Axel Explanation Please

[Jerry Criswell]

Went to an RV show in Des Moines last Saturday and fell in love with a Cedar Creek 37RDQS. Didn't buy, but it gives my wife a lot of incentive to retire. Anyway, in the brochure, it says the GVWR is 15,500 and it has 2 axels rated at 7000# ea. That appears to say that you could put 15,500 lbs of weight on 14,000 lbs of support. What am I missing?

By the way, what do the lettrs RDQS stand for?

JC

[Jerry Criswell]

Went to an RV show in Des Moines last Saturday and fell in love with a Cedar Creek 37RDQS. Didn't buy, but it gives my wife a lot of incentive to retire. Anyway, in the brochure, it says the GVWR is 15,500 and it has 2 axels rated at 7000# ea. That appears to say that you could put 15,500 lbs of weight on 14,000 lbs of support. What am I missing?

By the way, what do the lettrs RDQS stand for?

JC

[R.G.Wise]

The balance of weight is on the front legs and/or king pin.

[Jerry Criswell]

Aha!

Thanks for the help.

JC

[TXiceman]

As per above, part of the weight is resting on the pin or landing gear. On a large 5er, the pin weight will typically be close to 20% of the GVWR when loaded to max. So about 3100# of the 15,500# GVWR will be on the pin and leave about 12,400# for the axles.

Ken

[Stylin']

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TXiceman:
As per above, part of the weight is resting on the pin or landing gear. On a large 5er, the pin weight will typically be close to 20% of the GVWR when loaded to max. So about 3100# of the 15,500# GVWR will be on the pin and leave about 12,400# for the axles.

Without doing any research, it would seem like the load on the axles are at, or nearly at, their maximun rating. I think I'd want to weigh this trailer when fully loaded just to make sure that I'm within the limits. I'm quite sure that the axles are probably safe beyond that rating, but I think I'd stay under the specified limits. I'd be curious what the tires are rated for as well.

[RustyJC]

It's not unusual for 5th wheel axles and tires to run at 90% to 95% of their rating. That's one reason we see more tire failures than might be expected and why upgrading to top quality tires and staying on top of maintenance is so critical.

Rusty

[powerboatr]

RDQS
rear den quad slide

also forest river told me, that even though my gvwr is 13870, that that is for the axles of 12k plus the 1300 for pin wt.
but we could actually load to 15,500 and carry more up front on the pin. that the hitch area was rated to 15,500 and they only drop teh gvwr to cover the axles, we wanted a pair of 7k vice the 6k
so we carry 2200-2600 up front
truck doesnt seem to mind
also cedar creek is very optimistic on thier empty eights
ours was listed on the factory tag as 11200 as the empty weight
we had 10k on the axles and 1k on the pin empty
but after she got home we quickly topped her out

[Ray,IN]

If you have the option to buy heavier axles, it will be money well spent. Bent axles are not un-common with them operating at the max constantly. Same for wheels and tires. Near 90% of tire failures are due to under-inflation or over-loading. BTW, special trailer (ST) tires are speed rated for 65mph. Good thing to keep in mind.