Question on Pin Weight and Toy Haulers

There's no way to say because there are too many variables. As an example: I have a 2010 Fuzion 383, if I put 1500 lbs. at a particular point in my garage I will lower the pin weight 40 lbs. Going by that I would have to put around 10,000 lbs. in the garage to change the pin weight 300 lbs. :)

It all depends on where in the garage you put the weight, where the axles are in relation to the weight, where the axles are in relation to the pin, whether it is a triple of double axle...you get the idea. Just too many variables to make a reasonable guess.

I would say you are looking at trailers that will put your truck over it's pin weight allowance. But then again 2100 lbs. seems a bit light for a ton truck.

fj12ryder wrote:
There's no way to say because there are too many variables. As an example: I have a 2010 Fuzion 383, if I put 1500 lbs. at a particular point in my garage I will lower the pin weight 40 lbs. Going by that I would have to put around 10,000 lbs. in the garage to change the pin weight 300 lbs. :)

It all depends on where in the garage you put the weight, where the axles are in relation to the weight, where the axles are in relation to the pin, whether it is a triple of double axle...you get the idea. Just too many variables to make a reasonable guess.

I would say you are looking at trailers that will put your truck over it's pin weight allowance. But then again 2100 lbs. seems a bit light for a ton truck.

OK, thanks for your input. I was afraid it was a loaded question.

It seems like a light pin weight?....I wonder if my fiance has miscalculated or somehow came up with the wrong number. Hmmm...guess I'll have to ask him to show me how he came up with it.

As a rough estimate figure 20-25% of the GVWR of the trailer as pin weight. This will get you close.

I think fj12ryder meant that a max payload of 2100lbs didn't seem like much, considering it's a 1 ton truck. Seems a little low. Where did you get that number from?

Yes, that's what I meant. I run around 3,000 lbs with my 2001 Dodge dually 1-ton, so 2100 lbs. for a newer Ford 1-ton seems a little low. JMO of course.

OP didn't specify if it is a SRW or DRW F350. Big difference in pin weight you can safely run between the two...

For the 2003 F350 Super Duty the GVWR on a SRW was #9900 and a DRW was #11,200

N-Trouble wrote:
OP didn't specify if it is a SRW or DRW F350. Big difference in pin weight you can safely run between the two...

It's a SRW. Perhaps that explains it. I'm still going to double check it though to be sure.

Thank you everyone for the input thus far.

Yes the 9900 GVWR on the 2003 F350 is pretty lame compared to the 11,500 rating that they have now. Your truck has essentially the same rear axle as my 2011, but they just didn't rate the trucks very high back then. My brother had a 2003 and other than a difference in power, he would tell you the same as me that it was no less capable than our 2011s.

Unfortunately, a 2003 just doesn't give you much room legally for a decent toyhauler. Most toyhaulers are going to be more than 2,500 lbs with many coming in closer to 3,000 lbs on the pin weight. I'm not going to tell you that your truck won't do it safely because contrary to what the weight police will tell you, people do it everyday and you just don't see any number of catastrophic accidents to prove their contempt of it. Safety factors rely heavily on driver skill, defensive driving techniques and the mechanical fitness of the tow vehicle. Not knowing the abilities or driving style of the driver, my hesitation in your situation would be that you have a 10 year old truck. Regardless of the number of miles on the truck, 10 years is getting long in the tooth for pushing the limits unless the truck has seen some serious preventative maintenance.

As others have said regarding pin weight, unless the weight was concentrated against the ramp door, you aren't going to leverage much weight off the pin. With 1,300 lbs in my garage, I don't notice much difference in pin weight. If the weight is centered in the garage, at best you may see an 8 to 1 ratio meaning you would leverage 1 lb off the pin for every 8 lbs that you add to the garage. It is nearly impossible to leverage more than 150-200 lbs off the pin on most trailers.

In 2005, Ford upgraded the chassis, brakes and suspension. I think they did it again in 2008 or 2009. The older trucks just don't compare to newer ones for towing and payload - This truck is at least two generations behind the the current offerings.

Have you considered a bumper pull toy hauler instead?