vehicle weight ration to trailer weight?

[debraindi]

I'm looking at my cat scale receipt from this month .All is good but the gross weight is 21460 the trailer axles is 10420 combined the steer axle and drive axle is 11040.I have more weight on the truck with the pin weight so the truck is heaver then trailer or is there another way to look at it for control and stopping the trailer?

[JIMNLIN]

The trucks brakes are designed/tested to stop its GAWR's at a minimum by the truck maker. Most 3/4 ton trucks today have the same braking systems as the higher rated one ton SRW sisters.

Example is a F250 with a 6000 FAWR and a 6200 RAWR = 12200 lb of braking performance.
The trailer may have two 6k axles = 12000 lb of braking performance.

Together they have a 24200 lb of combined braking performance which is one reason we don't see brakes as a issue on our trucks and trailers as we did some years back.

[Terryallan]

ScottG wrote:
Just read about this in some mag recently..(TL?) According to that article, the trucks tow ratings include it's ability to stop what ever weight of trailer it is rated for. They do this so if the trailer brakes fail, the truck can still safely stop it.
Seems reasonable.

IF that were so. Every truck pulling a trailer on the road would be over loaded. The truck's brakes are only rated to stop the truck's GVWR, Not the GCVWR.

And again if that were so. Trailer brakes would not be required by the DOT. And the folks who make brake controllers would go out of business.

[ScottG]

Just read about this in some mag recently..(TL?) According to that article, the trucks tow ratings include it's ability to stop what ever weight of trailer it is rated for. They do this so if the trailer brakes fail, the truck can still safely stop it.
Seems reasonable.

[debraindi]

tsetsaf wrote:
Never heard of a percentage difference. As long as you are within the gvwr and gcwr you should be good.

Maybe I'm looking at my cat weight differently because it weighted 4 axles 3 different weights. For percentages I look at steer axle and driver axle and added that to give me the weight of the truck 11040. The trailer axle was 10420 with a Harley 40 gallons of water and gear for a week.Around 53 percent on the truck. My real question was control with having a heaver vehicle to pull a trailer and im thinking its about braking over a heaver vehicle.I know rig is heavy for drive axles but still with in limits.

[YnotTurbo]

Our fiver is a lot heavier than our truck...
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w200/YnotTurbo/weight.png

[tsetsaf]

Never heard of a percentage difference. As long as you are within the gvwr and gcwr you should be good.

[Terryallan]

debraindi wrote:
I set my boost at 6 because with my lml because I want the truck slow down and save the truck brakes , still experimenting and may lower it to 4 . There is no jerking at 6 with my new keystone 311 toyhauler.

Think you misunderstood me. I have a Prodigy. It has of course many gain settings. But only 3 Boost settings. The gain (6.5, 4, or 😎 has only to do with the power being sent to the trailer brakes during the stop. Not with the trailer brakes leading the TV.

[Golden_HVAC]

debraindi wrote:
That was confusing I thank the trailer brakes should come on stronger first to prevent from heating up the truck brakes .

In other words your thought is not to worry about overheating the trailer brakes, but worry about overheating the much larger and stable disk brakes on the pickup?

I don't like the drum brakes that came with trailers in the 70's and today they are not much better. While drum brakes are a thing of the past for most cars and heavy trucks, disk brakes are standard on most car front axles. Disk brake systems for trailers have been around for about 15 years and work much more effectively than the drum brake and magnet system.

The brake controllers are better than in the 70's but the brakes on a trailer can overheat. There is not all that much cooling surface, and typically they will not use aluminum rims to assist with that cooling.

As for the original post, I would be happy and comfortable towing a trailer that is barely any more weight than the truck pulling it. Even at twice the weight of the truck, the load can still be stable.

Fred.

[Terryallan]

AH64ID wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

Golden_HVAC wrote:
So your truck is about 600 pounds heavier than the trailer that it is towing. You are concerned?

Most big rigs have a 20,000 pound truck towing a 60,000 pound trailer!



Fred.

True, BUT. Once the 60k trailer is hooked to the 20k truck. the truck is carrying about 1/2 of the weight of the trailer. So it becomes a 50k truck towing a 30k trailer.

No it doesn't. It is still a 20K lb truck, and the trailer is still "responcible" for stopping its own 60K lbs.

Just becuase there is weight of the trailer on the TV doesn't mean he trailer is lighter. TV stops the TV and trailer stops the trailer.

Disagree as it applies to 18 wheelers we were referring to. You really don't think the 8 trailer wheels will stop the 60K trailer. Especially when they are only carrying 30,000 lb of the weight. They will stop that 30k. But the other 30k will be stopped by the 8 drive wheels it is riding on. That is the way road tractors are designed. You really can't expect 8 wheels to be responsible for 60 K, and 10 wheels to only be responsible for 20 K.
The trailer wheels will stop the weight they are carrying.

[AH64ID]

Terryallan wrote:

Golden_HVAC wrote:
So your truck is about 600 pounds heavier than the trailer that it is towing. You are concerned?

Most big rigs have a 20,000 pound truck towing a 60,000 pound trailer!



Fred.

True, BUT. Once the 60k trailer is hooked to the 20k truck. the truck is carrying about 1/2 of the weight of the trailer. So it becomes a 50k truck towing a 30k trailer.

No it doesn't. It is still a 20K lb truck, and the trailer is still "responcible" for stopping its own 60K lbs.

Just becuase there is weight of the trailer on the TV doesn't mean he trailer is lighter. TV stops the TV and trailer stops the trailer.

[debraindi]

I set my boost at 6 because with my lml because I want the truck slow down and save the truck brakes , still experimenting and may lower it to 4 . There is no jerking at 6 with my new keystone 311 toyhauler.

[ScottG]

No, adding more weight to the truck will not make it stop the trailer better.

[Terryallan]

debraindi wrote:
That was confusing I thank the trailer brakes should come on stronger first to prevent from heating up the truck brakes .

Set the boost to 2 and they will. then they will apply at
the same rate as the TV brakes

[debraindi]

That was confusing I thank the trailer brakes should come on stronger first to prevent from heating up the truck brakes .

[lanerd]

I don't understand. How can you ration out the weight of the vehicle to the trailer? :h