5.0GN tow

Here is mine with the tack room loaded for a show, and no horses on board, so actually at max pin weight as we only use the back two stalls for horses.The front one we use as a mud room so we dont track so much dirt in the dressing room.

smokeywren

Right. Loaded with hors(es), tack, feed and anything else that might be in the trailer when towing. Dry weights are useless and only serve to confuse the uneducated. In fact, I normally use the GVWR of the trailer as the estimated wet and loaded weight of any RV trailer. But when a small Featherlite 2-horse aluminium trailer has a GVWR of 14,000 pounds and weighs onlu 4,000 pounds, that's a bit much to use for estimating the actual wet and loaded weight of the trailer, even if the horses are Percheron draft horses like my grandpa used to farm with during the 1930s.

5.0GN tow

SmokeyWren, I will have to disagree with you here, I will bet his pin weight will be under 1K even while his towed weight is close to 7K it wont go up much due to how the smaller GN trailers are set up with a greater percentage of the weight on trailer axles.

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Those specs are interesting, but none of them are probably the ones that will be your limiting restriction.


Take a look on your driver's side door for the two stickers that will have the real need-to-know numbers: the truck's GVWR; and YOUR truck's "payload capacity".


Take a look at the stickers on the door of my very payload challenged King Ranch with a bunch of heavy options:





The payload capacity is on the bottom sticker, and is the "weight of passengers and cargo can never exceed xxxx lbs".


The payload capacity is the weight your empty truck (completely empty, except for a full tank of gas) can be loaded with that will bring it up to your GVWR, i.e., subtract the payload capacity from your GVWR and you'll have the weight of your empty truck with a full gas tank.


If you have any permanent add-ons that were installed after the truck came off the production line (bed liner, tonneau, light bars, etc.), subtract their weight from the published payload capacity.


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trailtraveler

So assuming my max occupancy weight is the same as yours (until I venture outside to look at the second sticker, and GVWR is verified 7200).
7200-1115 = 6085 minus probably a few hundred pounds due to Tonneau cover and padded bed liner.... So a trailer in the 5500 range lb loaded ?

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

First of all - you better hope your truck's payload capacity is better than mine!!!!!


like you note, my truck weighed 6085 as delivered. I added a drop-in bed liner, a bed-extender, a tri-fold tonneau, and when I took it to the local CAT scales, filled it with gas, and weighed it, it weighed 6180 lbs.


That leaves me with a payload capacity of only 1020 lbs!!!!


What you will carry in the truck when towing will make a lot of difference in how much you have left for tongue weight.


In my case, by the time I stow my wife's luggage in the rear of the cab, put in her snack cooler with ice/drinks/sandwiches, and both of us climb in, the truck is probably up to 6700 lbs, and that leaves 500 lbs of payload capacity remaining.


A WDH (Weight Distributing Hitch) weighs up close to 100 lbs - so that leaves 400 lbs for the tongue weight of a trailer. Divide 400 by .12 (for a very minimal 12% tongue weight), and that gives me a trailer with a max weight of about 3300 lbs. The WDH will redistribute a little of that weight off the hitch and up to the truck's front axle as well as back to the trailer's axles.


Actually, with a trailer that light, I might not need a WDH, so I could go up another 100 lbs of tongue weight to 500 (the max allowed without a WDH). That might let me pull up to a 4200 lb trailer.


So....look on your sticker (I hope you have a payload capacity in the range of 1300 to 1400 lbs), then figure out how much weight of people and stuff you'll carry in the cab and bed of the truck. Subtract those weights from the sticker payload capacity to find how much you have remaining for a WDH and tongue weight of a trailer.
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trailtraveler

Upgrading to GN I won't need a WDH anymore...I have one for my little BP now, just cause it hauls nicer/smoother with it on!

5.0GN tow

The trailer can weigh more than that depending on pin weight. My trailer in the pic weighs 7 to 7500 loaded for a big show. The pin weight has never been more than 1k and that is right in line with what the sooner rep told me to expect. I just looked at one at Congress that has LQ is all aluminum and is 7500 dry with less than 1100 on the pin. Add two horses and tack and it would be 10 but the pin would see little change as its designed not to. They are really designing trailers today to be lighter on the pin for 1/2 ton trucks as the SD is so crazy pricey and they have to build for the market that is there.

Your truck will not be as heavy as a king ranch so you will have a couple hundred pounds extra payload to play with. Have the trailer dealers verify the pin weight of the one you are looking at and weigh the gear you pack now. Your gn hitch will about 125 this I know as I looked on the box mine came in from ups. If you have a soft tonneau and padded liner it's under 110 for those combined I bet. My soft tonneau and frame was like 35 total and a padded liner would not be over 75.

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Oh yeah - you're talking gooseneck/fiver horse trailer.


If you have a 1500 lb payload capacity, and you will only travel with two lightweight people and light luggage, maybe you'll only have 350 lbs in the cab.


A gooseneck pin may still weigh 100 lbs, and a fiver hitch can weigh several hundred lbs.


Let's say you have a 100 lb gooseneck pin hitch. People, luggage, and hitch weigh 450 lbs, so you'd still have 1050 lbs for pin weight of the trailer.


You'll just have to figure out what you'll actually be carrying in the cab and bed when towing to know what you have left for a hitch and pin weight.


BTW - If you'll be pulling to local shows/events within 50 to 75 miles a couple times a month during the summer, then I'd be a lot less worried about slightly exceeding published weight limits.


If you were to be towing a travel trailer thousands of miles across country and up and down the mountains out west a couple times a year, I'd want to stay comfortably within the limiting restrictions for longevity of the mechanical stuff on your truck, and especially for the safety of you and others on the highways.


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trailtraveler

Thanks - I've been talking virtually with a trailer dealer to help me through this as well. I might take the truck into a local dealer and try to play a bit too.
I do need to install a GN hitch yet.
Our cover is a soft/rollable...but that padded liner is a PITA to move, that is why I think more like 100lbs.


I don't *think* I carry all that much stuff...right now, mostly just 1 horse and my stuff, but I would have 2 with friends.