5er's

[tuffr2]

There is an early 90's F-350 in my neigborhood. My 2011 F-150 was a bigger truck. This F-350 had a lot of rust holes in it. Not sure if you put a 5th wheel hitch in it that you could bolt the rails in solid enough.

But if your truck is not rusted out it should be able to haul a small 5th wheel.

[SmokeyWren]

Your truck is 21 years old, so detailed specs are hard to find. My educated guess is it has a GCWR of 16,000 pounds and a GVWR of 9,200 pounds. So when loaded with the typical load with 5er hitch but without the trailer tied on, it should weigh about 8,000 pounds. If my guess is right, then that leaves 8,000 pounds as the max trailer weight without exceeding the GCWR of the truck, and 1,200 pounds as the max hitch weight without exceeding the GVWR of the truck.

If you find the "tow rating" of your exact truck, it will be overstated. Ignore it and go by the actual GCWR, GVWR, and weight of your truck when wet and loaded for towing.

The GCWR indicates the amount of weight you can pull without burning up something is a well-maintained truck. The GVWR indicates the max hitch weight you can haul on the 4 truck tires with stock tires and suspension in good mechanical condition.

I owned a 2000 Keystone Sprinter 25' 5er with one slide. It had a GVWR of 7,900 pounds, and the trailer was normally loaded to the gills when on the road. Hitch weight was about 1,360 pounds, and on one trip it hit 1,400 pounds.

So my wet and loaded 5er would be up against the GCWR of your truck, and your truck would be overloaded by a coupla hundred pounds over the GVWR of your truck.

As is common with SRW pickups, you will run out of GVWR (indicates hitch weight capacity you can haul) before you hit the GCWR (indicates gross trailer weight capacity you can pull) without being overloaded.

But to be more informed, find your Owner's Guide and determine the GCWR of your truck's engine/drivetrain/rear axle ratio. Then look on the Federal Certification sticker on the doorframe of the driver's door to get the GVWR. (That's the sticker with VIN, year/month of production, tire size and PSI, GVWR, GAWRs, and several codes). Then weigh the wet and loaded truck with driver and all passengers, tools, a full tank of gas, and the 5er hitch installed. Subtract the wet and loaded truck weight from the GCWR to get the max trailer weight if GCWR is your limiter. Subtract the the wet and loaded truck weight from the GVWR to get the max hitch weight if GVWR is your limiter. Divide the max hitch weight by 0.17 to get an idea of the max 5er weight you can tow without being overloaded. That 17% is the typical hitch weight of a 5er with around 8,000 pounds to 10,000 pounds GVWR, but some have 18% or even 20%, so don't count on that 17% number as being gospel.

Then use the lower of the two max trailer weights as your personal max trailer weight. It will probably be the one that's based on GVWR of the tow vehicle.

[spanky63]

GCWR, GVWR, GWAR???? What do these abbreviations stand for? This is all greek to me at this point. And what is wet and loaded truck weight?

[Ray,IN]

Originally Posted by spanky63

GCWR, GVWR, GWAR???? What do these abbreviations stand for? This is all greek to me at this point. And what is wet and loaded truck weight?

Wet and loaded is another term for full fuel tank, all passengers, hitch, camping gear you plan to haul when towing.

RV Abbreviations, Acronyms & Initialisms

[SmokeyWren]

Originally Posted by spanky63

GCWR, GVWR, GWAR???? What do these abbreviations stand for? This is all greek to me at this point.

GCWR = gross combined weight rating, which is the maximum weight your rig (tow vehicle and trailer) can weigh on a CAT scale. The GCWR indicates the amount of weight your tow vehicle (TV) can pull without burning up something in a well-maintained truck. It is based on the power of the engine and drivetrain, along with the leverage effect of the rear axle ratio. If you exceed the GCWR of your TV, then you won't have enough power to pull the trailer up a normal highway hill or mountain pass at normal highway speed, and when you downshift to get more leverage to force the rig up the grade, you'll probably overheat the engine or transmission or rear differential.

GVWR = gross vehicle weight rating. Both the TV and the trailer have a GVWR. The GVWR of the TV limits the max hitch weight you can haul on the 4 truck tires with stock tires and suspension in good mechanical condition. The GVWR of the trailer tells you the maximum weight the trailer suspension, frame, axles and tires can support without being overloaded.

Exceeding the GVWR of either the TV or the trailer can result in failure of tires, wheels, suspension components, axles, brakes, and/or frame of the vehicle.

GAWR = gross axle weight rating. GAWR is the maximum weight the axle is designed to carry without overheating differential, wheel bearings, or tires, and without bending or breaking the axle components or wheels. fGAWR and rGAWR are for front or rear axle limits.

GAWRs on TVs are not additive. The combined GAWRs of front and rear axles will usually be more than the GVWR of the TV. That allows you to have more weight on either the front axle or the rear axle without exceeding the GVWR.

Note that GCWR indicates the max gross trailer weight you can pull, while the GVWR indicates the max hitch weight the TV can haul. With a TV that has single rear wheels (SRW), GVWR is almost always your limiter. You will run out of GVWR before you get close to the GCWR.

You never want to exceed any of the weight ratings, but GVWR is the one weight rating you'll probably need to worry about most. If you never exceed the GVWR of the TV, then you probably won't exceed any of the other weight ratings either. But some few TVs have a weak rear axle, so on those you may be able to exceed the rear GAWR without exceeding the GVWR of the TV. That's why they make CAT scales. Use then frequently to be sure.

And what is wet and loaded truck weight?

Ray explained that one pretty good. "Wet" means a full tank of fuel, along with all the other liguids in the TV such as oil and coolant and transmission fluid. "Loaded" means your normal load of people, tools and other stuff that will be in the TV when towing.

On in a trailer, wet means full tanks of propane plus whatever water you usually haul in the holding tanks of the trailer. Loaded means the camper is loaded with the normal bed linens, food, drinks, camping supplies, clothes, coats, pots and pans and other cookware, dishes, flatware, and anything else that is normally hauled in the trailer when on a camping trip. For example, we carry a few gallons of "bottled" or reverse osmosis (RO) water in gallon jugs stored the bathtub while on the road. (We don't trust campground tap water for drinking water, coffee, tea, or cooking.)