Weight Help

**Joe1967** · 01-07-2021, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by jillhope7

We’ve got a new Momentum 399TH towed by a Ram 3500 dually (HO engine, 4.10 ratio).

Truck GVWR 14,000
Max Payload 5590
Rig GVWR 20,000

We weighed ourselves at the CAT scales for the first time last week and I believe we were very over. Our weights were (hitched up with 2 passengers and full gas):
Front Axle 5380
Rear Axle 9200
Trailer Axle 15400
GCW 29980

Just the truck and 2 passengers and full gas:
Front 5380
Rear 4200

I added the top two weights when towing to get a total of 14580 for the truck and then added the the trailer axle to the difference between the rear axle when towing and the rear axle unloaded to get the trailer weight (20400.)

So that put us 580 over for the truck and 400 over for the rig. We did a purge, and then moved as much as we could from the basement to the garage, completely emptied our tanks and then weighed again. New numbers:

Front Axle 5380
Rear Axle 9080
Trailer Axle 15300
GCW 29760

So we are still over for both, pretty considerably (by my math we are 460 over for the truck and 300 over for the rig.) Although we are under for each truck axle individually (max of 6000 and 9750). This is where I need help.

1. Am I doing the math correctly?
2. How on earth do I reduce weight when I’ve got nothing heavy to get rid of?
-In our purge last week we brought a full truckload of stuff to Goodwill and it seems like maybe it saved us about 100 lbs,
-No toys in the garage, it’s a bedroom; no equipment, nothing outside of standard clothes, household items, etc.
-We stored all books, photo albums, and anything else with heft in a storage facility.
-We removed the super sofa and the lower happijac benches and instead have a card table and small loveseat.
-We estimate that our heaviest things when driving are our ladder, toolbox, power cord and stabilizer and we moved all of those from the basement into the garage to shift the weight off of the hitch.

It’s just so hard for me to believe that we’ve got the highest GVWR for a truck that I can find, our towing capacity is 43,000, and this is a Toyhauler, meant to hold ATVs and motorcycles and with just two people’s belongings we are still so over? How do families with lots of kids and gear do it?

If I am reading this right, you stated the Rig (Trailer I assume) GVWR is 20,000 lbs. If that is right, you have a long way to go there, as you gave the trailer axle weight as 15,300 lbs. Isn't the GVWR for the trailer just for the axles? Maybe I am wrong?

**Redapple63** · 01-07-2021, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by Joe1967

If I am reading this right, you stated the Rig (Trailer I assume) GVWR is 20,000 lbs. If that is right, you have a long way to go there, as you gave the trailer axle weight as 15,300 lbs. Isn't the GVWR for the trailer just for the axles? Maybe I am wrong?

20 - 25% of the trailer gvwr is pin weight on the rear axle of the tv.

If you have a gvwr of 20k, then you could have a pin weight of 4k - 5k( on truck rear axle) and 16k-17k on 5ver axles.

**Joe1967** · 01-07-2021, 07:42 PM

Originally Posted by Redapple63

20 - 25% of the trailer gvwr is pin weight on the rear axle of the tv.

If you have a gvwr of 20k, then you could have a pin weight of 4k - 5k( on truck rear axle) and 16k-17k on 5ver axles.

Yep. I looked at some notes I had in my truck from my weighing of the truck and trailer. GVWR includes pin weight. Next time I will research before replying : )

**Joe1967** · 01-07-2021, 07:43 PM

What is GAWR of the trailer?

**Redapple63** · 01-07-2021, 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by Joe1967

What is GAWR of the trailer?

That's a good question. I believe for this fiver it has 3 7k axles.

**Joe1967** · 01-08-2021, 07:43 AM

Being that the OP is barely over the truck GVWR and well under the truck rear axle rating, and is well under the ratings of the trailer's axles and tires, I don't see any safety issues. As long as he feels like he is in control when going down the road, I would put the books and photo albums back in the camper : )

**jillhope7** · 01-10-2021, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by Joe1967

Being that the OP is barely over the truck GVWR and well under the truck rear axle rating, and is well under the ratings of the trailer's axles and tires, I don't see any safety issues. As long as he feels like he is in control when going down the road, I would put the books and photo albums back in the camper : )

Thanks for this! Part of my concern is that this is the first heavy thing I’ve ever towed, so I’m not sure what ‘normal’ feels like. I do feel in control, but I also can definitely tell that something heavy is weighing down the back of my TV.

The GAWR for my rig is 21k as @Redapple63 said. So we are safe on all the axles. I just want to make sure I’m checking all the right things!

Thanks for all the help!!