2012 Yukon/Yet another camper question

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Chughart

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Hey guys I know this has been asked several times but I just wanted to see if I have my numbers correct. (12 Yukon xl Denali)

I’m looking at buying a 23 grand design transcend 235bh camper. It weighs 5700ish lbs dry and has a gvwr of 6995. Is 26ft and 4in long. And a hitch weight of 530ish.

My payload according to the sticker is 1398. So I would have 800-900lbs of payload left. There’s 6 of us (4 kids under 10) so with my weight (170lbs) my wife’s (110lbs) and I figured 300 lbs for the kids and all their stuff. That’s roughly 580-600lbs that leaves me with about 200-300lbs of payload left correct?

My other question is should I be concerned at all about pulling this camper? I already tow a 22.5ft camper that’s roughly 4500lbs and it does just fine but I’ll be towing 2k lbs more didn’t know if I should be concerned or not. Thanks in advance guys!
 
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Chughart

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Also looking at a jayco jay feather micro 199mbs (23ft and 5700lbs gvwr and 690 hitch weight) but it’s not as big of an upgrade as the transcend and figured if we’re going to get a new camper might as well make it really worth while to do
 

swathdiver

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Hey guys I know this has been asked several times but I just wanted to see if I have my numbers correct. (12 Yukon xl Denali)

I’m looking at buying a 23 grand design transcend 235bh camper. It weighs 5700ish lbs dry and has a gvwr of 6995. Is 26ft and 4in long. And a hitch weight of 530ish.

My payload according to the sticker is 1398. So I would have 800-900lbs of payload left. There’s 6 of us (4 kids under 10) so with my weight (170lbs) my wife’s (110lbs) and I figured 300 lbs for the kids and all their stuff. That’s roughly 580-600lbs that leaves me with about 200-300lbs of payload left correct?

My other question is should I be concerned at all about pulling this camper? I already tow a 22.5ft camper that’s roughly 4500lbs and it does just fine but I’ll be towing 2k lbs more didn’t know if I should be concerned or not. Thanks in advance guys!
The Yukon XL Denali can handle that all across the country at those weights. She'll be heavy but as long as your brakes and suspension and steering are in good form she'll do it no problem.

@Geotrash
 

Geotrash

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The Yukon XL Denali can handle that all across the country at those weights. She'll be heavy but as long as your brakes and suspension and steering are in good form she'll do it no problem.

@Geotrash
I agree 100%. No problem at all with that camper. To the OP, I think you’ll find that tongue weight to be a fantasy. It’s likely going to ring in at 200 lbs more when all is said and done, loaded for camping. You’ll definitely want a weight distributing hitch (I use a Camco Recurve R3 and love it). But as long as your axle weights are okay as verified with a CAT scale, then no problem.
 

intheburbs

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I think you've got a good handle on it. Should be good. Couple of points, more geared to longer trips...

Get in the habit of weighing at CAT scales every trip. Just to confirm nothing's overloaded. It's cheap insurance to make sure nothing breaks. And bring a 2-3 foot-long stick - to reach the call button. Trust me.

Re-weighs are free - play around - weigh with and without the trailer, with and without the weight bars.

Rear axle weight should be your biggest concern; it's usually the first to be overloaded on an SUV. Especially for longer trips.

Plan for the future - your kids are gonna grow. Mine are now in their 20s, but my twin boys reached 6 feet tall and 190 lbs each in high school. One of the reasons I upgraded to the 2500 - mine has a 2088-lb payload rating.

Lastly- you're going to be feel the urge to crank your bars to reduce that rear axle weight. Realize that tongue weight/rear axle weight is directly proportional to stability and sway. More rear axle weight equals more stability and less sway. Again, the other reason I upgraded to a 2500 - my rear axle weight rating is 5500 lbs. Crank your bars too much, and you'll increase the propensity for sway.
 
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Geotrash

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I think you've got a good handle on it. Should be good. Couple of points, more geared to longer trips...

Get in the habit of weighing at CAT scales every trip. Just to confirm nothing's overloaded. It's cheap insurance to make sure nothing breaks. And bring a 2-3 foot-long stick - to reach the call button. Trust me.

Re-weighs are free - play around - weigh with and without the trailer, with and without the weight bars.

Rear axle weight should be your biggest concern; it's usually the first to be overloaded on an SUV. Especially for longer trips.

Plan for the future - your kids are gonna grow. Mine are now in their 20s, but my twin boys reached 6 feet tall and 190 lbs each in high school. One of the reasons I upgraded to the 2500 - mine has a 2088-lb payload rating.

Lastly- you're going to be feel the urge to crank your bars to reduce that rear axle weight. Realize that tongue weight/rear axle weight is directly proportional to stability and sway. More rear axle weight equals more stability and less sway. Again, the other reason I upgraded to a 2500 - my rear axle weight rating is 5500 lbs. Crank your bars too much, and you'll increase the propensity for sway.
Truth. My camper is 7500 loaded for camping, and it’s super stable on the highway because I set my hitch up right, exactly as you say. The Denali’s stock rear air shocks work like buttah for taking up the remaining sag.

That said, if I took mine to the cat scale on every trip, we’d never get on the road. :p I’ve weighed mine twice (3x each time) - once with just me in the truck and a mostly empty camper, and once with my wife, both kids and the dog with a fully loaded camper with full fresh water tank to capture a bracket of best and worst case scenarios. All good in both instances- safely within the truck’s limits.
 
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Chughart

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Well thanks for the replies guys! Leaning towards the transcend 235bh. But gotta get the wife to check it out and make sure it’ll work for our needs.

Also we don’t ever travel with water and I empty the tanks after every trip so there’s “extra” weight there lol
 

Geotrash

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Well thanks for the replies guys! Leaning towards the transcend 235bh. But gotta get the wife to check it out and make sure it’ll work for our needs.
That’s a nice one! We have an Alpha Wolf 26DBH-L that we love. It’s the perfect setup for a family.

Pulled it to Cape Hatteras today and I’m so used to pulling it there were times I forgot it was behind us. Gusty crosswinds once we got south of Nags Head but she stayed steady.

Pic from another trip…

IMG_4106.jpeg
 

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The rear axle weight rating is likely to be the one to watch. You can minimize the load on the rear axle in two ways:

1. Using a weight distribution hitch to transfer force off the rear axle onto both the front steering axle and back onto the trailer. The goal is get the Yukon to swat evenly front and rear without the air suspension helping. Remember that too little weight on front axle causes steering and braking problems.

2. Adjust your load plan to keep the hitch weight near an actual 10-12% of actual trailer weight. The hitch weight tends to run 200-400 lbs heavier than advertised.

Since you will be at the upper end of weight capacity for the Yukon, a very good anti-sway system is essential. I have switched to the ProPride. Used to have a Curt TruTrack WDH with 1,000 lbs friction bars but decided it was better to have Anti-Sway and Weight Distribution function completely independently of each other. The ProPride does that and is known to make trailer sway virtually impossible.

Below is our Yukon with a 27 foot Airstream.

CanAm RV has excellent videos of setting up a WDH and the importance and benefits of doing it correctly.


IMG_0771.jpeg
 
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