Towing a 16-Foot Enclosed Trailer With a 2019 Vista 27PE

Bryon Carpender

Senior Member
RV LIFE Pro
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Jun 22, 2025
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wanted to transport two electric trikes and maybe a motorcycle
purchased a 16' enclsoed trailer with tandam axles rear 3500 each axle

Asking the Internet AI bot it says not a good idea as the tongue weight is 500lbs
AI Says
The 2019 Winnebago Vista 27PE cannot safely tow a 16-foot enclosed utility trailer, as these trailers typically weigh 5,000 to 7,000 pounds, exceeding the vehicle's towing capacity.

  • Towing Capacity: The Vista 27PE has a maximum trailer hitch capacity of 5,000 lbs and a Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR) of 23,000 lbs.
  • Weight Limitations: The coach itself has a dry weight of approximately 15,141 lbs and a GVWR of 18,000 lbs. This leaves only 2,859 lbs of payload capacity for fluids, cargo, and passengers.

so devils advocate
1 . has anyone else done something similar
2. Have a weight distributing hitch i could install with stabilizer, wish had saved the connection points, would this make any differnece in this perticular case?
3. is this JUST AI bs, see above quote
4. what if i change the Hitch out, Have not been umderneath but that 500lsb limit seems a little light
5. this trailer has electric brakes and tows behind my silverado 1500 without difficulty so why should the 2019 vista be any differnt ?
6 did i just buy a new yard storage unit :>(
 
Not able to answer many of those points but I might point to some obvious disagreement witht eh AI answers you have. One is the weight of the trailer. since trailers can be made inlots of ways with lots of different materieals, I would want to know what MY trailer actually weighs! Tongue weight? Isn't that going to change with how the trailer is built and loaded? If loaded wrong, you can get a ver serious problem with negative tongue weight!
But number five is skipping over the truck not having a house built on top!
In my view the combo would not feel right as that is a somewhat less than beefy RV, making adding a trailer more of a question. But to get closer, we woul have to know lots more about details like how much weight is already in/on the RV and what is expected to be added with the trailer and load. One of the factors we may not think aboutif that we also have to be able to stop it when we want, not just move it down the road!
Where, when , how often and what roads?
IT IS a complicated thought to figure it all out to make the best use of what we have.
The AI answers are obviouly going to be pretty generic but the details could push it either way!
 
All valid points it’s a 1999 wells cargo enclosed trailer 16 feet long really with five foot mount in front 21 feet over all

I’m waiting on the spec from wells but two tamdam Axles rated at 3500 lbs each and about 2300 lbs empty appx not certain until wells gets back to me

so Ai may not be off by much however the other bot says tongue weight max is 340 lbs so going to have to do the bathroom scale weigh test when I have it back in the dry and loaded

16 foot is overkill with 8 feet wide
Plan is to load 2 Electric trikes about 90 lbs each too big too fit In Winnie unfortunately and some other stuff guessing maybe another 300 lb

maybe later if I can tow a motorcycle 1200 lbs is a lot more weight math is not working for that so if AI is wright that won’t work

Plan b is too weigh the Winnie then hitch up the trailer and reweigh

But currently waiting on the tires inspection as they are 6 and 4 year old
Likely pull the 6 year off and save for spares

but not sure what the years are on the other two facing in so I could not be certain as to how old the other two are
 
Plan c two drivers one in the truck and one in the Winnie kind of defeats the solution but then we can park and drive the truck was hoping some day to have a toad 😞 on the Winnie
 

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