Smiletwice

Welcome to the Forum.

The advertised weights are for an RV that is just off of the line being manufactured. These weights do not include propane , battery , or anything else that is added to the RV. That being said the general consensus is to use the gross weight and then determine your max tongue weight from that. TucsonJim and a few others that own this model will be along to advise with there own experience.

Brian

Good morning "SmileTwice". Welcome to the technical forum.

I own a 2017 Reflection 297RSTS myself. That 1000# hitch weight must have been made after they filled the unit with helium! It runs MUCH heavier than that. First, if you have an optional front air conditioner installed, it will add about 80-90# of additional tongue weight. Without the AC, you'll likely be running around 1,300# when loaded. With the AC, you'll be closer to 1,400#. And to top it off, if you ever need to run with your fresh water tank full, you'll add even more weight. If you look at the picture below, it shows my tongue weight at 1,500#. This was with a full tank of water, a second AC, three lead/acid batteries on the tongue and a bunch of tools in the storage bay. I've done some weight shifting since then, and I typically run around 1,250-1,350# when I travel now.

I knew they ran heavy before purchasing my Blue Ox hitch, so I went with the 1,500# spring bars. But after putting on a few thousand miles, I switched to the Blue Ox 2,000# spring bars and it made a huge difference with the steering after putting more load on the front tires.

If you're going with the Equalizer brand of hitch, I'd go with the 1400/14,000 pound set up. If you go with the Blue Ox system, I'd go with the 1,500 bars as a minimum, and seriously consider the 2,000# bars.

One other thing to consider: I purchased a Sherline 2,000# scale from Amazon and it makes weighing the tongue very easy. It's a nice tool to have with you so you can properly balance your loads when traveling.

Jim

Smiletwice My 2018 runs around 1300 to 1400 tongue weight and I don't have the extra front AC nor the washer/dryer. I do have 2 batteries on the tongue though. Nearly all of the storage is between the axles and tongue so depending on how you load it tongue weight will increase. I have put some of my not to often used stuff under the sleeper sofa at the back but that is fairly minimal. I am using 1500 lb bars on my Reese Straightline hitch and still could tilt the head back if I needed to.

rob

Wow, thank you for the detailed response. This is exactly why I asked. I probably wasn't clear on my initial post, but i was reacting to the advertised dry weight of 8,000 lbs with a tongue weight of 826 lbs. Barely 10%. I figured that wasn't realistic for all the reasons you've outlined (batteries, full propane tanks, extra AC). We never travel with water in the tanks and would probably never get over 9000-9200 lbs fully loaded. We tend to travel fairly light. I was thinking if tongue weight was even up to 13% I'd still be within the threshold for the 1200/12000 Equal-i-zer. From what I'm hearing, best to just go big and get the 1400/14000 version. I'm going to check out the Sherline scale as well. Thanks to all who took the time to respond.