Does anybody else "cheat" by loading all their gear into the rear of their RV?

[bertschb]

Just so you guys know, I understand all the relevant numbers to figure out if I'll be exceeding any limits. Grand Design ships the 373FB-R with a 20% pin weight. If I load my gear and stay at that 20% pin weight, I should be fine. That's all I'm trying to do.

I just wanted to know if anybody here puts their gear to the rear of their RV (or even just over the axles) so they don't add much to their pin weight and still not exceed any other numbers and not go below 20% pin weight???

We figure it would take 30 minutes to put everything in it's final place once we arrive at our destination for the winter.

[CWSWine]

We had a Montana 3711 Front Living room with about 90% of the storage over the axles or behind the axles and towed it with an SWR 1 Ton. My UVW percentage was 21.8 and loaded ready to camp was around 19%. All the weight in the back would move side to side and move the truck from side to side to the point it was hard to keep in my lane. Got a hold of the Midwest sales rep and he said all the weight in the back will cause a problem and his solution was to line the floor of the basement with 500 pounds of sandbags to put more weight forward. I was only about 200 pounds below my GVWR and the 5er weight in around 14,500 pounds and was 41.5 feet long. We finally sold it and bought the 310GK-R but soon found that loaded for 30 days was within 200 pounds of axle ratings with a yellow tag payload of 3722 pounds.

[jim1521]

I do every time I tow the trailer. I manage my tongue weight to ensure I get an optimal weight. I added a tool box to the 2" receiver at the back of my trailer. I can hold up to 300 lbs behind the axles. I want my tongue weight to be just about 1,200 lbs. I'll move stuff forward or rearward of the axles to hit that number.

[backtrack2015]

15% is WAY too low for a fifth wheel - that's upper end for a travel trailer ("bumper pull"). I wouldn't get below 20% for stability and safety.

Given the question that was asked, and the info provided at the time, I feel my answer was appropriate. Certainly 20%+ trailer weight is the standard and commonly-accepted answer. We were asked about "cheating" and I think 15% would be a hard limit. As a matter of reference, Ford and GMC both use 15% as the minimum in their towing guides for fifth-wheels.

Bertschb - I personally wouldn't consider it "cheating" if you still have a pin-weight at 20%+ of the loaded trailer weight. I'm running 20% which I achieved by biasing my added weight toward the front (empty was ~17% and I didn't quite like how it towed).

[bertschb]

Bertschb - I personally wouldn't consider it "cheating" if you still have a pin-weight at 20%+ of the loaded trailer weight. I'm running 20% which I achieved by biasing my added weight toward the front (empty was ~17% and I didn't quite like how it towed).

Yeah, "cheating" was a poor choice of words. I think most folks just load up their rigs and hit the road. I see a lot of 3/4 ton trucks towing decent sized 5th wheels so I know they aren't worried about their payload rating. I want to make sure I stay within all the specs of my truck and trailer and I can achieve that by temporarily putting our gear over the axles or towards the rear of the 5th wheel while traveling then putting it in it's final location upon arrival.

[SouthTX]

Not to reopen the debate about what is the proper limit - GVWR or RGAWR - but I'm about 60# over the GVWR and about 900# under my RGAWR. My pin weight is 3300 which is 25% of the actual trailer weight. Trailer tows well and the truck rides fine. Loaded this heavy removes about 20# from the front axle empty weight, but there is no dynamic instability.

I've always tried to load to the rear of the fiver, but short of stacking sandbags in the living room, it is tough to get much weight back there and the moment arm is limited to the rear.

My pin weight had increased almost 200# from the last time I weighed and DW's closet has been on a diet since we got home.

[Agpopp]

Just to add a bit of comfort, I'm over the rear axle weight on my 08 f250 by the sticker with a scaled 6300 pounds on it. I the went and researched the sterling 10.5 axle to find the manufacturers specs on the axle itself. It's rated for over 9000 pounds! So besides the sticker on the door, that I know is the legal limit, mechanically I have 1500 pounds left, or the tire maximum limit of 7500.

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[Rapid1]

If I'm not exceeding the truck's GVWR, GCWR, max towing weight and payload nor the trailer's GVWR, why would it matter if I shift weight from the front of the RV towards the rear to lower the pin weight? If the pin weight is still at 21%, how can this be dangerous??????

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood...I read unloading to a 15% pin weight. Unless you are over on the rear axle on your TV, not sure why you would want to unload the pin by transferring weight to the rear of the trailer axles. That weight is still on the trailer, and now on, or behind the trailer axles which will affect the towability negatively at some point.

21% pin weight should be good and if you are at that and under everything else, I must have misunderstood the whole question?

[bertschb]

Sooooo, rather than worrying how I was going to load our new Solitude so I wouldn't exceed the payload rating of my 3500 SRW Duramax, we bought an F-350 DRW today. Problem solved - well, except it won't be in the garage. That was a very difficult decision. I figured if the paint fades after 3-4 years outside full time, we'll just get another new rig. Life is too short.

[backtrack2015]

Congratulations! I think you’ll be much happier this way. The DRW is supposed to make life so much nicer with those bigger trailers.