Decreasing payloads (and value from NHT) over past 5 years

asilverblazer · January 25, 2023

19 hours ago, waffler said:

Yep, 920 lbs tongue weight from the trailer's tongue on the rear axle of my truck without WDH. That was with food and stuck packed in the trailer for a trip last summer. Everything that weighed more than a couple pounds was stored in the rear of the trailer (either on bunks or in-between them and the restroom), and some in the fridge or rear dinette storage area which is located over the axles.

You can see some more discussion about weighing my trailer over on this forestriver forum thread if you're interested. I pasted my 3-pass scale weights in there.

I actually didn't measure any difference in front end wheel well height from the ground with my trailer hitched up and no WDH. The scales showed weight was removed though, so the WDH is needed to restore some of that.

Yeah, this trailer is supposed to be "1/2 ton towable", but with a hitch weight so high, almost no half-ton is going to have any payload left for family with it connected. As we all know dealers and RV manufacturers aren't going to tell people to inspect their payload stickers. Coachman's website claims 596lbs dry hitch weight which is a bunch of bologna. They must have had no propane in the tanks, no mattress on the bed, no battery on the tongue, and maybe even no cabinets installed or something to hit that number.

The trailer towed okay with my current truck even though I'm clearly exceeding the payload. I had to go slow up hills and on interstate, but that's a power+drag issue, not stability. I'm just not very comfortable taking my family on long trips in the future knowing I'm not even marginally close to the manufacturer's given limits.

I agree a 3/4 ton truck seems like it should be overkill, but I don't have much payload to work with on 1/2 ton trucks. I think the a 6.2 LTZ 1500 with NHT will be enough that I'm not going to be exceeding it (until my kids are older and weigh more maybe), but there still isn't going to be much headroom for throwing things like bikes, firewood, generator, or what-have-you in the back for trips.

Wow, that trailer isn't set up very well. Looks like maybe the axle is too far back, not easily fixable. Trailer cargo carrier would be a good idea; maybe look into moving the propane tank and battery to the rear. I'd hate to be running that hitch jack by hand with 900 pounds on it too. Was the truck loaded the same on all three passes?

If you hitched it to my previous half ton, crew cab, short bed, 4x4, 5.3l, with no NHT and similar weight distribution, it would be within all ratings of the truck. (Front Axle Weight Rating 3950, Rear Axle Weight Rating 3950, Gross Vehicle Weight Rating 7200, Gross Combined Weight Rating 15000)

You might be getting close (or even over) on the GVWR of the truck, but with proper weight distribution you would be well under each AWR front and rear by a couple hundred pounds or more. You would be well under the GCWR by several thousand pounds.

I'd run it with out hesitation.

waffler · January 25, 2023

4 hours ago, asilverblazer said:

Wow, that trailer isn't set up very well. Looks like maybe the axle is too far back, not easily fixable. Trailer cargo carrier would be a good idea; maybe look into moving the propane tank and battery to the rear. I'd hate to be running that hitch jack by hand with 900 pounds on it too. Was the truck loaded the same on all three passes?

If you hitched it to my previous half ton, crew cab, short bed, 4x4, 5.3l, with no NHT and similar weight distribution, it would be within all ratings of the truck. (Front Axle Weight Rating 3950, Rear Axle Weight Rating 3950, Gross Vehicle Weight Rating 7200, Gross Combined Weight Rating 15000)

You might be getting close (or even over) on the GVWR of the truck, but with proper weight distribution you would be well under each AWR front and rear by a couple hundred pounds or more. You would be well under the GCWR by several thousand pounds.

I'd run it with out hesitation.

Yeah, I think the axle is too far back. Not something I'm going to be able to fix unfortunately. I haven't considered moving the battery and propane to the rear of it, but that's something to look into. I still have a warranty on it until ~May this year, so I'm going to wait to make any modifications to the super-thin rear bumper until then. But I'm thinking of getting something like this to replace it with so I can attach more than the spare tire to it.

All 3 passes had the same load in the truck and were done at the same time (first with WDH, then no WDH, then no trailer).

I am overloaded on payload (as mentioned above), but within GCWR and GAWR (barely).

My truck's specs:

Measurements:

In order to get my truck's weight down, I had removed the fitted rubber mat I normally have in the bed (45 lbs), the tailgate (64 lbs), swing box with emergency tools (43 lbs), log chain (22 lbs), few other tools (9 lbs), and a few other things. I don't think I had put my truck's spare tire (60 lbs) in the trailer for those weights, and I'm not planning to screw with that. I really dislike having to move all that stuff.