Tongue weight, revisted

allcool wrote:
My TH has a 13,000gvwr sticker, but in reality probably closer to 15,000 loaded. Thank God for 6 Michelin Ribs...

I thought the same thing with my bunkhouse fifth wheel. Fulltiming, I ran overloaded for about 2 years (16,800 lbs. vs. 15,800 lbs.). I had an air pinbox, replaced leaf springs, added shocks, and upgraded the wheels/tires to 17.5" commercial trailer tires.

I finally paid the piper: non-impact frame damage.

My frame buckled at the axles. The cross-member "supports" that were there twisted and broke. One basically pulled itself through the I-beam of the frame itself.

I was under axle rating (barely). And upgraded tires because I did an individual wheel weights weighing and found that 1 tire was overloaded and 2 were maxed out with the LR E Maxxis tires I had on at the time.


First look at the frame damage:




Tire was rubbing the slide bar and put a hole into it:




After removing the tire, I could see the frame issues better:




After cutting it out, you can see how flimsy and how bent up the cross-member supports are:




Here's the one that about pulled itself through the I-beam:




To each their own, but I won't run a trailer overloaded