Thread: Pay Load
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Old 08-13-2020, 02:48 PM   #60
sourdough
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: W. Texas
Posts: 17,692
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayray04 View Post
Question .. why are we using the gvw of trailer?,, what if we don’t max out the gvw of the trailer?,, my trailer is 11500lbs dry and the max weight I put in it about 1000 lbs .. which brings down the payload,, no?

Mark addressed your question well. As he said, all those things a person does to rationalize getting a trailer that will be over the truck gvw; "I travel light", I'll never carry water, I just travel a few miles, and on and on etc. are not wise.

Of course a person could buy a 12000 lb. dry trailer and throw in a toothpick and be done and always be light....but it's sure hard to enjoyable camp that way. My trailer is approx. the same as yours dry; there's no way we can travel and do what we do with 1000lbs. of gear, and I carry a load in my truck as well.

All that to say that trying to "get by" with a "too small" truck by saying you'll always be light is just fooling yourself. Just like running with empty tanks; there WILL come a time that you travel with liquid in them due any number of circumstances.

No matter what you load you use the gvw in calculations to keep you safe and give you a cushion. Then, you need to take it to a scale to make absolutely sure that "little bit of stuff" didn't suddenly grow and put you over gvw of the trailer.
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