Lets Clarify: F250 Fifth Wheel Set-up
Long time lurker, admitted newbie. Hypothetical Situation: F250 SRW Crew Cab 4x4, 156" wheel base (shorter box version) GVWR 9900 Max Payload 3150 Max 5th wheel tow rating 15,900 ...
Forum Discussion
Good question.
The proponents of the "dry" plus a guess of stuff crowd feel they will never hit the trailers GVWR. While the GVWR crowd, me included, feel it is much easier to base your calculations on worst case scenario. Knowing that while we may not hit the GVWR, as long as we are under it is a bonus. Besides it is far easier for me to subtract one number from another than to try and sit down and make a list of every single item I may or may not have in my five on any one trip and then try to guess how much each item weighs and then add all those numbers up. See what I am driving at?
My example fifth wheel had a "dry" weight around 9900 pounds and a mystical 1650 pin weight. When we got it home and loaded with what we felt we needed/wanted we ended up with a scaled fiver that weighed 12,500 pounds on a 12,750 GVWR trailer. And we are not really loaded for bear. every spring I go through the entire trailer with a fine tooth comb and eliminate as much as possible. After this process and we have loaded food for a month we are still in the 12,500 pound range. And my pin weight is 3300-3500 pounds. I bought this fiver blissfully ignorant and spent three years trying to make do with a 2500 series truck. Adding air bags, bigger tires did nothing except help empty my wallet. I was finally able to afford to buy a dually and have never been happier in my life with a towing situation.
I guess the bottom line is this. Why not buy the correct tool for the job in the first place?
The proponents of the "dry" plus a guess of stuff crowd feel they will never hit the trailers GVWR. While the GVWR crowd, me included, feel it is much easier to base your calculations on worst case scenario. Knowing that while we may not hit the GVWR, as long as we are under it is a bonus. Besides it is far easier for me to subtract one number from another than to try and sit down and make a list of every single item I may or may not have in my five on any one trip and then try to guess how much each item weighs and then add all those numbers up. See what I am driving at?
My example fifth wheel had a "dry" weight around 9900 pounds and a mystical 1650 pin weight. When we got it home and loaded with what we felt we needed/wanted we ended up with a scaled fiver that weighed 12,500 pounds on a 12,750 GVWR trailer. And we are not really loaded for bear. every spring I go through the entire trailer with a fine tooth comb and eliminate as much as possible. After this process and we have loaded food for a month we are still in the 12,500 pound range. And my pin weight is 3300-3500 pounds. I bought this fiver blissfully ignorant and spent three years trying to make do with a 2500 series truck. Adding air bags, bigger tires did nothing except help empty my wallet. I was finally able to afford to buy a dually and have never been happier in my life with a towing situation.
I guess the bottom line is this. Why not buy the correct tool for the job in the first place?
