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Originally Posted by flipside
I have a 2015 Chevy Silverado 2500HD with a fifth wheel towing capacity of 14000 and a GCWR #20500.
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20,500 minus 14,000 = 6,500 truck weight. If your wet and loaded truck with all people, pets, tools, options, 5er hitch, tank full of fuel, campfire wood, whatever, weighs more than 6,500 pounds, then your tow rating is less than 14,000 pounds.
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The camper's dry weight is 12120. I still should have almost 1800 of room to load junk.
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That's true only when your 2500 grosses less than 6,500 pounds before you tie onto the trailer. But the CAT scale will prove that your wet and loaded 2500 weighs a lot more than 6,500 pounds.
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My understanding is my limit is for both truck and rv is GCWR# 20500.
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That's only half of the formula. If the combined weight of truck and trailer is less than 20,500 pounds, then you won't exceed the GCWR of the truck. But with your SRW tow vehicle, GCWR is probably not your limiter. GVWR of the tow vehicle is probably your limiter.
Again, that 6,525 pounds dry truck weight is meaningless. How much does the truck weigh when loaded with people, pets, tools, options, 5er hitch, tank full of fuel, campfire wood, and anything else you have in the truck when towing? Subtract the weight of the wet and loaded truck from the GVWR of the truck and the answer is the max pin weight you can have without being overloaded.
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My truck weighs 6525 and rv 12120 (both dry).
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So for a WAG example. Let's assume a wet and loaded truck weight of 7,500 and a wet and loaded trailer weight of 13,500. A 13.5k 5er is probably going to have pin weight of about 18%, or 2,430 pounds. 7,500 truck weight plus 2,430 pin weight = 9,930 GVW. So if those estimates are correct, then you can tow that 13,500 5er without exceeding the GVWR if your GVWR is at least 9,930.
Caveat: Pin weight of a medium-size 5er with GVWR around 13,500 pounds will vary from about 17 to 22 percent of gross trailer weight. If you fall in love with a 5er that has 22% pin weight, then that's 2,970 pin weight instead of 2 430, or 540 pounds more GVWR required of the tow vehicle.
Back to the GCWR to apply our new weights. If the wet and loaded trucks grosses 7,500 without the trailer, and the trailer grosses 13,500, that's 21,000 pounds GCW.
Oops! Your GCWR is only 20,500, so you're overloaded. So get rid of 500 pounds of content in the trailer, and you're right at the max of GVWR and GCWR of your tow vehicle.
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If my thinking is off can you explain.
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Not off, but incomplete. Never use dry weights for any estimates when matching trailer to tow vehicle. Use the GVWR and GCWR of the tow vehicle, then use realistic wet and loaded weights of the truck and trailer. Ignore GM's unrealistic "tow rating" and "payload rating", and use GVWR and GCWR minus realistic wet and loaded weight for truck to determine your realistic tow and payload ratings.
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