Are you using a wd hitch?

[JasonCanada]

Hello,
We recently purchased a 2018 Starcraft trailer after a lot of research. My tow vehicle has a 6000lb tow rating and a 600lb hitch rating. The trailer we bought has a dry hitch weight of 438lbs or so everyone said. It is documented on their website as such and I had phoned starcraft to confirm. That seems reasonable that we would be fine as we don’t have too much cargo and always tow with empty tanks.

We had a mechanical breakdown relating to the rear suspension so I was worried about the hitch weight. I borrowed a hitch scale and low and behold, with our “normal” load we were well over 600 lbs. We don’t have much in the front belly bin, camping chairs, a camping stove, some hoses etc.
We removed everything, emptied the belly bin, removed the propane tank from the tongue, made sure the bunks were empty and just the mattresses etc to get to down as close to dry or factory shipped weight as we could think of. We did leave pots and pans in cupboards and some things in compartments at the rear of the trailer close to the axles. When I re weigh, it is 600 lbs, that’s well over the 438 advertised.

Part of the process of buying the trailer with the dealership was them checking that my tow vehicle is appropriate and safe to tow this trailer which everyone determined it was. I have contacted them but no response yet, we are within our 90 days of “fit and finish” guarantee, it has already been back twice with problems.

Can anyone give any advice to what my recourse might be? It is now a case of having a tow vehicle that is unable to tow this trailer…. To have the hitch weight so much over what is advertised seems like it shouldn’t fall into the category of “well those numbers are general and you would have to weigh each trailer individually as each one leaves the factory a little different”.

Any guidance would be appreciated, this is our first trailer and this experience has been demoralizing and now very expensive…
Thank you