Silerback 33RL & 2001 F-250

jdjimenez wrote:

ependydad wrote:
Your estimate of 7,000 pounds of a wet truck weight might be a little conservative. But, even still- if your GVWR is 8,800 - that means that you only have 1,800 pounds of payload available to you.

This payload needs to carry the pin weight of the camper- which is advertised *dry* at 2,015 pounds. Which means you're already over before adding 1 option on the order sheet, never mind anything the dealer adds (propane, battery/ies) nor anything personal in it.

The 2,015 pound hitch weight is approximately 19%. Once loaded up, you're likely look at 20-21% pin weight of your actual loaded weight. And, as was mentioned- since you plan on full-timing it, that'll likely but you close up to the camper's GVWR which is 14,000. That means, you'll likely have a pin weight of 2,800-2,900 pounds which puts you at a truck weight of 9,800-9,900 or a full 1,000+ pounds over GVWR.

So it looks like if I attempt to pull virtually any 5th wheel I will be doing so illegally.

JDJ

There is no legality (that I know of) that applies to the truck's gross weight rating. However, from reading a few posts by lawyers and law enforcement folks (at least as far as can be validated from, "I'm a lawyer/LEO")- it sounds like your liability *can* increase in an overloaded situation in case there is an accident both civilly and legally. In a case like yours where you're very likely at or already over with dry weights, I'd be concerned if something ever happened.

I personally choose not to tow overloaded. I bought an expensive truck to go with my expensive camper, but I'm within all of my ratings even at my heaviest weights (and have truck stop scale tickets to prove it).

I'll likely take my lumps- but I would be willing to guess that lots of people with 3/4-ton trucks (250/2500) are over one or more ratings - especially those who are pulling bigger rigs. Most of the time this is OK. It all comes down to the driver, their experience and background.

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Anyway, I think the best first step is to load the truck up like you imagine that you would for travelling (wife included) and take it to a scale. That'll tell you exactly what you can carry for the hitch weight. And then from the hitch weight, you can extrapolate the weight of a camper that you can tow to stay within your ratings (divide the (GVWR minus the wet truck weight) by .2 will give you an approximate pin weight that you can carry).