Weights and ratings

[chris_]

Greetings!

This post is about weight and I'm interested in feedback regarding:

1. Accuracy. Are we misunderstanding any of these ratings or calculations?
2. Experience. Are you, or have you, exceeded a weight rating? If so, have you had any issues?
3. Data. How much cargo are you carrying? I wonder what's typical.

We weigh ourselves periodically and we've been shedding weight for the last year. Despite this reduction, we're still overweight, so we did the following to get a detailed breakdown:

1. Weighed our truck and fully loaded RV
2. Weighed our truck alone (F-350 dually)
3. Weighed an empty U-Haul
4. Unloaded our RV into the U-Haul
5. Weighed the loaded U-Haul
6. Weighed our truck and empty RV

The results were as follows:

	Truck & RV (loaded)	Truck	Truck & RV (empty)	U-Haul (empty)	U-Haul (loaded)
Steer Axle	4,960	4,940	4,980	3,440	3,980
Drive Axle	7,620	3,960	6,980	4,840	6,920
Trailer Axle	14,140	—	12,140	—	—
Gross	26,720	8,900	24,100	8,280	10,900

And this is the Vehicle Weight Information Sheet for our 2023 Solitude:

Measurement	Weight
GVWR	16,800
GAWR (all axles)	14,000
UVW	15,520
CCC (Cargo Carrying Capacity)	1,220
Hitch Weight	3,034

Based on these we derived the following:

Description	Formula	Result	+/-	Notes
Cargo	Truck & RV (loaded): Gross Truck & RV (empty): Gross	2,620	+1,400
Cargo (verification)	U-Haul (loaded): Gross U-Haul (empty): Gross	2,620	+1,400
GAW (empty)	Truck & RV (empty): Trailer Axle	12,120	-1,880
GAW (loaded)	Truck & RV (loaded): Trailer Axle	14,140	+140
Hitch (empty)	Truck & RV (empty): Drive Axle Truck: Drive Axle	3,020	-14
Hitch (loaded)	Truck & RV (loaded): Drive Axle Truck: Drive Axle	3,660	+626	This isn't over since our hitch can take 5,000; however, it's unbalanced with the axles (+140).
GVW RV (empty)	Truck & RV (empty): Gross Truck: Gross Hitch (empty)	12,180	-4,620	My understanding from talking to Grand Design is that the hitch needs to be subtracted since that weight is on the tow vehicle.
GVW RV (loaded)	Truck & RV (loaded): Gross Truck: Gross Hitch (loaded)	14,160	-2,640	See above.

Here's our understanding:

1. We're under our GVWR, and frankly, it's impossible to exceed without first exceeding the GAWR — that's our limiting factor.
2. Although we're over 2x the documented CCC, our only overage is +140 on the GAWR.
3. Eliminating 140 alone on GAW is not enough because the hitch is +626. Although we haven't exceeded the vertical weight rating of our hitch, our load is unbalanced from front-to-back. So our assumption is we need to eliminate 766 to meet our GAWR and have a balanced load.

Do you agree with these findings?

These constraints in a 42' fifth wheel with lots of storage space seem ironic. We've shed a lot of weight, yet there's still no way we'd be able to add a generator, washer/dryer, and/or carry freshwater without exceeding our GAWR and/or being front-heavy.

The 2024 model comes with 8k axles so perhaps Grand Design realized the issue; however, that doesn't help us because I've been told that we may not be able to get the upgrade, and even if we could, it would be considered aftermarket and void warranties.

Thank you for any confirmations or insights you can provide!

 

[traveldawg]

whew...... lots of data....

To summarize:

Truck's Cargo Sticker Info - ??
Pin weight 3660
Trailer weight 14,140
RV model number - ??
RV GVWR - 16,800 (so RV not overweight as measured)
RV GAWR - 14,000
Truck's total weight w/RV connected - 26,720

Looks to me like everything is overloaded.

In the meantime, it may also help you to see if your truck and RV combo is listed in this thread.

oh - and thanks for joining. Soon you will find the Pandora's Box you have opened with all these weight questions. Hang in there, help is on the way.

 

[WhittleBurner]

I'm not going to get into any numbers other than the CCC. 1,220 CCC is pitiful on any Solitude. Our "14 Reflection has 2,679 CC.

Short of major purging that is lot's of weight to be over. It might be worth upgrading your axles and Tires. Even then the sticker will read the same but you will know you are safer. I never did understand why they put in huge storage bays and lots of interior storage if the CC is so little. Things add up fast.

On the plus side is when talking to one of the line managers at the rally a few years ago they told us the traiilers are under rated and if you are slightly over not to sweat it but you are more than slightly over.

 

[Riverbug]

OP says "My understanding from talking to Grand Design is that the hitch needs to be subtracted since that weight is on the tow vehicle."

This is what I would like to clarify too. Frankly this has confused me at times. I've been told the tongue weight is to be included in the trailer GVW, and others have said it rests on the tow vehicle, therefore, it factors into the tow vehicle GVW, not the trailer. It seems to me it would have to be factored into the trailer because if the trailer rested on a scale without a tow vehicle present, the hitch and axles would make up the total weight of the trailer. Yes?

 

[chris_]

Truck's Cargo Sticker Info - ??
RV model number - ??

Truck: Front GAWR	5,990
Truck: Rear GAWR	9,900
Truck: GVWR	14,000
RV Model	376RD

1,220 CCC is pitiful on any Solitude.

I'm not sure why they made it. We feel like we made a mistake buying it, we'd feel guilty selling it, and we don't want to void warranties, so we're planning to purge and hope for the best.

---

Any ideas why the numbers don't match up? For example, it looks like we're 766 over (140 on the axles + 626 on the hitch), but according to CCC we're 1,400 over.