Towing, Maximum Weight
05-15-2013, 01:45 PM
#2
Senior Member
As you see in my signature I have an 05 SCREW. Our tow cap is up over 9000lbs, but we will never get their as the trucks payload cap is not high enough. Some will tell you diffenent things on tounge weight, but my research (boat side) and experience (RV side) has resulted in Boat trailers tend/need to transfer 7 to 12% (10% or more for single axle boat trailers) of their weight on to the tounge of the trailer. Where RVs transfer 10 to 15% to the tounge (5'er are 15-25%). But even before you get to the tounge weight you need to know what you can carry. Our trucks are GVWR at 7200lbs and have a factory ship weight (Curb) around 5500lbs, leaving use a max of 1700 lbs of payload. Payload is everything you add on or place in the truck, i.e the tonneu cover, cooler, dog, kids, wife, fishing gear, etc. In my case, I weigh in around 6500lbs or better which leaves only 700lbs or less for trailer tonuge weight. Take the 700 and multiple it by 10% and you get 7000lbs for both boat and trailer (at 12% you get a max of 5800lbs). However, you still need 1 item, a weight distrubution hitch (yes they make them for boat trailers with surge brakes). The hitch on the truck is only rated for 5000/500 (trailer weight/tongue weight) without a weight distrubution hitch. So your best way to determine how much boat you can have is to get the truck weighted with everything in it. Subtract that from the GVWR listed on the door sticker, and then divide that by the percentage of tounge weight for the boat and trailer combo your looking at, which you should be able to get from the trailer & Boat info (dry tounge weight divided by dry trailer weight will get you started)
05-15-2013, 02:04 PM
#3
Senior Member
Agree totally, except for this little bit. The final #'s are correct but you Divide by 0.10 (10% tongue weight) or by 0.12 (12% tongue weight) to get trailer weight.
05-15-2013, 05:30 PM
#4
Senior Member
05-15-2013, 06:01 PM
#5
Senior Member
Add in helper springs or in my case Ride Rite airbags on the rear and you can bump it even higher. I pull a dual axle trailer that weighs around 2200 lbs with a bobcat with steel tracks on it that has to weigh at least 5-6000 lbs, pretty frequently. I do have an oversize trans cooler and an oil cooler also, but as far as pullin it around, I don't have any problems. Brakes are gonna be your issue with weight like that. My trailer has elec brakes, and I have brake controller installed. I definitely wouldn't try to pull weight like that without supplimental brakes.
05-15-2013, 06:46 PM
#6
Senior Member
The springs will help with sag and handling. But the GAWR and payload will remain the same. If you over-load them, the rear axle bearings will blow and the axle/wheel pull out. At low speeds if you're lucky, like I was ....
05-15-2013, 10:43 PM
#7
If your truck has more than about 75K miles or 6 years on it, and you are planning on pushing it near the limit towing, then you would be wise to service or even replace the radiator & hoses.
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05-20-2013, 10:29 PM
#10
Senior Member
