ramcneal wrote:
Okay. I've now weighed my rig three different times; empty truck, truck with new fifth wheel, and rig loaded for a weekend. I'll weight it one more time on the 7th of March after we've loaded the kitchen up with food for a week and clothes before our trip to Phoenix for Spring Training.
Am I overloaded? Strictly speaking yes I'm overloaded on the GVWR. I'm below the 6200lbs on the rear axle and well under the 20k for the combined weight. I'm going to look into Colorado's laws and see if they allow us to purchase a higher rating like TX. I've been told that TX allows you to run at your axle ratings, if you pay the licensing fee, which is higher than the GVWR which is a good indication to me that the GVWR is bogus. Add to that the difference between my 9000lbs GVWR 2500 and the 10,100lbs GVWR 3500 is a set of springs I feel very safe. I've upgraded the rear suspension and added an exhaust brake.
This is not an endorsement that people should blindly ignore ratings. After doing a bunch of reading on this forum and others for the past three months I've come to realize there are three different types of people when it comes to towing. (1) The weight police. These are the folks who state you can't, should not go over any of the ratings. End of story. (2) People like myself who read and understand their limits, understand just how much weight they are pulling. (3) The last group are the folks who heard about somebody who pulled 30k of hay on a 10k trailer without problems which means their little 1/2 ton truck can pull a 15k trailer safely. So what if the truck sags a little and takes three times the distance to stop. These folks are the ones who the group in #1 are really screaming at or about.
If you disagree with me I would love to hear it. Please feel free to either follow up this post a general education or send me a private message either through this board or at 'ramcneal @ gmail.com' (remove the spaces).
I have read the towing laws and I don't recall anything about being over GVWR being against the law. It does make reference to unsafe loads and axle/tire weights, so I can't see why you would need to purchase anything. It seems that the trucks are tested as a base model and when you finally get it with all the options, the GVWR is the same but your truck weighs more. A lot more. (check out this forum: "Towing at or just over TV GVWR") I have a Dodge 2500 Laramie 6.7 CTD automatic that weighs, with me in it, about 7660LBS full of diesel. With 9000 as my gross, that leaves my cargo weight at about 1300lbs. No 5er pin is that light, so I am over my gross. My WHOLE setup weighs about 18500lbs with a trailer weight of about 11000. The biggest difference in cargo vs 5er is that your 5er has brakes and it is the braking more than anything that set the GVWR on a truck. My trucks sags about 2 inches with my camper attached and I actually have no air in the ride-rites. I fill them to 40, even though I really don't need to. Nice to have piece of mind. I hate driving with my Jake brake and tow/haul switch engaged unless I am in the mountains. I just don't need the extra braking, and it is so rough; all that shifting. Truck and trailer stop fine. I am in group 2, as you have guessed. The police never turn around and follow me, no one on the street stops and points. All I ever hear is "Nice setup!". Cops certainly don't care. I kick it 70 MPH on the highway and don't give it a second thought. I try to do all my heavy braking early and I don't try to jump lights. I am slow through the neighborhood, it is all about common sense; and to think the police have nothing better to do but pull me over to check my GVWR passes NO common sense test whatsoever. It is all about how you feel behind the wheel, KNOWING how much it all weighs and distributing your load correctly. Stay under your GCWR and axle weights, check you air pressure and HAVE FUN!!!
