Quote:
Originally Posted by CChambers
Well hell.
I appreciate all the info. Guess my research fell short. I intentionally stayed under a certain number for pin weight as to be safe. I had a salesman trying to sell me a rig with 2100 advertised pin weight which I now can only assume was closer to 2800-3000 or more.
Apparently I’m truck shopping now. I open a site in 2 weeks that has a CAT scale, I will utilize that one and see what my weights are.
So for my future knowledge, is the 1570 lbs. advertised pin weight ever a valid number?
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It may be when the camper rolled off the line but once it is fitted with battery, propane tanks and the things we all take with us when camping, the trailer will be closer to its gross weight than the unloaded weight. A fifth wheel, when actually weighed, will be 21-25 percent of the gross weight in the real world. Your truck will also have some sort of magical "towing capability" that wasn't determined towing a 5th wheel, bumper pull or any camper/horse trailer. It was determined by using a flat trailer with weight situated directly over the wheels (blocks I think) and not a big wind sail like a camper. The advertised towing capacity in the brochure will have caveats like specially equipped and few, if any trucks will be equipped in the manner that the truck used for testing was equipped. The short pole in the tent is almost invariably payload and that is specific to each truck rolling off the line and stated on the yellow/white payload placard in the driver door frame. Safety is a the big concern but in an accident an insurance or police investigator will know all about payload issues as many many trucks out there with 5th wheels are seriously over payload. Towing capacity comes into play with the largest of fifth wheels which are well over 15000 lbs.