The C.A.T. is outta the bag!

[hex0rz]

On the way home, trailered the 5th wheel. Had a few CAT scales I was going to pass so decided to stop at one at the LOVES gas station.Got the truck/trailer weighed. Me, wife and dogs with some extra stuff that we packed for the over night drive to pick our trailer up from family's house. Black tank is about 1/2 full. So that weight is incorporated too. Black tank is in front of axles. Was gonna dump, but my sewer solution kit did not come as it should have...So here are the numbers, someone help me make sense?!Truck, trailer together:Steer axle: 4340 lbs.Drive Axle: 6360 lbs.Trailer axles: 10120 lbs.Gross weight: 20820 lbs.JUST trailer on scale:Front jacks: 4580 lbs.Rear axles: 8800 lbs.Gross weight: 13380 lbs.JUST truck(Just me in it when I did it and no superglide hitch):Front: 4190 lbs.Rear: 2660 lbs.Gross: 6880 lbs.Okay, so can someone help make some sense of this for me? The biggest question I have:The trailer being weighed by itself, the front jacks on one part of the scale; 4580 lbs? :ahhh:That can't be accurate for pin weight, right? Cause when its hitched to the truck the math would not work out..If that really is pin weight, then keystone has LIED big time! Cause in brochure it says hitch weight is 3090 lbs. That would be a big screw up on their part for not properly weighing it. But I dunno how to exactly calculate pin weight. Except for rear axle weight on truck, before and after hitching...Man, did I mention $10 to weigh?! $2 to do a reweigh...

[Mopar1973Man]

Wow. That thing is heavy. I know you over the designed limits of the truck axles (owners manual). Now you got to remember most all weights given by the dealer is typically dry weight. In other words absolutely nothing in the RV. No water, no propane, no sewage, no food, no bedding, no nothing. Pin weight and axle weights will change as you load with perosnal gear water, propane, waste, etc.Rule of thumb is 22-25% of your gross trailer weight is pin weight. 13,380 x 0.25 = 3,345 currently. Like my RV is quoted to weight 6,588 pound dry weight. But the day I bought mine I scaled it. 7,200 pounds and it was empty. That brings out another thing too RV's can come with optional accessories which will not be counted into the dry weight numbers either. That like mine is quoted 6,588 and 7,200 pounds actual well I had the optional chair, optional awning, etc. So the weight is slightly higher. The only thing I didn't figure is the 40# pounds of propane.I will admit that thing is a beast compared to my 31' Jayco Eagle.

[dripley]

To get the true pin weight you would have to support the pin and raise the landing gear. Due to the landing gear being reward of the pin there will be more weight on the gear. Shift the weight to the pin and the rear axles take up part of the weight. Does that make sense to you?

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You are not getting a true pin weight from the front jacks. The landing gear is rearward of the pin and are carry more weight. You have to weigh at the pin to get the weight. When you move the weight to the pin the rear axles take part of the weight you saw on the landing gear. Take the empty weight of you trucks rear axle and subtract it from the loaded weight with the trailer on and you would have the pin weight. To be exact you should have re weighed the truck with every thing in it, but the numbers you have will get you close the the actual pin weight.

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sorry about the double explanation, thought the first got lost.

[diesel4life]

Thats part of the problem with hauling a toy hauler empty. Theyre designed to be balanced out with toys in the back so when you don't have anything in it your pin weight will increase even though the trailer may be lighter. I bet if you had some weight in the rear and emptied your tank in front of the axles your pin weight would decrease.What is the capacity of your tires?

[hex0rz]

Uhhh, yea! Its beastly! I fear I may have to upgrade to a larger truck... I sure wish against doing that, but I would rather increase my safety margin.I dunno if I could ever get away without staying SRW and just go to a 1 ton. I hate the thought of going dually. Can't really afford to get a dually anyways. I would love to afford a cummins 4500 or 5500!My question is, being that its a 5th wheel, if I have less than 25% pin weight, will I run the risk of sway just like a ball hitch?Dripley, thats what I figured I would have to do. I think I'm gonna get weighed again when we get all our stuff in the trailer before I hit the road.I'm going to be adding different things to the toyhauler. Decided to get a toyhauler for like a "storage" area for our stuff. I'm gonna put my freezer in the back, amongst other things. Hoping to counterweight it a good bit if possible. The generators dual tanks are also behind the axles. I think it was like 45 gals. total capacity...Capacity of my truck tires?3750 lbs. at 80 psi. per tire.So the rear still has over 1k lbs. before it hits rating on them. But I'm aiming to keep the weights around RAWR...My rear axle was pretty warm pulling it home last time, so I'm also gonna look into a deep diff. cover with cooling fins like the mag hytec.

[diesel4life]

you could swap out your Dana 70 for an 80 and have the same capacity of a SRW 1 ton unless your going to a newer truck. The new trucks have a higher RAWR than the 2nd gens but even then it wouldn't be a substantial amount.

[Mopar1973Man]

Strange thing my previous load range G's where 3,750# at 110 PSI of air. Very stable tire but too small for your taste at 235/85 R16. Even my current Hifly's are a 235/85 R!6 but back to a standard 3,042# @ 80 PSI load range E's.

[dripley]

Mine came with 235 85R 16 LR G 3750# at 110 psi also. The rims have to be rated for that also. They are mounted on 7k# rated axles. You sure about your pressure on those tire Hex? The weird thing for me is the tires I had to buy a while back while stranded in IL are load range f rated a almost 4k# at 90 psi. I'll check that when I get back home tonight but I do remember they were rated higher at less pressure that the LR G's.

[diesel4life]

All E rated tires are 80 psi max, the wider the tire the higher the weight rating but the pressures will stay the same.

[dripley]

I had to go back a re read and I see he is talking of his truck tires and not the trailer tires. The only tire I have ever had rated that high were on the RV. I also see he runs a bigger tire on his truck than I do. 265's on mine.

[pepsi71ocean]

not to bad, but my advice is to go dully, since srw trucks that pin weight in the 3,500 and up category scare me.but don't be dissuaded, some airbags, and a good suspension set up should take care of that.I've rolled the scales into the > 6,000lbs pin weight on my truck's rear axle, haha, that 5th wheel was a narly ride that was.

[hex0rz]

you could swap out your Dana 70 for an 80 and have the same capacity of a SRW 1 ton unless your going to a newer truck. The new trucks have a higher RAWR than the 2nd gens but even then it wouldn't be a substantial amount.

I was thinking aout the whole 4.10 gears thing, but did not know if it would really be worth it... Would my diff. housingfit a dana 80?

not to bad, but my advice is to go dully, since srw trucks that pin weight in the 3,500 and up category scare me. but don't be dissuaded, some airbags, and a good suspension set up should take care of that. I've rolled the scales into the > 6,000lbs pin weight on my truck's rear axle, haha, that 5th wheel was a narly ride that was.

Theres a few reasons why I wanna stay away from a dually. Parking it would really suck. Buying 2 more tires would suck... The ride would suck.. I would also be DD it... I dunno, I probably have it all wrong. But dually's just don't appeal to me. I suppose it would have to be the RIGHT one, to do it. What else is there that I could do to the suspension besides airbags? I'm hoping to really bring the pin weight down by counter weighting it...

[dripley]

Get it loaded up the way you are going to travel with it and weigh it again. It sounds like you were not completely loaded when you first weighed it anyway.

[pepsi71ocean]

I was thinking aout the whole 4.10 gears thing, but did not know if it would really be worth it... Would my diff. housingfit a dana 80? Theres a few reasons why I wanna stay away from a dually. Parking it would really suck. Buying 2 more tires would suck... The ride would suck.. I would also be DD it... I dunno, I probably have it all wrong. But dually's just don't appeal to me. I suppose it would have to be the RIGHT one, to do it. What else is there that I could do to the suspension besides airbags? I'm hoping to really bring the pin weight down by counter weighting it...

blow a tire out on the drivers side with that thing loaded down and tell me how much fun it is:lmao: IMO dully's are come and gone according to my dad, but i think that if your primary use is for towing then its well worth grabbing a dully just for the safety use. and besides parking for my truck isn't to bad, even with the lift on the 99 i still fit in most parking garages, and when you do its worth going farther up or park on a corner so you have room to get in and out. I know they don't look cool, but for load stability your better off. if not check ebay you never know. there is a nice 97, 3500 12v for under 10 grand with only 12,000 miles on it.