International Telstar Owners Association

"my Grand Cherokee has a class IV towing package that has a tongue weight capacity of 1200 pounds and a total towing capacity of 7400 pounds"

Steve -

My class IV 9,000 pound rated Avalanche also has a 1200 pound tongue weight capacity but that is ONLY with a weight distributing hitch. Without that, it's 500 pounds maximum. Read the sticker pasted near the receiver carefully or maybe the owners manual and you'll find the same thing.

Besides the heavy weight mounted 1 foot behind the truck, the see-saw effect that it causes is one of the bigger problems. You might me able to ignore it with an even bigger 7,000+ pound super or heavy duty 1 ton truck, but most of them list that same limitation as well.

For shorter distances you can probably ignore it too - but I wouldn't want to drive 500 miles at 60 mph with the extra 1300 pounds on the back axle and 650 off of the front tires.

Ron, you are correct. As I said, this is not my area of expertise and I am not familiar with the issues surrounding towing, but I would have expected the dealer to be upfront with me about this and he was not. He did say that the vehicle came standard with a "Load Distribution Suspension" but I suspect that is not the same thing as a load leveling hitch.

Regardless, the thread has more to do with the poor choice of trailers by Performance Sailing, than it does about what vehicle can do what. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention because I just assumed that the trailer tongue was rated at 1200 pounds under all circumstances, and it apparently is not.

Steve

I'd put half of the blame on Tony and the other half on Venture. But they should have told him what the trailer actually needs, so they were probably more at fault. The weight of the boat (about 1200 to 1500 pounds more than the specs) coupled with the maybe 700 pounds of galvanized steel that Tony added to support the boat bumps the true weight of trailer and boat up to around 6500. Tony expected maybe 4500 in total, but he was wrong. Even at 4500 Venture should have recommended 4 wheel brakes. If they were more interested in what was going on it, they should also have recommended a heavier duty trailer. This was a middle weight that they lengthened to take the longer 28 foot trimaran with it's somewhat weird bunks. If I was building it, and considering the much longer frame - I would have asked what was the hell was going to go on it.

One of the reasons why I moved the two axles back a drop (maybe 5 inches as I recall) was to get the heavier portion of the load closer to the axles. The other was to get more weight onto the tongue. Mine was around 400 pounds as I recall before the surgery. Much too light for a long 6500 pound load.

FYI~ for anyone desiring to upgrade their drum brakes, Tie Down now makes stainless steel disc brakes which will fit our 13" wheels.

I don't anticipate my trailering to go beyond 1 mile... but for those who do:



Re: Two wheel brakes on trailer

Postby Ron » 29 Jul 2013 04:16

"Tie Down now makes stainless steel disc brakes which will fit our 13" wheels"

I'd verify that with Tiedown. The last time I checked (maybe 2 years ago), their 9.6 inch disc system would fit, but their 10 inch systems (steel or stainless steel rotors) would not. I've got 10 of these 9.6 inch kits on 3 boat trailers. Not one salt water based (or any other) problem yet, and some of them are over 4 years old. That compares to nothing but problems on the 10 sets of drum brakes that they all replaced. The rotor surface gets cleaned off the first time you hit the brakes. But stainless would probably be better (and more expensive) if they'd actually fit on our 13 inch wheels.

Ron Marcuse
Telstar 28 #59 "Tri-Power"
Ron Posts: 876Joined: 24 Nov 2008 11:15Location: SW Florida & NJ Shore

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Re: Two wheel brakes on trailer

Postby Gene » 09 Aug 2013 08:51

Kevin Chapman (Kevin.Chapman@TIEDOWN.com)

Yes sir this kit will fit for 13’’ in wheels

Kevin D. Chapman

Tie Down Engineering

Technical Support / Customer Service Rep.

404-344-0000 - Ext 1530

404-349-0401 - Fax

Kevin.Chapman@tiedown.com - Email

#318
Plash Island, AL
USA