Pin Weight Question

[zell1966]

ok looking at several 5th wheels and need some clarification.

dry wt and cargo wt range from 10, 000 4to 14,000 lbs
pin wt range from 2,400 to 1,700 lbs

At what point would the 5th wheel not be able to be towed by a 25oo series ram 2012 or newer?

 

[GsRAM]

first off, don't go by dry weight, use the trailer gvwr. it'll never be the dry weight once you have all your gear in it.

as far as 2500 and weights, you need to check payload rating of whatever truck you have and see.

diesel powered 2500s usually have pretty low payload ratings due to the heavier drive train. you'd need to take your loaded, ready to camp pin weight, plus weight of all cargo in the truck plus passengers weight, weight of the 5th wheel hitch in the bed, add all those and see if you are over the payload for your truck.

I don't recommend exceeding the payload rating, personally which is why I upgraded to a 2500hd truck. everyone is different.

the trucks from 13 or 14 on up (can't remember which) have the same frames, axles, brakes, etc. 2500 or 3500. only difference is rear springs on 3500 are leafs and not coils.

as such, if I were to consider overloading a 2500 series truck (i wouldn't), I think I'd want a 13/14 and newer truck for the above reasons. in the newer 2500s they have artificially low gvwr so they can stay at 10k gvwr rating, typical of that series truck. good luck

 

[mtofell]

Good info from GsRam but one thing I'd offer as my opinion - The GVWR is the max weight a trailer is designed to hold. It's mainly determined by the axle rating and frame size of the trailer. The difference between the dry weight and the GVWR is often called CCC for cargo carrying capacity.

For whatever reason, manufacturers produce trailers with CCCs all over the map. I've seen them as low a 1000# and as high as 4500#. IMO, there's no reason to buy a truck capable of hauling a 14,000# loaded trailer if you're only going to load it up to 11,000#.

I definitely agree that using dry weights is a bad idea when looking at pin weight and overall weight of a trailer but the GVWR may not be accurate to how you are going to use the trailer either.

From comparison, I carry between 1500-2000# in my 35' 5th wheel. The variation is largely depending on if/how much water I have on board. So, about 1500# of pots/pans, clothes, tools and other stuff.