Need help narrowing down 5th wheel
Good evening all, My wife and I are going to be in the market to purchase our first camper and are super excited. I have a 2022 ram 3500 SRW that's getting built as we speak (hopefully) and we are ...
Forum Discussion
What will limit you on trailer weight is the rear axle GAWR on your truck. You need to load it for normal travel, passengers, cargo and full fuel and get the truck weighed.
GAWR - actual rear axle weight = maximum loaded trailer pin weight.
Do not use any sales literature for pin weight. Take the trailer GVWR (sticker on left front corner) and multiply by 0.22 (22%) to get an estimated loaded pin weight. It typically runs about 20% but can be as high as 25% of the trailer GVWR. A SRW truck will reach its rear axle weight limit long before it will reach the advertised maximum towing rating.
Now that you have an idea of how much trailer you can tow and carry in the bed, I would look for gently used 2- to 5-year-old used trailers. These will have the factory bugs pretty well worked out of them.
Putting 8 people in a 35-foot trailer will get pretty tight. Our 40 foot 5we is set up for cocktails for 6, dinner for 4 and sleeps 2.
For reference, our 5er weighs about 19,200# and the pin weight is 4100#. So, for estimating, if you get a 5er that has a GVWR of 16,000#, expect a pin weight of 3200# to 3520# when fully loaded.
The main thing is to not buy too much trailer for your truck.
Ken
GAWR - actual rear axle weight = maximum loaded trailer pin weight.
Do not use any sales literature for pin weight. Take the trailer GVWR (sticker on left front corner) and multiply by 0.22 (22%) to get an estimated loaded pin weight. It typically runs about 20% but can be as high as 25% of the trailer GVWR. A SRW truck will reach its rear axle weight limit long before it will reach the advertised maximum towing rating.
Now that you have an idea of how much trailer you can tow and carry in the bed, I would look for gently used 2- to 5-year-old used trailers. These will have the factory bugs pretty well worked out of them.
Putting 8 people in a 35-foot trailer will get pretty tight. Our 40 foot 5we is set up for cocktails for 6, dinner for 4 and sleeps 2.
For reference, our 5er weighs about 19,200# and the pin weight is 4100#. So, for estimating, if you get a 5er that has a GVWR of 16,000#, expect a pin weight of 3200# to 3520# when fully loaded.
The main thing is to not buy too much trailer for your truck.
Ken
