Quote:
Originally Posted by RedOne
Where you getting those weights from. You must be hauling anvils or collecting rocks in yours if it is that heavy. Mine started at 1190 empty and may go 1350 fully loaded. We don't travel with water tanks fully loaded but if I did it would help as it is in the very back of the camper.
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A number of members have given pin weights for their 26SAB in forum posts. Here is one member who accounts for his 26SAB (GVW 10,000) actual weight of 8512 with a tongue weight of 1700. If he added the additional 1500 lbs to load his RV to GVW, he'd be well above 1800 lbs pin weight.
http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/sho...ighlight=26sab
There are others who report much the same experience.
My own personal experience is with the XLite 27RKS. It's advertised shipping weight is 7136 with a pin weight of 1230. In actuality, packed for a trip last fall, on the CAT scale, it weighed in at 8330 with a pin weight of 1756. If I added extra cargo to get to my 10K GVW, I'd also be well above 1800 lb pin weight.
If I were to load my XLite to GVW I couldn't tow it with a half ton truck and take my family along. The percentages of 15%-25% would give a pin weight of 1,500 - 2,500 lbs. Even with a 1,900 lb payload, by the time I add a 125 lb fifth wheel hitch, my DW and dog, I'm at 1550 lbs of payload remaining. That means I couldn't tow at the trailer GVW and maintain the minimum of 15% pin weight. I'd be overloaded. When I weighed it last fall, the pin weight percentage was slightly above 21%. To maintain that percentage would mean a pin weight of 2100 lbs at GVW. That would be 400 lbs over payload (in my F150) even before my family got into the truck.
The only way I see to tow my 27RKS with a half ton truck is to not be able to use the trailer to its full potential. I think, in my perspective, if I'm going to buy a product, I want to be able to use it to its full potential. That isn't possible with the F150 I had and a 27RKS or a 26SAB. The only way to tow the combination of my previous truck and either of the two "smaller XLite" trailers is to not be able to load them fully. The larger XLite trailers are heavier and would present an even bigger challenge to tow. Now, with all honesty, my 2010 F150 had a payload of 1700 lbs, not 1900 lbs, however even with the additional 200 lbs of payload, towing at full GVW would mean towing overloaded.
If you recall, I've towed with a half ton for years and am a advocate for half ton towing (within vehicle limits). There are a number of people who do successfully tow fifth wheels with half ton trucks. I did it, you're doing it, others are as well. From what I see, to successfully tow with a half ton, concessions must be made. Fully loading the trailer, having a large family, expecting to carry a "normal cargo" load of a generator, tool box, lawn chairs, ice chest and other camping items in the truck bed are limited at best and not "doable" in many situations. Knowing these limitations and experiences of others and to not caution a novice who can easily be swayed by the sales hype or believe what he reads in a brochure without knowledge of the "pitfalls" of the potential to overload a factory advertised "Half ton towable" would not be doing them "fair". We all know that a "half ton towable" RV is not towable by all half ton trucks and some "half ton towable" RV's are not towable by any half ton truck, they just fall in the same model series for production purposes.