What's the comfortable weight limit

Good grief.
Here we go again with a IRV2.com former weight police moderator Emeritus who voiced the same bilge over there.
While on IRV2 TX was very critical of RV.net and its members recommendations.

EDIT ....content

There are certain members of these forums that preach that it is OK to exceed manufacturers ratings when towing. I think the manufacturers engineers that rate the truck and design it for a specific service know a lot more about the limits that they want on their trucks.

Yes, they do design it with a safety factor, but that is to provide some safety to allow for material specifications. Running the truck a bit over the ratings will not cause parts to break and fall off, but it will stress things a bit more.

So I guess it boils down to asking the question...
"Are you smarter than an engineer?"

Ken

dmichaelf wrote:
I have a 2013 Ram 2500 with 6.7 Cummins Diesel. The GVWR is 10,000 lbs. Payload is 2580 lbs. The GCWR is 25,000 lbs/ Max trailer weight is rated at 17,410 lbs. I am currently pulling a 35' fifth wheel with a UVW of 9070 lbs. and GVWR of 11,700 lbs. My truck pulls this rig like a dream. I am considering a bigger 5th wheel with UVW of 13,000 lbs. and GVWR of 15,500. The book says I should be fine.

This is where you will run into issues. GVWR and Payload, I know with my 01 and an 11,000#wet 5er, I am over my GVWR, by a good bit, I do this within GRAWR, WITHOUT Air Bags or Timbren, or any other suspension modification.
The missing number in your post is your GRAWR, and what tires you are running and their weight rating. Stay within those limits and the comfort level is up to you! You are looking at adding about 4,000# to the 5er, which is a little more than 1/3 of the current 5er.

The choice is yours, and yours alone.

dmichaelf wrote:
I am considering a bigger 5th wheel with UVW of 13,000 lbs. and GVWR of 15,500. Don't want to buy a bigger trailer and not be comfortable towing it with my Ram. We've only owned the fifth wheel for about a year. We mainly do extended weekends and an occasional 1 week trip. We will likely only camp in full hookup campgrounds so will unlikely approach the GVWR of our trailer.

:h It's certainly is a heavier one, that's for sure. I don't understand the "Bigger is better mentality". DW & I actually went the opposite direction. We downsized and actually have more room in our new 29' 5er than we did in our old 31' TT. Bigger & heavier is not always the way to go to be happy. Guess it's a "status" symbol. "Hey look @ me & my massive rig"

When I bought my diesel crewcab F250 new in 2003, I thought that it'd tow anything I put back there.

Little did I know that the fifth wheel trailers I wanted to buy in 2014 are 13,000+ lbs. dry weight--and that my F250 is actually a bastard truck. Sure, it'll tow a load, but those heavy loads have too much pin weight.

We're taking delivery on a Grand Design 323BHS (bunkhouse) fifth wheel shortly with 2000 lb. pin weight and 11,000 total dry weight. That's as heavy as we want to go with our truck--and we're not suffering with this trailer meeting our needs.

I'm just not wanting to buy a new 1 ton truck that costs twice what my F250 cost originally. I just got the engine broken in @ 117K miles.

op asks wrote:
What's the comfortable weight limit ??

I and my trucks are comfortable towing the trucks max GN/5th wheel tow rating and carrying loads up the the truck mfg RAWR as its carrying the load. I run my trucks usually over 200k miles with no break downs or causing a accident.

Some folks are only comfortable carrying loads determined by the trucks GVWR or number from GCWR or the truck tire placard number or a 80 percent figure or any of several other numbers used.

Everyone has their own comfort level. I have mine but I don't beat others over the head 'cause they don't do it like I do.

The OP would be better off going with a new gen one ton SRW or DRW. His choice there.

A 15.5 trailer simply has more pin weight than a 2500 RAWR is capable of carrying without mods to the trucks rear suspension (rear spring pack/wheels and tires). The rest of the truck is same as a 3500 SRW.

I use dry weights and GVWR and CCC when looking at any trailer including RVs. Reason being some trailers have large CCC numbers that I will never use. Trailers in the pre '00s era had as little as 650 lbs CCC as mine does.
Dry weights and CCC are very important for my use.

after traveling 2500 km and seeing numerous 1/2 toms pulling 30' 5th wheels (or larger) and 3/4 tons towing 40' 3 axle tow haulers, I just really wonder if this really matters. Didn't see any horric crashes or breaks downs at the side of the road, if fact didn't see any troubles at all.

That being said: I won't be going to that 40' luxury hotel on wheels that weighs 20000 lbs and has 5 slide outs. I'm quite relaxed and comfortable with my 12000 lbs 5th wheel behind me.

Probably one of those foaming pops that make you wobble when you walk. After a few

TXiceman wrote:
I'd prefer an evening wobbly pop over a cup of coffee.

ken

Ken, don't know if I know what that means, but I got ya:)

I'd prefer an evening wobbly pop over a cup of coffee.

ken