We are in process of buying a 303RSL and will need a truck. I'm having difficulty understanding what the hitch weight will be once we hit the road. The Grand Design literature calls for a hitch weight of 1,865 but I don't know if that is the true hitch weight or the dry hitch weight with nothing in the trailer. I tried to estimate the actual hitch weight by using 15% of GVWR of 11,999 = 1,799. Does anyone know what hitch weight I should use to determine impact on a vehicle payload limit?
Thank you so much.
For a "real time" answer, we have a 2021 303rls pulled with a 2024 GMC Denali 3500HD (recent purchase).
I weigh it regularly because we tend to load it up pretty good. We carry 2 electric mountain bikes on the back and we have solar, 400AH of batteries, 3000w inverter.
We also have a well stocked kitchen (both food and utensils) and we carry about 1/3 of a tank of water. Coincidentally, our most recent weighing showed a trailer GVW of just 303 lbs. under the rating of 11,995.
The trailer axles were 800 lbs. under.
Our hitch weight is 2200 lbs. Our highest hitch weight, looking at 5 different weigh-ins, was 2376 (without bikes). Keep in mind that those bikes at the back (about 160 lbs.) cut the hitch weight somewhat. But all said, I think 2200 lbs. is a safe number for determining hitch weight for this trailer.
Some might think that our truck is overkill but when we load generator, kayaks, golf clubs, etc. we have only 700 lbs. margin on the truck's GVW of 12,100. If we take a few more passengers and gear, we can get a lot closer to that limit as well.