Ricktwuhk

1,483 payload minus people minus everything you added to truck minus what you load in truck minus tongue weight minus weight distribution hitch.

TooManyVehicles

You are likely overweight?

payload - (hitch%)* (Trailer + Trailer Cargo) - People - Cargo in bed - truck cabin - Supplies
1483 - (13*)*(2500 + 2900) - 300? - 400 - 400 - 200?
= 1483 - 702 - 1300 = -519.
And I didn't even include a WDH's weight.

I also think you will have an awful lot on that back axle (although I didn't calculate it), given the cargo in the bed and truck cabin is mostly on the back axle, as is most of the trailer hitch weight.

Mg05

If you are renting a trailer, you would be better off with one large enough to put all bikes and gear in the trailer. It would save the payload on the truck.

You can also move things around in the trailer to lessen the tongue weight. Just be careful not to remove too much or it will sway terribly.

RBPerry

Your truck should be rated to pull at least 8000 lbs. Your estimate of 6200 pounds means you should have about 600 to 650 tongue weight. (10 to 12 percent of trailer GVW).

Personally I would put the one bike in the bed and use your trailer. Get a decent weight distribution hitch and you should be good to go. Make sure what your max tow weight is first.

I pull a 7500 lb RV trailer with a 2001 F150 with a 5.4. My truck is rated for 8000 max tow, but I re-geared it to 4:11 and it pulls great, so you should be in good shape with your 2015. One question, does your truck have the tow package, that is very important.

Fordhyper

Yes, and yes. This was my initial thought, one bike in the trucks bed to fight that trailer weight... I don't have the ideal gearing but at least i have the towing package.

... So if i manage to fit all the heavy cargo in the trailer, it will be much better than having some weight in the trucks bed?...
If that's correct i was thinking this:

Scenario 1
2,500 trailer dry weight
3,100 bikes 7
300 gear
Total 5,900 lbs. trailer gross weight aprox. Probably less.

Truck cabin:
380 lbs. 2 adults with Chips, doritos, water, coke, glock 22.

Trucks bed:
100 lbs. or less

Total payload:
6,380 lbs. aprox

Scenario 2
6 bikes in trailer with gear
gross trailer weight would be:
5,420 lbs aprox. Maybe less

Trucks cabin
380 lbs.

Trucks bed
1 bike 480 lbs.
Extra 100 lbs. probably much less

Total payload:
6,380 lbs

Most of the trip will be on straight, sea level roads, I will only be on hilly roads after we exit atlanta, mostly highways.

Would i be ok then?... How do I measure the tongue weight?

RBPerry

What you are looking for is balance, buy placing the one bike in the bed you push a little more weight onto the front axle, giving a little better balance to the load. What you don't want is too much weight on the trailer axles and not enough on the tongue. The weight distribution will push a little more weight on to the front axle as well and give you a level ride. I had to add air suspension to mine to get it to ride level even with the WD hitch.

I need to re-phrase my previous statement, I'm going to be going to 4:10 gears, haven't done the conversion yet, but I pull mainly in the Sierra mountains.

The Beer Baron

The ideal situation would be to balance all the weight of the bikes in the trailer, to reduce tongue weight on the truck, and use the trucks payload capacity to support the tounge of the trailer and and people/luggage/supplies.

You can reduce the Tare (empty) Weight of the trailer buy renting an open trailer as opposed to the enclosed pictured in your earlier post.

Ricktwuhk

You can read the many threads where this is explained. You are using the term Payload improperly, Your payload is on the sticker, which you already stated. Your tongue weight can be determined by a scale, or approximating at 13 - 15% of the trailer and what you load into it.

Scenario 2 puts you overload Payload, do the math. With a weight distribution hitch Scenario 1 is close to over.

Mg05

By placing all the bikes and gear in the trailer you are only putting 10-15% of the weight of the bikes and trailer on the truck vs 100% on anything in the bed.

smokeywren

Yes. Your biggest problem is your truck has an itty bitty payload capacity of only 1,483 pounds. That's not much. Your truck can pull a lot more weight than it can haul.


Weight in the trailer counts an average of 13% against your truck's available payload capacity. But weight in the truck counts 100% against your available payload capacity. So you want all the weight in the trailer and minimum weight in the truck.



Load the trailer to resut in 13% tongue weight. So 6,000 pounds gross trailer weight would have about 780 pounds tongue weight. Because that's more than 500 pounds, then a weight-distributing (WD) hitch is required.


780 tongue
100 WD hitch
380 people and stuff
100 junk in bed
--------
1.360 payload compared to 1,483 max payload.
====

So if your weight estimates are good, then you should have no problems with exceeding your weight limits.

But don't even think about trying to tow that load without a WD hitch. You need a WD hitch with 800 or 1,000 pound tongue weight (TW) rating. Don't waste money on a cheap hitch. Get an Equal-I-Zer or Blue Ox or Reese Strait-Line. Here's mine:
http://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Distr...e/RP66083.html


Ignore the gross trailer weight (GTW) rating of any hitch and go by the tongue weight (TW) limit.

Best way is with a tongue weight scale. Here's mine:
https://www.etrailer.com/Tools/Sherline/5780.html

Another way is to get two CAT scale reports, one without the trailer but with the head of the WD hitch installed in the receiver, and the other with the loaded trailer but without the spring bars tightened. Determine the GVW on the truck axles with and without the trailer tied on. The difference in those two GVW weights will be the tongue weight of that trailer. GVW is weight on both front and rear truck axles. So the CAT scale will give you weight on the front axle and the rear axle and you have to add them together to get GVW.


A third way to get tongue weight of less than 700 pounds is to use a bathroom scale and some tricks with a beam. Do a search on "tongue weight with a bathroom scale" and you'll probably find the instructions. But if your tongue weight is 780 pounds or so, a normal bathroom scale may not have enough weight capacity to handle your tongue weight.