weight question

"Safety is about having a well maintained vehicle in good condition more than anything else. The performance, or lack thereof, will drive you toward a more capable vehicle LONG before what you are driving is truly "unsafe" if you are anywhere near the ratings."

^^^ This.

That being said, were it me, looking at the 2021 3500 SRW ratings for a 4WD Crew Cab Standard Bed: 12,000 GVW, 29,700 GCVWR, 21,300 max 5th wheel rating, 4,185 max payload: I'd probably shoot for a trailer with a (trailer) GVWR of 16,740, probably a bit less...i.e. so that 25% of the trailer's GVWR = the max payload of the SWR 3500.

If you want to know the load rating of a tire in lbs, it is imprinted on the tire itself !

Ignore other "letter"/"ply" ratings.

IdaD wrote:
The poor guy is going to end up with a pop-up camper after this thread.

Someone will still say he needs a dually...:D

The poor guy is going to end up with a pop-up camper after this thread.

SUMRX4 wrote:
Thanks for the responses. I assume GM states max pin weight at 3100 even though the max payload is 3700 simply to give a little room for stuff that is going to be in the truck regardless. Fuel, Driver, etc.
I bought this truck thinking it would easily tow any 5er we would want. Well I didn't realize the floor plans we both want turned out to be 40+ feet long. Looking at luxury models in that length I am seeing GCWs in the 16,000 range. To error on the side of caution I'm taking 20% of the GCW for a theoretical "max" pin weight. But that's putting some of them at 3200 or better depending on model. Now I don't think she and I would ever max out any RV. It's just me and her and 2 dogs. No kids etc. I have had two TT previously and I doubt I ever had 1,000 pounds of stuff in either of them.
All that being said I don't want to do something stupid and put us and others at risk on the road. Am I being to cautious or what? I'm only talking a couple hundred lbs. either way. Not like I'm wanting to hitch to something with a 5,000lb pin weight.

More than likely the 3100 vs 3700 is performance related, as the J2807 specs also include performance as part of the requirements.

The only thing the extra weight is going to do is slow you down.

As others have stated 20% is the exact opposite of "conservative." That's in "wishful thinking" territory. Conservative would be looking at it from a worst case scenario. With a 40'+ 5ver you could be looking at a pin weight of 5000lbs, which is less than 33% of your trailer's GVWR.

Safety is about having a well maintained vehicle in good condition more than anything else. The performance, or lack thereof, will drive you toward a more capable vehicle LONG before what you are driving is truly "unsafe" if you are anywhere near the ratings.

Big Trailers need Dually's to have sufficient safety margin for recommended max payload...

SUMRX4 wrote:
Thanks for the responses. I assume GM states max pin weight at 3100 even though the max payload is 3700 simply to give a little room for stuff that is going to be in the truck regardless. Fuel, Driver, etc.
I bought this truck thinking it would easily tow any 5er we would want. Well I didn't realize the floor plans we both want turned out to be 40+ feet long. Looking at luxury models in that length I am seeing GCWs in the 16,000 range. To error on the side of caution I'm taking 20% of the GCW for a theoretical "max" pin weight. But that's putting some of them at 3200 or better depending on model. Now I don't think she and I would ever max out any RV. It's just me and her and 2 dogs. No kids etc. I have had two TT previously and I doubt I ever had 1,000 pounds of stuff in either of them.
All that being said I don't want to do something stupid and put us and others at risk on the road. Am I being to cautious or what? I'm only talking a couple hundred lbs. either way. Not like I'm wanting to hitch to something with a 5,000lb pin weight.

That's not being conservative.

5th wheels normally are 20-25% on the pin, so a 16,000lb GVWR (not GCW) trailer 3200lb is assuming you are at the low end of pin weight. Conservative would be up around 4,000lb if near 25%.

Did you ever take those prior trailers in and weigh them? You'd be surprised how easy it is to get up to 1500-2000lb of cargo.

Well it’ll be fine. We’ve now established you have a GM?
What other cryptic bread crumbs can you throw out there like year, model, engine, cab/bed configuration?
Or I’ll guess…. Duramax crew cab. Am I right?
I’d have zero issue dumping up to 4klbs of total payload including pin on the back. If you’re puking a 40 footer I’d want a long wheelbase too.

Thanks for the responses. I assume GM states max pin weight at 3100 even though the max payload is 3700 simply to give a little room for stuff that is going to be in the truck regardless. Fuel, Driver, etc.
I bought this truck thinking it would easily tow any 5er we would want. Well I didn't realize the floor plans we both want turned out to be 40+ feet long. Looking at luxury models in that length I am seeing GCWs in the 16,000 range. To error on the side of caution I'm taking 20% of the GCW for a theoretical "max" pin weight. But that's putting some of them at 3200 or better depending on model. Now I don't think she and I would ever max out any RV. It's just me and her and 2 dogs. No kids etc. I have had two TT previously and I doubt I ever had 1,000 pounds of stuff in either of them.
All that being said I don't want to do something stupid and put us and others at risk on the road. Am I being to cautious or what? I'm only talking a couple hundred lbs. either way. Not like I'm wanting to hitch to something with a 5,000lb pin weight.

It used to be that GM subtracted 150 pounds for every seating position from the payload to arrive "maximum" trailer payload.