Help understanding weight and towing style

[Nwcid]

I have owned/used many trailers over the years but have recently gotten into the Gooseneck/5th wheel style and trying to understand a few things.

My first enclosed trailer was essentially a 27', 4 place snowmobile, tandem axel, V nose, bumper pull Haulmark. I do not recall if it it was a 7k GVW or a 10k GVW trailer. Typical running weight for me about 6k.

With this trailer it always felt like it pulled "heavy". My equipment trailer is a 24' tilt bed with tandem 7k axels leaving me about 11k of allowable weight. When pulling this trailer with building supplies or heavy equipment with ~10k loads I got better milage and pulled "easier" then the Haulmark.

So this leads me to believe that wind resistance is more of a factor then actual weight. Is that an accurate statement?

Last year I got my first gooseneck trailer. This one is a Millennium 36', triple 6k axels giving it a 18K GVW. It has a 22' car garage and 14' of living quarters. This trailer is much taller then the Haulmark since it has 1' increased height, and has a blunt nose. Dry weight on this unit is about 7500lbs and with my normal load I am probably sitting right about 10k most of the time. This trailer pulls like a dream compared to the V nose bumper pull. It does not beat me to death on the bumpy roads and again feels like it rolls very easy. Hitting big hills the extra weight is noticed.

For some reason when researching car haulers is they dont list pin weight like the campers do. I know when talking about pin weight 20-25% of GVW is the standard answer. 20% of 18,000lbs is 3600 lbs which seems like an excessive pin weight. I see huge 40', 20k GVW RV's listed with lower pin weights, what am I missing? Is the % based on being loaded to GVW? I where the load sits can have an effect on pin weight, but on my trailer the load (car) would sit right over the axels.

The reason I am mostly interested in this is that I am looking at ~40', triple axel RV's with listed pin weights of 3500lbs and 20k GVW and want to see how that would compare to what I have now. Also my current trailer has a height 9.5-10 feet. Many of the RV's I see listed are about 13.5 feet high. Having full tanks, plus food and household goods an RV would likely be close to GVW all the time. I am wondering what the comparison is in how something like that hauls compared to what I have now.

Sorry for the long post.

[Ray,IN]

Manufactures listed pin weights are for an unloaded trailer. To determine the GVW pin weight, calculate the percentage for the unloaded weights, then multiply GVW x that percentage.
Of course that assumes you distribute the load in the trailer evenly.
Be aware, many states require safety chains when towing a goose-neck trailer, and that is not reciprocal between states.

[dayle1]

Just a guess but dry pin weight on a GN trailer is pretty useless, actual pin weight depends on how it is loaded and carrying capacity is more than the dry weight. Totally up to the owner to know all the weights and not overload the truck. With fivers it is the opposite, carrying capacity will only be 1/3 to 1/4 of dry weight and so increase in pin weight over the dry number will have less impact.

You are right, wind resistance matters while towing, weight matters while accelerating or on grades.

[Nwcid]

Thank you