86 Wilderness

[jrgriffhusker]

My dad bought me and my ex a camper for a wedding present. Thanks Dad love ya. Anyways the back wall had a leak at one time, and has been fixed.
What can I use to fix it? Wood panaling should work right? Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Also I can't read the stamp on the tounge for the weight. I googled it and it pointed me here. I figured if it was like Catfish1 than I'm in luck. How much is my tounge weight? It also had a heavy meatl box as a bumper on the rear. I think this is going to be a problem with my truck. I drive an 89 Chevy silverado 2wd, ext cab, and a 700 R4. I drive in D and not OD. This is the 3rd tranny I've put in it, but this one seems pretty solid. Do need to get some helper springs, or would air shocks be a better idea?

Thanks folks in advance for the help.
John

 

[Kirk]

Re: 86 Wilderness

The first thing that you need to know is the gross weight of the trailer, loaded as to travel. I suggest that you take it to a scale and weigh it to find out. To determine the tongue weight, you need to weigh that as well. If all you have available to use is a bathroom scale, you can use it by splitting the weight. If you build a leg & bridge device to split it, you can do so by making it 4 feet long with a leg at one end and the other end resting on the scale. If you place the tongue right in the center, the scale will see 1/2 of the weight of the tongue. By placing the tongue 1 foot from the leg end, and thus 3 feet from the scale, the scale will then see 1/4 the weight of the tongue. This will give you a good estimate of the tongue weight.

Using the location of 1' from the leg, 3' from the scale, if the scale reads 150# then you have a tongue weight of 150 X 4 = 600#.

Nothing that you do is going to change the weight limits designed into your truck. To level the load you need to use an equalizing hitch.