Weight issues

[Richter]

Wow, I had to read your statement 3 times before responding. Who’s going to check you? That is not the point in a civilized society. Because someone doesn’t check does not make it ok. It’s called taking personal responsibility.

The OP asked “am I ok with these weights”, not can I get away with this until someone catches me.

C’mon, this is part of the bigger problem of today’s society, that being “it’s all about me” or “what can I get away with”.

+1 on this...

[cdaranga]

I have a 2019 Ford F-350 SRW with a max payload of 3371 lbs and a GVWR of 11500 lbs. my rig is a 2020 Solitude 344GK. GVWR 16800. I’ve been told here and other places that I need a dually with more payload capacity. We are newbie weekend warriors. I had my rig weighed on a Cat scale. Results were as follows: Steer Axle 4960. Drive Axle 6520. Trailer Axle 11180. Total Axle 22660.
By my calculations i am under max weight on both tv axles and on GCVWR (28700). The only one close is GVW on the tv which is 11480, 20lbs under.
My question is am I ok at these weights or do i really need a dually?
Thanks

It looks like you are going to be fine. In my opinion if you go over GVWR but stay within the axle limits you should be safe still. That being said, if you end up in an accident and someone is injured you open yourself up to liability by being outside any of your numbers (think lawyers), regardless of who caused the accident.

[GaryinGlobe]

It looks like you are going to be fine. In my opinion if you go over GVWR but stay within the axle limits you should be safe still. That being said, if you end up in an accident and someone is injured you open yourself up to liability by being outside any of your numbers (think lawyers), regardless of who caused the accident.

Thanks. The potential liability is my concern along with loss of insurance coverage and tow vehicle manufacturers warranty due to being either overweight or right at the limit. We are being very careful and traveling light. Thanks again.

[Overtaxed]

Thanks. The potential liability is my concern along with loss of insurance coverage and tow vehicle manufacturers warranty due to being either overweight or right at the limit. We are being very careful and traveling light. Thanks again.

You're so close, I honestly can't imagine you ever having a problem here (legally). If, god forbid, you were in a terrible accident, good luck reassembling the RV and truck well enough to get an accurate weight at the time of the accident. And, even if they somehow magically do this, guess what, you're still insured, that's exactly what your liability insurance is for, when YOU mess up and hurt someone. Don't sweat that; IMHO, but I did a LOT of searching on it and couldn't find any case law about insurance "not paying" because someone was overweight. It's also exceedingly rare to be stopped and weighed, yes, I know that does very rarely happen, but I wouldn't worry about it, again, you're so close, if you were over, just pull the valve and let out the water or move some stuff to the back and pull some pin weight off.

All that said, a dually will give you a more comfortable and safer towing experience, without question. There are accidents that you could have in your SRW that would be avoided in a dually (and accidents you would have in a dually that can be avoided if you were pulling with a class 8/semi, so there's no real end to this line of thought until you get to a full on semi). For me, I could upgrade to a dually for a reasonable cost and avoiding the "what if" should something awful occur was worth it to me. Didn't do it because of the stickers, the law, or some arbitrary "might happen" with insurance, I did it because 4 tires on the back gives me more contact patch and redundancy if something goes very wrong. But that's a personal calculus, what's a $ worth to you and what's your likelihood of having something bad happen to you? For me, it was a reasonable cost and I judged my chances of something bad happening as high, I tow a lot, in tough conditions and wanted the extra margin of safety. If I was in a different financial situation, or, if I did most of my towing on decent roads <100 miles from me house, I think I would have made a different choice.

[GaryinGlobe]

You're so close, I honestly can't imagine you ever having a problem here (legally). If, god forbid, you were in a terrible accident, good luck reassembling the RV and truck well enough to get an accurate weight at the time of the accident. And, even if they somehow magically do this, guess what, you're still insured, that's exactly what your liability insurance is for, when YOU mess up and hurt someone. Don't sweat that; IMHO, but I did a LOT of searching on it and couldn't find any case law about insurance "not paying" because someone was overweight. It's also exceedingly rare to be stopped and weighed, yes, I know that does very rarely happen, but I wouldn't worry about it, again, you're so close, if you were over, just pull the valve and let out the water or move some stuff to the back and pull some pin weight off.

All that said, a dually will give you a more comfortable and safer towing experience, without question. There are accidents that you could have in your SRW that would be avoided in a dually (and accidents you would have in a dually that can be avoided if you were pulling with a class 8/semi, so there's no real end to this line of thought until you get to a full on semi). For me, I could upgrade to a dually for a reasonable cost and avoiding the "what if" should something awful occur was worth it to me. Didn't do it because of the stickers, the law, or some arbitrary "might happen" with insurance, I did it because 4 tires on the back gives me more contact patch and redundancy if something goes very wrong. But that's a personal calculus, what's a $ worth to you and what's your likelihood of having something bad happen to you? For me, it was a reasonable cost and I judged my chances of something bad happening as high, I tow a lot, in tough conditions and wanted the extra margin of safety. If I was in a different financial situation, or, if I did most of my towing on decent roads <100 miles from me house, I think I would have made a different choice.

Thank you for your thoughtful and reassuring comment. We probably will end up with a DRW in the near future, but for now we will continue with the SRW, taking short trips and traveling light. Thanks again and stay safe.

[frank4711]

http://www.towingplanner.com/ActualW...4960&w2da=3790 Looks OK

[GaryinGlobe]

http://www.towingplanner.com/ActualW...4960&w2da=3790 Looks OK

Thank you.

[grassmaster]

You can do what my neighbor did. After towing his Montana for two years and about 15,000 miles, including a trip to Alaska, he traded his SRW 4 wheel drive for a 2x2 dually, he did the 2x2 for increased payload capacity, ( and now get stuck practically every time he gets on wet grass), because folks told him he was too near payload capacity to be safe. At any rate, if you check with automotive engineers, my cousin's one for GM, they'll likely tell you trucks are designed where the OEM tires, are the weak link in the drive train. If you think about it, that's the logical design. Can you think of a scenario where a tire failing due to overload is worse than the axle or the frame fail?

[GaryinGlobe]

You can do what my neighbor did. After towing his Montana for two years and about 15,000 miles, including a trip to Alaska, he traded his SRW 4 wheel drive for a 2x2 dually, he did the 2x2 for increased payload capacity, ( and now get stuck practically every time he gets on wet grass), because folks told him he was too near payload capacity to be safe. At any rate, if you check with automotive engineers, my cousin's one for GM, they'll likely tell you trucks are designed where the OEM tires, are the weak link in the drive train. If you think about it, that's the logical design. Can you think of a scenario where a tire failing due to overload is worse than the axle or the frame fail?

That’s a good point. If we do get a dually it will be a 4x4. My concern with the SRW is if we start carrying more cargo like a generator or more than 2 passengers or full fresh water tank that we will then be over weight. For now we will just be careful and travel light. Thanks for the response.

What confuses me is if I am under on both axles, tires, GCVW how am I so close on GVW?

[Overtaxed]

That’s a good point. If we do get a dually it will be a 4x4. My concern with the SRW is if we start carrying more cargo like a generator or more than 2 passengers or full fresh water tank that we will then be over weight. For now we will just be careful and travel light. Thanks for the response.

What confuses me is if I am under on both axles, tires, GCVW how am I so close on GVW?

First off, IMHO, tires and axles are the "real numbers" and the ones that I would worry about. GVW is often "make believe". For example, a F350 dually and F450 both have the same 14K GVW. That doesn't make any sense, the 450 is beefier in a lot of areas, most significantly, tires, and yet, somehow, winds up the same as a F350? Or the F250 to F350SRW, same vehicle in almost all ways, different GVW. In fact, in some states, you can register a truck for any GVW you want to, making the whole thing more confusing.

What I've heard many times is that if you're weighed (and you won't be, but, lets say you are) the numbers they care about are axle weights and tire ratings. I suspect that's true because those are the numbers that directly tie to mechanical components, an axle can hold XX amount of weight, a tire can hold YY amount of weight, if you go over, bad things can happen. Now, making it more confusing, often times an axle rating is based on the tires! The axle itself can hold a lot more, but the tires are basically used to determine the axle rating. Then you have to dig deeper (if you change the tires) to figure out what the vehicle is actually capable of. However, that said, no matter what it's "capable of" the stickers determine your "legal" status when towing.

It's incredibly obtuse, and it have me a new respect for truck drivers, I cannot imagine all the rules they have to try to know/understand, especially when some of this stuff varies from state A to B and even from road A to B. Insane.

People will disagree with me, but basically, I see trucks falling into 3 basic classes. F150's, F250/350SRW class and then duallies. Moving from one "class" to another has a very significant impact on your towing ability. Moving inside the class, unless your existing truck is really old, have little effect beyond stickers; it doesn't have an appreciable impact to what you can safely tow, only "legally" tow. A 250 can obviously tow/control more than a 150. And a dually can obviously tow/control more than a 250/350SRW. It's just about figuring out what "class" you either need or want to be in and then buying something appropriate for you in that class of truck. Yes, we can get very specific, and we can start investigating all the components to figure out what they can do to maximize the ability of a truck in a particular "class" but, if your to that stage, IMHO, it means you really should be looking at going up a class.

I weighed my 351M 1/2 a dozen times attached to my 250 to try to see if I could make the numbers work. Eventually, I decided that while I wasn't over on anything except GVWR, I was tired of playing the game and just wanted to know I had "more than enough" so I bought a 450. I've weighed my RV and 450 exactly 0 times. I know it's enough, because it's "up a class" from what I need to tow it. Which, taken to it's logical conclusion, is why you sometimes see semi's towing an RV, it's a way to stop worrying about it because, at that point, you know you've got enough!