5th Wheel Hitches 101
Hello all, it's been a LONG time since I've been here. My family and I have camped in a travel trailer for basically the last 18 years. Well, we sold "Mama Eagle" (last July) and decided to move to ...
Forum Discussion
fj12ryder wrote:
Just a guess, but I'm thinking you'll be using a lot of that 2500-3000 lbs. carrying capacity. You generally figure about 20% for hitch weight, and since the dry weight is pretty useless, if you figure it on GVWR you should be good. And that would put you at about 2600 lbs. hitch weight. Add about 250 lbs. for a hitch and you're right up against your max payload.
I'm a B&W hitch fan boy, so naturally I recommend them highly.
I figured I'm going to be up closer to my weight limitations with this 5th wheel (13650 GVWR) vs our old TT (9500 lbs. IIRC), since we were way under with the TT.
In any event, if the pin weight is actually 20% (and I have no idea on pin weights, I know the tongue weights generally ranged from 12-15%), then 20% of 13,650 lbs. is approximately 2800 lbs., and that's if I load the 5er to capacity, which I find doubtful given that we usually less than 1000 lbs. of gear in our TT (I had that weighed very closely).
So, as long as I never go over the GVWR of the 5er, as you said, I should be fine.
I am going to take the truck cap off the truck, and it's a HEAVY fiberglass cap, on a full size bed, and then weight it fully fueled, etc. to get an accurate weight of the truck.
