GVWR Calculation Question
I am hoping for clarification that I am calculating my payload correctly. I am planning on purchasing (in process of this week) a 2014 Jayco Jay Flight 28BHBE travel trailer. I don't have the phys...
Forum Discussion
Well i did a weigh of the truck on a CAT scale today, while raining. The weight came in at 6260. That included just topping off the fuel tank, and two adults, one 155 the other 225. It also included a small hitch and some small cargo (maybe 25 lbs). I would add another 150 lbs to that for true "camping" load for the truck as we would probably have my 25 dog and tote and well as the WDH and maybe a small travel suitcase. The rest would be in the trailer.
The trailer has a dry weight of 6500 roughly. I am assuming i would top out at 8000 fully loaded (The trailer's GVWR being 9250). My owners manual says use between 10 and 11%, but seems everyone here is more for 12 to 15%. If i use the middle of 12%, that means my tongue weight is 960. I have seen a few posts from what appears to be very knowledgeable people as they discuss the effects of a WDH and the distribution of the hitch weight to the tow vehicles front and rear axle, as well as the trailers axle. Assuming they are right, the 960 becomes an added weight of 635 to the trucks payload. The other 1/3 of hitch weight is transferred to the trailer's axles. So 6260+150+635=7045. My truck has a GVWR of 7100 and a Combined Gross Vehicle and Trailer Rating of 16000. So it seems as long as i don't load my trailer much beyond 8000, i should be good. Definitely top end, but doable. I also assume that the GVWR hopefully has a "little" engineered safety cushion :)
Sadly, after weighing my truck, i noticed ill also need to pay attention to my front axle weight. My wife weighs less that my coworker that was with me today. So hopefully more weight on rear axle and less on the front axle as those weights today were 3580 (4000 max Front) and 2680 (4150 max rear). I know the WDH should push 1/3 of the hitch weight to each of my tow vehicles axles "roughly" and the remaining third to the trailers axles. So an additional ~320 lbs moved to that front axle puts me right at that 4000 Front axle max weight rating.
Seems like a lot of hoping to me, but wife is pretty set on that trailer and floor plan. It is also not much more tongue weight over some of the much smaller Jayco travel trailers such as the 23MBH or 25 BHS. I think i am close enough, but still in the weight limits that i will give it a go. I will just be real sure to pay close attention to my load weights, and have a good WDH and trailer brake controller. I still plan on weighing the whole loaded rig once i get the actual trailer this Saturday. Already paid the deposit last week before looking at the weight issues. I might have tried to steer my wife away had i known how close i was to the limits for a little smaller and thus more breathing room tow wise. O well. Sadly we dropped so much money on the truck seeing the SAE tow rating standard and thinking that i had plenty of towing capacity to get a travel trailer of the size she wanted. I didn't know******about payload capacity and the fact that this 1/2 ton was pretty much the same as my Sienna. I have to wonder why they have a truck that can physically move 10000 lbs forward but can't actually have a full family of four and a 800 lbs of cargo from Lowes in the back without exceeding its payload capacity. Guess ill know more next time when i am looking at trucks once again.
I guess as many here have said before, i needed to actually constrain my thought process and understand that a 1/2 ton truck should really only be 1/2 ton.
I appreciate everyone's input. I definitely learned a lot.
The trailer has a dry weight of 6500 roughly. I am assuming i would top out at 8000 fully loaded (The trailer's GVWR being 9250). My owners manual says use between 10 and 11%, but seems everyone here is more for 12 to 15%. If i use the middle of 12%, that means my tongue weight is 960. I have seen a few posts from what appears to be very knowledgeable people as they discuss the effects of a WDH and the distribution of the hitch weight to the tow vehicles front and rear axle, as well as the trailers axle. Assuming they are right, the 960 becomes an added weight of 635 to the trucks payload. The other 1/3 of hitch weight is transferred to the trailer's axles. So 6260+150+635=7045. My truck has a GVWR of 7100 and a Combined Gross Vehicle and Trailer Rating of 16000. So it seems as long as i don't load my trailer much beyond 8000, i should be good. Definitely top end, but doable. I also assume that the GVWR hopefully has a "little" engineered safety cushion :)
Sadly, after weighing my truck, i noticed ill also need to pay attention to my front axle weight. My wife weighs less that my coworker that was with me today. So hopefully more weight on rear axle and less on the front axle as those weights today were 3580 (4000 max Front) and 2680 (4150 max rear). I know the WDH should push 1/3 of the hitch weight to each of my tow vehicles axles "roughly" and the remaining third to the trailers axles. So an additional ~320 lbs moved to that front axle puts me right at that 4000 Front axle max weight rating.
Seems like a lot of hoping to me, but wife is pretty set on that trailer and floor plan. It is also not much more tongue weight over some of the much smaller Jayco travel trailers such as the 23MBH or 25 BHS. I think i am close enough, but still in the weight limits that i will give it a go. I will just be real sure to pay close attention to my load weights, and have a good WDH and trailer brake controller. I still plan on weighing the whole loaded rig once i get the actual trailer this Saturday. Already paid the deposit last week before looking at the weight issues. I might have tried to steer my wife away had i known how close i was to the limits for a little smaller and thus more breathing room tow wise. O well. Sadly we dropped so much money on the truck seeing the SAE tow rating standard and thinking that i had plenty of towing capacity to get a travel trailer of the size she wanted. I didn't know******about payload capacity and the fact that this 1/2 ton was pretty much the same as my Sienna. I have to wonder why they have a truck that can physically move 10000 lbs forward but can't actually have a full family of four and a 800 lbs of cargo from Lowes in the back without exceeding its payload capacity. Guess ill know more next time when i am looking at trucks once again.
I guess as many here have said before, i needed to actually constrain my thought process and understand that a 1/2 ton truck should really only be 1/2 ton.
I appreciate everyone's input. I definitely learned a lot.
