How much hitch weight is too much??

[JIMNLIN]

Originally Posted by dmstepa

Just record the weights as you drive on or off and then subtract to get each axle weight. For example, drive on front of truck, 3000 lbs, continue to drive on till TV rear axle is on scale which now reads 6200 lbs, subtract the two which tells you the rear axle is 3200 lbs. Continue until either trailer front axle or both are on the scale, so in this example just pulling numbers out of the air, say the total is 16,400 lbs. Therefore 16,400 - 6200 = 10,200 lbs on your trailer axles. Not quite as accurate but pretty darn close. Hope that helps.

Thanks dmstepa.
Thats pretty much how I weigh each axle position.
I get a weight each time a axle rolls on the scales as far as possible (just before the next axle rolls on the scale. And also as the rig rolls off the scale get a weight. Makes for lots of numbers but double checks the first numbers.

I have the wife car axle weights/the 7600 lb blue tractor axle weights and even my GT1862 Cub Cadet axle weights.

I weigh out when the wind is less than 10 mph.

[Cummins12V98]

Originally Posted by tsm1975

By chance would air bags on the rear help out and gain me a few more pounds of pin weight?

What is the max load carrying capacity or your two rear tires?????

Stay within that. Air bags do not change that at all.

[dix39]

IMHO, there are a lot of vehicle parts involved to arrive at the magic number, tires, wheels, springs, brakes, axle, etc. If your vehicle is not rated to carry the weight you would like to carry, it may be possible to increase it by changing some of these parts in order to get to a higher number.

I did this with my old Dodge Cummins W250 back in '93 soon after we bought it. I researched the differences between the W250 and W350 and basically converted the W250 to a W350.

This may or may not be possible with your vehicle, but it could be something to consider before purchasing a new one. This would be especially true if you can do the work yourself as I did.

Best of luck.

Steve

[Bob1340]

Originally Posted by tsm1975

By chance would air bags on the rear help out and gain me a few more pounds of pin weight?

Maybe yes, maybe no.
I don't know much about your truck.
Of course "legally" the answer is always no. But if your axle/wheel/tire capacity is up to it and your suspension isn't then you can beef up the suspension to increase the load capacity.

On RAM products the 2500 and 3500 SRW are the same trucks with different rear suspension. Up to 2012 you could just swap out the rear leaf springs and basically turn a 2500 into a 3500. 2013 and up use coil springs on the 2500 models, leaf springs on the 3500's, but the axles, wheels, tires are the same on both models. If you see someone towing a 5th wheel with a 2013 and newer 2500 RAM with the diesel engine you can rest assure he is well over his cargo capacity "legally". But they usually will install air bags to get the capacity up a bit. Many of them don't even need the bags.

Axle, tire, wheel, brake capacities are what you need to know.
BTW, what should be criminal are all these aftermarket wheel companies (and the dealers selling them) making wheels for heavy duty pickups with 2000 lb load ratings. Beware of this if you ever plan on swapping your wheels out.

[monkey]

Tom, if you have a crew cab, then we have the same truck. Mine is a 2015 Silverado 2500HD LTZ Duramax crew cab, 6-4 bed. I just weighed mine again at work last night with our new 2016 Keystone Cougar 28SGS. Here are the numbers,,,
Truck only,, full fuel,,, front axle 4680 lbs (with driver)
rear axle 3080 lbs
Truck, B&W 5th wheel hitch and trailer
front axle 4600
rear axle 4940
front axle trailer 3400
rear axle trailer 3440
Total gross weight 16380 . This is with full fresh water and all our stuff. So we are good... Pulls it like a dream !@!! And for what its worth I'm a trucker, so I watch weights... Good hunting, and any questions PM me... Monkey
PS,,, as stated, we have 5200 lb front axles, and 6200 rear axles... Tires are over that.

[GypsyDavy]

There are some who would argue that pin weight is different from payload because the pin weight is concentrated on the rear axle with very little transferred to the front. My 07 Silverado 2500 HD, crew cab, standard box has a GVWR of 9200 lbs. The GVW of the truck, fully loaded and ready to tow, is 7700 lbs. This leaves me with a payload of 1500 lbs. The GAWR (RR) is 6084 lbs, the scaled GAW (RR) is 3290 lbs. This leaves 2794 lbs before I exceed the rear axle weight rating. Does this mean I could tow a 5th wheel with a pin weight up to that amount?

[Mich F]

Originally Posted by GypsyDavy

There are some who would argue that pin weight is different from payload because the pin weight is concentrated on the rear axle with very little transferred to the front. My 07 Silverado 2500 HD, crew cab, standard box has a GVWR of 9200 lbs. The GVW of the truck, fully loaded and ready to tow, is 7700 lbs. This leaves me with a payload of 1500 lbs. The GAWR (RR) is 6084 lbs, the scaled GAW (RR) is 3290 lbs. This leaves 2794 lbs before I exceed the rear axle weight rating. Does this mean I could tow a 5th wheel with a pin weight up to that amount?

If you towed a 5th wheel with a 2,794# pin weight you would be over your GVWR by 1,294#. Your truck fully loaded weighs 7,700# (does that include the weight of a 5th wheel hitch ?) adding a 2,794# pin weight, puts your GVW at 10,494# or 1,294# over your GVWR.

[wingnut60]

Check the carrying capacity of the tires--should be between 7000 and 7500. That is where I would draw the line on rear axle weight. 7500 less the scaled 3290 is 4210, so the tires will carry it (less if the tire capacity isn't 7500). Your answer lies somewhere between those 2 figures. Thats about 900lbs to play with.
Wondering about the weight distribution on your truck--for some reason, the 3290 seems light for a loaded-for-travel truck. 120 lbs difference between axles seems odd for a front-engine truck.
Joe

[GypsyDavy]

Originally Posted by Mich F

If you towed a 5th wheel with a 2,794# pin weight you would be over your GVWR by 1,294#. Your truck fully loaded weighs 7,700# (does that include the weight of a 5th wheel hitch ?) adding a 2,794# pin weight, puts your GVW at 10,494# or 1,294# over your GVWR.

Yes, the 7700 lb GVW includes the hitch and passengers. The trailer I'm looking at has a pin weight of 2200 lbs. This will still exceed the GVWR but not the GAWR. The tires are E rated, 10 ply, with a combined load rating of 6084 lbs.

[GypsyDavy]

Originally Posted by wingnut60

Check the carrying capacity of the tires--should be between 7000 and 7500. That is where I would draw the line on rear axle weight. 7500 less the scaled 3290 is 4210, so the tires will carry it (less if the tire capacity isn't 7500). Your answer lies somewhere between those 2 figures. Thats about 900lbs to play with.
Wondering about the weight distribution on your truck--for some reason, the 3290 seems light for a loaded-for-travel truck. 120 lbs difference between axles seems odd for a front-engine truck.
Joe

When I say "loaded for travel", I mean, myself, my wife, the dog and the hitch. I don't carry anything else in the bed of the truck. I didn't mean to imply that I would haul a 5th wheel with a 2794 lb pin weight, that number was the difference between the GAWR and the scaled weight of the rear axle. My tires are E rated, 10 ply with a combined load rating of 6084 lbs. The trailer I'm looking at has a pin weight of 2200 lbs.

[Cummins12V98]

Originally Posted by GypsyDavy

When I say "loaded for travel", I mean, myself, my wife, the dog and the hitch. I don't carry anything else in the bed of the truck. I didn't mean to imply that I would haul a 5th wheel with a 2794 lb pin weight, that number was the difference between the GAWR and the scaled weight of the rear axle. My tires are E rated, 10 ply with a combined load rating of 6084 lbs. The trailer I'm looking at has a pin weight of 2200 lbs.

If you are talking 2,200# of a fully loaded RV yes I would not hesitate.

[1010]

Originally Posted by Bob1340

Maybe yes, maybe no.
I don't know much about your truck.
Of course "legally" the answer is always no. But if your axle/wheel/tire capacity is up to it and your suspension isn't then you can beef up the suspension to increase the load capacity.

On RAM products the 2500 and 3500 SRW are the same trucks with different rear suspension. Up to 2012 you could just swap out the rear leaf springs and basically turn a 2500 into a 3500. 2013 and up use coil springs on the 2500 models, leaf springs on the 3500's, but the axles, wheels, tires are the same on both models. If you see someone towing a 5th wheel with a 2013 and newer 2500 RAM with the diesel engine you can rest assure he is well over his cargo capacity "legally". But they usually will install air bags to get the capacity up a bit. Many of them don't even need the bags.

Axle, tire, wheel, brake capacities are what you need to know.
BTW, what should be criminal are all these aftermarket wheel companies (and the dealers selling them) making wheels for heavy duty pickups with 2000 lb load ratings. Beware of this if you ever plan on swapping your wheels out.

I have a 2002 F250 Diesel which will be overloaded with a 5th wheel pin I am looking at. Went to Ford today, they say the only difference between a 250 & 350 is a rear leaf spring (which looks like the ones on my 250), which according to the specs they looked up did not show any difference on the rear axle weight load.
Went to look at the Dodge 2500 & 2300, I was told the 2300 had leaf springs which added a couple of hundred pounds to rear axle, other then that they were the same. I know the gear ratio plays into this but these trucks pretty much come with the middle of the gear ratios they sell.
What am I missing, same engine, same brakes, Ford has an additional leaf spring & Dodge has leaf springs instead of coil springs?

[justafordguy]

On the Fords the springs are the same but the F350 comes with a overload/helper spring on top. If you ordered the F250 with the camper package it also came with the overload/helper springs. There are no other differences between the two trucks. Same engine, tranny, frame, axle, brakes, etc.

[dix39]

Originally Posted by justafordguy

On the Fords the springs are the same but the F350 comes with a overload/helper spring on top. If you ordered the F250 with the camper package it also came with the overload/helper springs. There are no other differences between the two trucks. Same engine, tranny, frame, axle, brakes, etc.

Overload springs are easy to add. That is one of the things I did to my Dodge.

Steve