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Originally Posted by Retired_at_55
Hi. There are two important numbers/limits for the TV related to towing - Towing capacity and payload capacity. Adding 100lbs to the back of the trailer does increase the weight of the trailer by 100lbs but it also reduces the tongue weight due to the lever arm created by the trailer axle (think of a teeter-totter with the axle of the trailer as the fulcrum). On my truck, towing capacity is 13000lbs and payload capacity is 1600lbs. My trailer is 7000lbs loaded, so I can easily afford to add 100lbs to the trailer to reduce the tongue weight (seen as payload) by 30-50lbs depending on where the weight is added.
Example: 30ft trailer (tongue to tail) with wheels 10ft from back. Moving the propane tanks (100lbs) from the tongue of the trailer to the very back of the trailer reduces the tongue weight by 150lbs (100lbs for the weight itself + 50lbs reduction due to the lever arm affect).
"Hauling all these rocks" is exactly to lighten the tongue weight which reduces the payload on the truck.
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To be quite honest in the rv world there's only one of those numbers that means anything to you, the trucks payload. That 16k tow rating was arrived at by the manufacturer towing low profile utility type trailers where all the load could be placed directly over the axles considerably lightening the tongue/pin weights. There's no possibility that truck could ever tow a rv weighing 16k lbs regardless of what the manufacturer says.. Unfortunately majority of the heavy weight of rvs is already fixed in place & adding a dab here or there you're still going to wind up with 10-15% of the rv weight on the tongue.
You stated 7000lbs = 900+lbs tongue weight + 100+/-lbs for the WDH + everyone/everything in/on that truck all subtracted from the posted payload on the drivers door jamb of that truck.
If adding weight makes it work for you then by all means add some more then head to the scales!
But for all the newbies reading this post DO NOT do this at home, as already stated the only option for a truck with too little payload is more truck or less rv.