Trying to understand hitch weight

[Karen]

We are considering buying the 2014 Cougar XLite 29RLI and I have a few questions.

1: We are towing with a 2012 Chevy Silverado with a max towing weight of 10,300 lbs, so the trailer weight of 7580 lbs. should be fine for that. However, I have seen on a few forums that some people feel the Silverado will not be able to handle the hitch weight of 1,535 lbs. and since the dealers (RV and Truck) don't seem to know anything about it either, I was hoping that someone here could help.

2: Recently an RV dealer told me that he didn't think that these lightweight campers would hold up with 3 slides. He didn't think there would be enough strength in what was left of the stationary walls to hold the slides over time.

3: If anyone has this model RV, I would love to hear what you think of it.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[therink]

I don't know anything about the specific model you are looking at, so cant help you there. I also don't get the comment by salesman that the trailer with 3 slides don't hold up well. I have had two fifth wheels with 3 slides and have never had a problem. Maybe the salesman is trying to sell you something else?
AS far as hitch/pin weight goes:
You didn't specify whether you have a 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton truck. Big difference with hitch weight capability. Per Keystone website, the dry weight of the 29RLI is 7580 lbs with a carrying capacity of 2420 lbs, this means that the max weight of this rig is 10,000 lbs. Lets say that you load about 1500 lbs of gear ready for a summer of camping. The trailer will weigh about 9,080 lbs ready to drive down the road. My fifth wheel loaded weighs 1,800 lbs higher than the manufacturers dry weight. Fifth wheel pin weights usually run around 20% of the weight of the trailer. This means that the pin on your potential fifth wheel will weigh about 1,800 lbs.
The next question to ask your self is not "what how heavy of a trailer can my truck tow" but what you should be concerned with is "what is the payload rating of my truck?" (i.e. how much weight will the truck support?).
Please keep in mind that you now have 1800 lbs on the hitch, add passengers (say 500 lbs conservatively for a family of 4 and a dog), add 200 lbs for the hitch assembly, add another 300 lbs for other stuff loaded into the bed of the truck (tools, firewood, cooler, whatever). You now have loaded approximately 2,800 lbs of payload onto the truck. If you have a 1/2 ton truck, you will be overloading the truck. If you have a 3/4 ton truck with a payload rating of 2800 or higher, you should be OK.
I do not recommend exceeding the truck manufacturers payload rating. Keep in mind that when a manufacturer says the truck can tow 10,300 lbs, this based on a scenario of a standard trailer (not fifth wheel) that generally has a 10% - 13% hitch weight. Fifth wheel pin/hitch weights are almost double.
I have bought rvs in the past that exceeded what my tow vehicle at the time could safely support and I quickly learned that I needed a bigger truck. I don't recommend getting caught in this scenario.It generally isn't safe and can make towing a white knuckle experience.
If you have anymore questions, please ask. You are in the right place for good unbiased answers.
Steve

[MarkS]

Is your truck a 1/2 ton? Keystone advertises most of the XLite trailers as 1/2 ton towable, but a 1500# hitch weight seems high for a 1/2 ton. If it is a 3/4 ton you are probably ok, but do the math.

I have not seen any reports of 3 slides being an issue

[Karen]

Thanks for the info. Our truck is 1/2 ton, so without doing the math, I would guess that the weight is too much, but when I am having a good math day (not often) I'll give it a try. I'm not sure what we will do at this point, we really can't afford a truck and camper. We might have to stay with our travel trailer. Again, thank you.

[Karen]

This may be a dumb question, but although math is not my strong suit, I'm pretty good at mechanics and physics. If you load a fifth wheel with as much of the weight as possible in the back of the camper behind the wheels, does it change the hitch weight?

[Karen]

Okay, I was having a clear morning, so I did do the math and our truck has a payload rating of 1835, so we probably aren't even close to being able to tow this camper. bummer!

[canesfan]

Yes it can change the hitch weight. And it "could" make for a very unsettling towing experience. Hitch weight on a fiver should be roughly 15% to 20% and there is a reason for that. When you remove too much hitch weight you tend to lose some "stability" and going down the road can be interesting at least.

My last 5er had a the water tank behind the rear axles and when I filled it up the 80 gallons would take too much hitch weight off and it was an "interesting" feeling, something I haven't felt since towing a TT down the Interstate and being passed by a semi. That may not be totally accurate, but that's the best way I can describe it.

[Karen]

I can see how having way too much weight in the back could conceivably lift the rear wheels of the truck off of the ground. I once helped a friend load bricks on the back of a flatbed car carrier and when we took off he had no steering because there was too much weight on the back and the front wheels were about 1/4" off the ground. We had to move all the bricks towards the front. Good times!

[MarkS]

When I bought our current truck, I looked in the brochure and saw that it could pull a 16,000# 5er. I thought 10,000# was the heaviest trailer that we would ever want. So, bought the truck.

Then a year later we went trailer shopping and did the math. OMG I would love to see the 16k trailer that would actually work. We did buy the 10k trailer, we just barely meet the specs.