I also never want people to learn safety after the fact. I often support & provide education on using a no sway WDH. Additionally for our 1500s sometimes adding suspension support control & dampening through axle to frame air bags AND setting it up at a triple scale. Then sharing that trailer should measure level, truck should have a little rake and you find your best weight distribution in which you will learn your axle weights & CVW.
This promotes a safe set up. If you have restored at least most of your steer axle weight and are not exceeding your drive axle, are below CVW, she will handle accident avoidance wind stop & control speed down a grade etc. Some try to skip safety and just buy a HD with no WDH and a long heavy TT then tell halfers they need to buy a big truck to be safe. This is not good either we need people to learn that it's weight distribution not just weight that is best for a safe setup.
Some here may know I Transport TTs from the manufacturers to dealerships throughout the country with only a 1500 so I am very acclimated to it. I've done many often cross country transports & over the grades with 30 & 33' floor plan TTs all of which were safe & stable plus many more smaller TTs. Safe stable reliable is in scaleing & working on your setup to get decent weight distribution. Do realize what I do is new dry TTs but I have done to 9k. I'm not advocating buying a 30' TT to camp with family if you own a 1500. A HD would be a better tool for that job. But normally more things enter into it to be considered. Anyway I would rather see a 1500 w WDH that's set his load up at a scale than the same trailer behind a 3/4 ton with no WDH who has never seen a scale.
When I saw Fran's setup the first thing I looked at was that he has a WDH and the second thing was that the trailer was generally flat & the nose of the truck isn't up in the air so his steer axle isn't unloaded. Closer inspection shows the front fender is up a little & the back is squated a little so there is room for improvement but that's being hyper critical. The truck & trailer look great. If we were chatting about it I would ask about his axle numbers what weight bars etc. scary to me would be that TT & no WDH, unloaded steer axle, unlevel trailer no matter the truck or whether it's HD or LD.
Oh and yes many get hung up on payload numbers because of legal hypotheticals and often because they really don't know how to set up a load for safety. Certainly that should be considered to but actual setup and actual payload is found with your truck & wet TT on a scale not adding up some guesstimates and saying looks like I'm over the number on the payload sticker so it must be unsafe etc.
