blt2ski
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Re: Mercedes/Trailer Lights Compatibility Issue
Not saying this is the case, but "SOME" manufactures use a separate wire for the brake and turn signals per side vs the left side pole being both brake and turn, same with the right side. I had this issue with a few Japanese - Toyota and Nissan trucks in the past. I needed an adapter that made the wires combine to work. Despite having an ML320 for 20 years, never wired it nor towed with it, I don't know if their wires are like the ones I described. The adapter is rather easy to find at any auto/RV parts outlet. Marty20Views1like0CommentsRe: DIY Truck Bed Drawer Setup for F150..
Mitch, The new web site is a bit different than the old one. Some parts easier, others harder. Normal for computer programs and how programmers work. I've seen a few boxes like that home built. Not always as slick looking as store bought, at times, more functional, others less. At least if you know you need a 6.5" drawer height, max store bought is say 6" or shorter, you can make them the correct height to put that junque in a drawer and take it along! Or if you need a 30" one side, and 18" works for the other on width....you can make them to fit. Like everything else in life, your needs change, or you figure out the, I had a good idea, but I should have done this_____! Marty29Views1like1CommentRe: Math isn't mathing
Then Grit and I also load equipment trailers. Many of those have payloads rated at the axle capacity, with a foot note, if you have enough hitch wt, IE the weight of the trailer! I was looking for a trailer that can handle 12000 lbs, they would spec it with 2-6K axels, of course I am assuming 2-7K axles! 12000 of load, plus 4500 for the trailer. 16500 total, 15% on a pintle hitch ~ 2500 lbs, leaving me with 14K on the axles, hence me wanting dual 7K trailer. I also had 2000 lbs for getting bigger equipment than I had at the time, plus other potential tool weight etc. I figured more like 12-13 on the axles, and 2000 HW on a pintle hitch in reality. Not that I have towed 5W/gooseneck style trailers, I would give myself the 14K on the trailer, plus 3500-4300 hw, total 17500-18300. that's about 5100-6000 lbs for other items. Whether the front part of the trailer frame is strong enough to handle that weight is another question or story to deal with. Another you have to watch for, is the base wt including water? LP and battery(s)? Some include those items, other do not. There should be a sticker inside a cabinet, usually in the kitchen area, that will give you an as built payload spec. Look at one or two you see on the lot, you will get a pretty good idea one how much you really have to work with. As noted, there are multiple ways a manufacture can say with the GVW of the trailer should be. Some make sense, others do not. Reality, if you get pulled over or have to go thru a weight scale, they only use the trailer axel weight towards your total GVW. The HW goes against the rear axle capacity GRAW of the tow rig! This includes ball or pintle hitch trailers also. So, if you have 2000 lbs of payload to use towards HW, divide 2000/.25 for 25% HW< you have a max trailer of 8000 lbs. 2000/.10 or 10% HW< you have the ability to tow a 20,000 lbs trailer. you will always need a bigger truck to pull a 5W than a ball mount trailer. I'm not going to go into legal weight amounts you can put on your rigs axels, I could legally pull this trailer with my 1500 Chebby. I won't recommend it. As more than likely, even with the trailer brakes working, I could not stop the total within legal requirements, I'll have a failed braking system. major fines, red tagged on the side wherever I sat etc. Weight wise, I would be legal! Enjoy your new rig! Marty6Views0likes0CommentsRe: Axle rating vs GVWR
Grit, Me myself and I agree. I still like what I was told when it came to buying an equipment trailer once, Told the manufacture rep I wanted to carry 12000 lbs on the trailer. He tried to tell me a twin 6K axle trailer was perfect, as long as I carried enough hitch weght, IE the 4000+ lbs of trailer tare wt. I was asking about a twin 7K axel trailer, because I only wanted to have 2000-2500 lbs of hitch wt..... I figure on this, I can put the amount rated on the axels, the rest is hitch wt. So a twin 5K axle trailer could run down the road at 10K on the axels, plus 10-25% of the total weight being HW, around 14K for a 25% HW trailer, or 1200 for 10%, both options leaving 10K on the 10K axles. This is ANY type of use of trailer one wants to talk about. Then again, one does not always have this ability, as the what the trailer tongue is made of, what strength etc, may lower the true total you can run down the road at. True weight LEO's, only measure the axel wts, they dont measure the HW of the trailer, other than what is on the axel of the tow rig. Marty7Views0likes0CommentsRe: Downsizing from Home to 5th Wheel
Get the truck that fits your wifes rear end! or you'll never hear the end of it. Leather seat for her, cloth for me! oops, can't get that option..... I do not know how heavy that trailer is, so you might be into 45 series territory too! As noted, you need to know the hitch weight of the trailer. THEN< and ONLY then can you figure out what truck you need. A reg cab 25 series that is moderate to lightly specked, can have the same payload as a loaded DW crew cab diesel per the door sticker payload. My 2000 rwd 3 chargeable optioned reg cab vs my 2005 DW crew cab diesel truck. Both by the way were Chebbies! Reality, the DW rig had about 1500-2500 more lbs of actual capacity if I went by axle wt GVW vs the detuned basic gvw ALL of the manufactures work with. Speed up hills with an equal trailer, one of the three wins a few years, then #2, then #3, then back to #1 brand.....The actual real difference is pretty minor in reality. GM is typically the lowest entry rig, then Ram a bit higher, Ford the highest entry. If your short, or one of you has hip issues like my spouse, the lower entry rigs are a better option. If you have to lift or carry things into the bed, again, the lower bed height helps save your back. Probably one of the various and sundry reasons why I have preferred GM's over the Dodge-ram/Ford options. Rear leg room for passengers, hard to beat the Ram Mega cab, Ford crew cab a bit shorter, GM crew a bit shorter yet. Unless you are 6.5-7' tall, probably in all honesty, you're not going to care about the legroom part in the back seat. Choose the seats for grand kids if you have them, favorite 4 legged creature that rides in the back seat etc. Or room needed for extra gear with the seat folded up. Oh, and Red is the lightest paint color, so always the fastest, Black the heaviest, slowest everything else being equal.......If you believe this, Grit and I have a volcano or three rumbling in our back yards we can sell you! Have fun shopping! Marty3Views0likes0CommentsRe: Proper truck for a very heavy trailer
Hoping the T part of you motor is a turbo version, as you should be able to do more than 30 mph on a 5-6% grade at 26K and 300 hp. Then again as grit is pointing out, incorrect gearing be it in the trans or rear ratio, can screw one up. If you motor is not a turbo, assuming you are talking say above 5-6000', with a 3% loss of HP per 1000' up you go, being at 15% loss at 5000, and 30% at 10000' elevation, you're going to be going slow. There is more to pulling a trailer or moving a MH than just the power of the motor(s) being compared. Generally speaking, as also noted, a higher number of gears with a given spec motor, you will usually go slightly faster with the 10sp vs a 6, or 4 sp trans or whatever number of gears. Alson axel ratio, and tire diam can vary this point to some degree also. Your combo needs around 150 HP depending upon the aerodynamics of the set-up, to 30% more if not very streamlined. Then another 45HP per 1% grade you want to pull at 60 mph. You are going to need around 450HP to go 60 mph up any 6% grade at 26K lbs or there about. Marty61Views1like1CommentRe: 2018 Ram 2500
You could do that here. Your door sticker would not change. I can go from a say 265 width single to a mid 300 width tire with the same ply, load rating etc, the wider tire would have a higher carrying capacity, up the springs if need be, and get more capacity too. One does many times have to change out the rim, deal with back spacing etc too. Nothing illegal about. I've done it, been pulled over etc, not tickets because of it. Many large truck firms are changing out their duals to super singles for various and sundry reasons. One ie single is about 100-150 lbs heavier weight per side of an axle than a single aluminum rimmed setup. That gives ea truck with 4 tandem dual axles another 800-1200 lbs of payload, The drivers use less HP to turn the drivers, as the tires are lighter! Better MPGs. Granted a tenth or two. 9.8 to 9.9 with a fleet of 300-500 trucks driving 100K miles a year. adds up to a few dollars. Along with the potential for fewer overload tickets per axle This is harder to do per say with what is a completed vehicle, ie a pickup vs a cab and chassis that semi's are. It does come down to 25/35 series trucks too. You can add drop axels, heavier springs, change out the tire size etc. At the end it is up to the final body manufacture to certify the upgraded GVW of that vehicle. Think of the type C van body, Type A MH that got to the RV manufacture as a chassy only. These RV's you see with Tag axles are aftermarket add-ons from the chassis manufacture. Totally legal to do. I know of a topsoil, bark, rock supplier, that put drop axles on the 3 axel dump trucks. IE a steer and tandem rear. it was not so they could carry more weight per say. It lowered the number of times being stopped, weighed at scales with too much weight on the front axle. They were under their total paid for gvw, but over the amount they could have on the front axel. It happened with the rear, the front was 70-80% of the overweight tickets. My Navistar, I went to a slightly wider higher capacity tire, I went from a max of 19200 on the rear to 20K, front from 9600 to 12K lbs. Believe it or not, my 05 and 89 DW trucks, also had an approx max 32K I could put on those axels the way the laws read based on tire tread widths. Not that I would recommend one putting 20 on the rear, and 12 on the front axle of a 35 series truck. My Navistar is 16.5 on the rear and 8000 on the front. Me running down the road at the usually max loads of 24-25K with a paid for license of 26000, was not an issue. Original per Navistar was 18000 due to tires. 12000 rear 6000 front. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the above it legal in Canada too. I do know some states do not allow drop axles for additional weight capacity in the ways I've described. OR another some dump and cement trucks are using, is a drop axle that is raised off the main road but dropped so it is behind the chassis of the truck. If a typical tandem rear, single steer axel truck has 2-3 single drop axle between the tandem, and steer, along with the rear drop axle, you can add a few lbs to what you are carrying etc. Also, lifting a vehicle can be done too. Problems here, is most states have max height rule/law/regulation for head lights. The lifting is not the problem per say, but you get red tagged pulled off the road or equal to your head lights being too high! Too tall heavy of tires will affect how quick you can stop! You fail the field test of stopping with in x feet. Red tagged, not getting off the road without a tow, on a role deck or low boy trailer! If one thing you think will get someone in trouble, but doesn't, there is probably a rule that will knock them off the road while part of the weight, lifting etc was the cause, it is NOT THE EFFECT of how they got taken off of the road! I should point out too, for those of us old enough to remember the first Ford Monster trucks, they were not lifted compared to some of todays NEW trucks, that much higher! Todays versions are not even real pickups per say.0Views0likes0CommentsRe: 2018 Ram 2500
rmdbauer, After all the giberoush below. GO find yourself a 5W with dual 5K axles, empty weight if you can in the 7-8000 lbs range. Also make sure it has the smooth fiberglass walls, no front bedroom slide. You can load this to around 11-12000 lbs, 2500 or so on the hitch, the rest on the axles. you will then be below all your manufacture performance ratings. You are beyond warranty time, so you are the warranty check book be yours to pay it under or over your ratings. The fiberglass walled versions will be 400-800 lbs heavier than a corrugated aluminum wall version, but due to better aerodynamics, easier to pull overall, get you better mpgs etc. NO you will not be the fastest rig on the road! You will have to spend $80-100K on a TV with one of them thar 400/1000 diesel crew cab pickumups to get what one person says you need to pull a 12K trailer. I had the ability with my 2000 2500 reg cab C2500, other than the motor that came with it. If I would have had a 454, 4.56 gears GCW is 20000 lbs, vs 13500 with the 350 and 4.10 gears. This 2500 had all of 400 lbs less payload than my 05 DW Crew cab dmax diesel per the payload on the door label! BIG trucks vs smaller trucks do not mean better in all ways! Enjoy RV'ing! Marty30Views0likes1CommentRe: 2018 Ram 2500
Stir crazy, Yes, I can get a fine for being overloaded per say. It will not be because I am over a manufacture limit! It will be because I have not bought enough tonnage. IE in my 1500's case, If I had bought gotten a 6000 gvw plate vs the 8000 I chose, went down the road at 7200 lbs per GM's warranty weight rating, I am 1200 lbs overweight per my paid for registration. "GENERALLY SPEAKING" I would not get an actual ticket. Probably a 10 day up my registration by 2000 lbs to 8000. We buy tonnage here in Wa state by 2000 lbs increments. I had this happen in my dump truck one. Cost to me, $15-20 IIRC. Approximate cost per ton I pay for my trucks. Personal or commercial use. I've seen a person or two in Oregon say they got weighed and had to buy a new truck with correct tonnage to pull there RV. I would swag probably they had not BOUGHT enough tonnage for the truck/trailer combo they had to pull their RV. All they really had to do was pay more tonnage on their current truck/trailer combo. BUT the story goes they had too small of a truck! A vehicle with a gcwr of 12K with a V6 vs a V8 at 15000. The V6 rig at 15000 is no less or safer than the V8. OTHER THAN it can pull grades faster! Or it might be able to pull a steeper grade in 1st grade with-out stalling. Then again, as I have had rigs with BIGGER Motors get out pulled by rigs I've owned with smaller motor, due to lower overall gears in axel and transmissions, allowing them to pull a steeper grade without stalling. Above hence why a GCWR is a performance rating. WHAT is the spec that this rating meets? What I want the truck to do, vs you, vs an engineer at the manufacture? OR how much does the manufacture want to limit their warranty pay out for parts that break. I only know of one jurisdiction that truly enforces the manufactures weight ratings, that is British Columbia. IF a US state only enforces the manufactures ratings, then as I've noted many times, that state is not enforcing the "Federal Bridge Laws" which is the truck weight law in our country. That states federal dollars for road maintenance and new roads can be withheld. This is the engineer spec that LEO/CVEO enforce. What the roads are designed to carry per axle. A state can go higher, ie Wa st if you have a dually you can put 600 lbs per inch width of tire on that vehicle up to 20K lbs per. singles it is 500 lbs. If a state enforces less than 500 lbs, they are going against the minimum std of the FBL. A state can allow more. More damage to the roads can occur. With ALL the above said for who knows how many times I have posted this, an leo/cveo can get you off the road if you are a menace to society. Generally speaking, it can be because of weight only. Brakes are over loaded and do not meet a field test, ie stop on a level from 10 mph in X feet. Battery on the towed rig has a 11.5V or less to activate the trailer brakes. Trailer brakes so not hold the Truck at a stop or at least have all the tires locked up when starting up. I do not know of a law that says the truck has to stop the trailer! These are things that can stop most of us, as we have some time or electric braking system. Surge has other field tests to see if the brakes work etc for the trailer or some laws state "Towed vehicle" meaning a literal trailer or a towed car. I can give more examples etc of what can get you off the road. Literally being overweight as most of us would think of being overweight is few and far between. Even with semi commercial vehicles. Marty1View0likes2Comments
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