What each trailer maker actually publishes

01Why it matters to a buyer

• A missing GVWR is a missing ceiling. GVWR is the most the loaded trailer may weigh, and it is the number to check against a tow vehicle. Where a maker’s page leaves it out, ask the dealer for the trailer’s own federal weight label (the sticker on the trailer) before you buy.
• The empty-weight label changes what the number means. “UVW”, “dry weight”, “shipping weight” and “unit base weight” are not promised to be the same quantity. Compare like with like, and plan around GVWR rather than any empty weight.
• Numbers that add up are internally consistent. When dry weight plus cargo capacity equals the printed GVWR to the pound, the three figures agree with each other. When they do not, at least one of them is wrong, and this site prints every figure with the disagreement rather than choosing one.
• All of these are base-model figures. Options add weight and come out of cargo capacity.

02Measured on the makers’ own floorplan pages

Each row counts floorplan pages captured from that maker’s own website and read field by field (one count per captured page; a floorplan captured in two model years counts twice). The last column is the share of pages printing all three of empty weight, cargo capacity and GVWR where the first two add up exactly to the third.

Forest River here includes the Coachmen pages read from coachmenrv.com. Keystone’s empty weight is its “shipping weight” and its cargo figure is its “carrying capacity”; Keystone prints no GVWR on any of these pages, so nothing can be added up. Jayco, Winnebago, Airstream and the makers not listed have no field-by-field capture in this form; their figures are in the next table.

03What this site’s floorplan pages carry, maker by maker

Every floorplan page on this site, one record per page (model-year records are not counted again), n=1,810. These figures come from the makers’ own pages and documents; a dealer listing never supplies a weight here. A blank can mean the maker does not print the figure or that no document carrying it has been read yet. GVWR counts only ratings a maker printed, never one computed by addition.

Keystone: 11 of 178 pages carry a dry weight, because Keystone’s own pages print a shipping weight, which this site prints under Keystone’s name and does not count as a dry weight. Grand Design: this site does not print a cargo capacity that only exists as GVWR minus UVW, which is why fewer Grand Design pages carry one.

04Does dry weight plus cargo capacity equal GVWR?

For every floorplan page where the maker prints all three, this site checks the arithmetic. “Within 100 lb” pages print every figure with a note; “off by more than 100 lb” pages print the maker’s figures but do not present the GVWR as a rating.

Agreement shows the three printed figures are consistent with each other; it does not show the trailer weighs that. Where a maker’s cargo capacity is defined as GVWR minus its empty weight, agreement is expected by construction.

05Published figures this site had to flag

All 2,568 records in the dataset, model-year records included (n=2,568). A record is flagged when the maker’s printed figures do not reconcile or a printed figure is physically implausible; the figure stays on the page as printed, with the reason. The last column counts plans kept off the site with no page because their printed figures do not reconcile. Every case is listed on the published-figure conflicts page.

06“Dry”, “UVW”, “shipping weight” or “unit base weight”?

Which words appear in the saved copies of each maker’s own floorplan pages (each count is pages containing the term, of the pages saved for that maker). Some makers load their specifications with scripts, so a page can carry a figure the saved copy does not show; a low share means “not seen”, not “not printed”. The last column counts pages containing the term MSRP.

What the labels mean for a buyer:

• UVW: Unloaded Vehicle Weight: the trailer as built at the factory, before water, propane, batteries, cargo or dealer-installed options.
• Unloaded Vehicle Weight: The same quantity as UVW, spelled out.
• Dry Weight: Used as a synonym for unloaded weight; check whether propane and batteries are included.
• Shipping Weight: Keystone’s own term. This site prints it under that name and does not relabel it as a dry weight or UVW, because no Keystone document in this tree equates them.
• Unit Base Weight: Airstream’s term, given on its pages as the unit base weight with LP gas and batteries, so it is not an empty-trailer figure.

Whatever the label, it is a base-model figure from the factory, not the weight of the trailer on the lot. Plan around GVWR, and read the trailer’s own weight sticker before towing.

07Related

• Published-figure conflicts: every disagreement, plan by plan.
• Same trailer, different name: floorplans sold under two badges, compared.
• How to read a trailer’s weight numbers.
• The full dataset, free to download.